AI embeddings database

Chroma

Chroma is the open-source embedding database designed to simplify the construction of LLM-powered applications and retrieval.

What the product actually does

Chroma provides a developer-friendly interface to store, search, and manage document embeddings for Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) pipelines.

It runs seamlessly in-memory, embedded in Python notebooks, or as a standalone client-server microservice.

How pricing works once you are inside

The core software is fully open-source and free to self-host. Managed Chroma Cloud plans bill based on stored vector dimensions and query operations.

Where it breaks down

Embedded single-node deployments cannot scale to tens of millions of vectors without migrating to distributed database clusters.

What switching costs

Low. Collections and metadata can be backed up and transferred into alternative vector datastores easily.

Sources

Chroma official repository documentation and architectural guides, October 2026.