Braintrust vs Pinecone Pricing (2026)

How do these two stack up on price? Here's what each one costs, what you get, and where the value sits.

Braintrust Pinecone
Starts at $249/mo $20/mo
Number of plans 3 4
Free plan
Free trial
Pricing model usage-based usage-based

Starter

$0/mo
  • Platform fee
  • Topics
  • Processed data
  • Scores
  • Users
  • Projects
  • Playgrounds
  • Experiments
  • Datasets
  • Human review scores
  • Saved table views
  • Custom columns
  • Custom trace views
  • Included data retention
  • OAuth sign-in
  • Multi-factor authentication (MFA)
  • SOC 2 Type II compliance
  • Community support

Pro

$249/mo
  • Platform fee
  • Topics
  • Processed data
  • Scores
  • Users
  • Projects
  • Playgrounds
  • Experiments
  • Datasets
  • Human review scores
  • Playground annotations
  • Saved table views
  • Custom columns
  • Custom trace views
  • Custom charts
  • Environments
  • Included data retention
  • OAuth sign-in
  • Multi-factor authentication (MFA)
  • SOC 2 Type II compliance
  • Role-based access control (RBAC)
  • Data processing agreement (DPA)
  • Community support
  • Priority support

Enterprise

Custom
  • Platform fee
  • Topics
  • Processed data
  • Scores
  • Users
  • Projects
  • Playgrounds
  • Experiments
  • Datasets
  • Human review scores
  • Loop agent
  • Playground annotations
  • Saved table views
  • Custom columns
  • Custom trace views
  • Custom charts
  • Environments
  • Included data retention
  • Custom policies
  • S3 data export
  • OAuth sign-in
  • Multi-factor authentication (MFA)
  • SOC 2 Type II compliance
  • SAML single sign-on (SSO)
  • Role-based access control (RBAC)
  • Data processing agreement (DPA)
  • Business associate agreement (BAA)
  • Uptime service level agreement (SLA)
  • Community support
  • Priority support
  • Shared Slack channel
  • Guaranteed service level agreements (SLAs)

Starter

$0/mo
  • Pinecone Database On-Demand
  • Pinecone Inference
  • Pinecone Assistant
  • Dense, Sparse, and Full-Text Indexes
  • Console Metrics
  • Community Support via Discord

Builder

$20/mo
  • Increased usage limits
  • Choose your cloud and region
  • Multiple projects and users
  • Prometheus and Datadog monitoring
  • Includes Free support
  • Response SLAs available via Developer or Pro support add-on

Standard

Popular
$50/mo
  • Pay-as-you-go for Database On-Demand, Inference, and Assistant Usage
  • Choose your cloud and region
  • Dedicated Read Nodes (DRN)
  • Import from object storage
  • Backup and Restore
  • User and API Key RBAC
  • SAML SSO
  • HIPAA add-on
  • Includes Free support
  • Response SLAs available via Developer or Pro support add-on

Enterprise

$500/mo
  • 99.95% Uptime SLA
  • Bring Your Own Cloud (BYOC)
  • Private Networking
  • Customer Managed Encryption Keys
  • Audit Logs
  • Service Accounts
  • Admin APIs
  • HIPAA Compliance
  • Pro support included

Braintrust vs Pinecone FAQ

Which one is cheaper?
Pinecone is the cheaper option, starting at $20/mo vs $249/mo for Braintrust.
Can I use either one for free?
Both offer free plans, so you can try each without paying. Start with whichever fits your workflow better and upgrade when you hit the limits.
How do they charge?
Both use a usage-based model, so the comparison is straightforward — it comes down to features and limits at each price point.
Which one is a better deal?
Depends on what you need. Braintrust: At $249/mo, they're priced accessibly for mid-stage AI teams but not trying to be the cheapest eval tool in the room — they're positioning against the 'build it yourself' crowd and tools like LangSmith or Weights & Biases. The startup discount (6–12 months free on Pro) signals they're actively trying to land early-stage AI companies before competitors do. Pinecone: They're not the cheapest vector DB — Weaviate and Qdrant have self-hosted options that undercut on raw cost — but Pinecone is betting on managed simplicity and enterprise readiness. They're squarely targeting teams that want to ship fast without running infra, and the BYOC option signals they're going after security-conscious enterprise buyers who'd otherwise go self-hosted.

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