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Chroma
San Francisco company behind the open-source Chroma database for AI search, which stores embeddings and runs vector, full-text, and metadata search, plus a hosted Chroma Cloud.
Developers building retrieval for AI apps who want an easy open-source start and a hosted option that scales with usage.
Teams that need a long enterprise track record for their hosted database, or buyers who want one flat monthly price.
Verdict
Chroma is a San Francisco company that makes an open-source database for the search behind AI apps, plus a hosted cloud version. It suits developers who want a simple start on a laptop and a path to production. Its popularity with developers helped make vector search a standard part of AI apps.
Score Breakdown
How Chroma scores in the categories that matter to its buyers.
Pricing
Chroma is free to run as open source. Chroma Cloud publishes a free Starter tier with usage pricing, a Team plan, and custom Enterprise terms.
| Plan | Price | What stands out |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | $0 + usage | $5 in free credits, 10 databases |
| Team | $250 / month + usage | $100 credits, 100 databases, SOC 2 |
| Enterprise | Custom | Unlimited databases, dedicated support |
| Usage | $2.50 / GiB written | $0.33 / GiB-month stored, $0.0075 / TiB queried |
The Field at a Glance
How Chroma compares with other Vector / retrieval infra vendors we reviewed, by Overall Score and relative typical engagement cost.
Chroma scores 8.1 in Vector / retrieval infra, under Pinecone (8.3), and ahead of Zilliz (8.0), turbopuffer (7.9), LanceDB (7.8), and Weaviate (7.6). Relative cost lands lower for this subcategory.
Use-case matrix
| Use case | Fit | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Developer experience | Strong | Known for a simple start for AI app builders. |
| Open source | Strong | Apache 2.0 license. |
| Search types | Strong | Vector, full-text, regex, sparse, and metadata search. |
| Hosted cloud | Strong | Distributed Chroma Cloud on object storage. |
| Cloud track record | Mixed | Chroma Cloud launched in 2025. |
| Flat pricing | Mixed | Cloud bills follow usage. |
Who it’s for
Good fit
- Developers building retrieval apps
- Startups prototyping AI search
- Teams wanting open source with a hosted path
Poor fit
- Buyers wanting flat monthly fees
- Enterprises needing a long hosted track record
- Teams with no developers
Review Excerpts
Below are excerpts from public reviews. Our team scoured public reviews, forums, and chat rooms to get a balanced view of customers' experience with this company. Paid reviews and pay-for-play sites such as Clutch were excluded.
Chroma says it is downloaded more than 15 million times a month and is used by millions of developers.
Chroma's open-source database is Apache 2.0 licensed, and Chroma Cloud starts at $0 with $5 in free credits.
Chroma Cloud bills for data written, stored, queried, and returned, at $2.50 per GiB written and $0.33 per GiB-month stored, so costs move with usage.
Company Facts
- Seed funding
- $18M led by Quiet Capital, April 2023 (Business Insider)
- Founders
- Jeff Huber and Anton Troynikov (Business Insider)
- License
- Apache 2.0 open source (trychroma.com)
- Downloads
- More than 15 million a month (trychroma.com)
- Hosted product
- Chroma Cloud, distributed on object storage (Chroma)
- Website
- trychroma.com
Key Leadership
Jeff Huber
Co-founder and CEO
Methodology
This page is an independent evaluation of Chroma for buyers comparing options in Vector / retrieval infra. AI Industry Reviews accepts no sponsorships, advertising, or pay-for-placement fees. Chroma did not pay for this review.
What we scored
The headline number is an Overall Score on a 0-10 scale. Eight criteria sit under it in two groups.
- Buyer outcomes (for Vector / retrieval infra)
- Ease of use
- Open-source adoption
- Cloud maturity
- Cost to start
- Company & commercial
- Innovation & product leadership
- Project management & communication
- Pricing
- Contract fairness
Pricing measures whether the price looks fair for the value delivered, including packaging and renewal friction that show up in real buying cycles.
Score Composition
| Input | Weight | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Reviews | 40% | A proprietary read of what practitioners say about likes, complaints, and day-to-day use, including public review sites, forums, and private chat rooms. Paid reviews and pay-for-play sites such as Clutch are out of scope. |
| Product | 35% | Hands-on look at screens and workflows. |
| Pricing | 15% | Whether the price looks fair for what you get. |
| Docs & training | 10% | Docs, tutorials, and training material. |
How we balanced the evidence
The Overall Score is the simple average of the eight criteria. Recommendation language follows that score and the fit pattern described above.
Scope
Chroma is graded here as Vector / retrieval infra. Criteria scores can move as more review volume and product checks are added.