Vector databases · September 2026 Edition
Qdrant vs Pinecone
Four of twelve models named Qdrant first on the direct prompt; two named Pinecone. Both were named by all twelve models and Qdrant carries 63 labels and Pinecone 58, so the shares are not directly comparable.
Named in one category this edition.
Named in two categories this edition.
First-choice share37%14%Of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, 0 to 100.
Negative rate5%28%Negative labels as a share of the product's labels, 0 to 100.
Rank in category#1#3A position in a field of 8; printed, not drawn.
Labels6358A count; the two differ.
The two percentage rows are drawn on one 0 to 100 track, Qdrant reading right to left. Rank and label count are printed, not drawn.pgvector was named alongside these two in twelve of the twelve direct answers. Qdrant vs pgvector · pgvector vs Pinecone
Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts over all twelve models, for a mid-market B2B company; rank is within the category; every quote names the model and the prompt it came from. Both figures come from the vector databases page.
By framing
How many of the twelve models made each the first choice, per way of asking, and how many argued against it.
QdrantFirst choices, of twelve modelsPinecone
Direct421 against Pinecone
Paraphrase63
Comparative03
Budget-constrained905 against Pinecone
Scale-constrained02
Negative113 against Qdrant · 10 against Pinecone
Bars are first choices, 0 to 12 each sideModels that argued againstA model can name both, so the two sides of a row do not sum to twelve.
The direct prompt
The plain question, one answer per model, grouped by where Qdrant and Pinecone stood in it.
Both were the first choice
1 of 12 modelsThe answer named them together, and the judge labeled each a first choice.Claude Haiku 4.5Pinecone, Qdrant alternatives: Weaviate, pgvector
Qdrant first, Pinecone an alternative
3 of 12 modelsPinecone was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.GPT-5.4 miniQdrant, pgvector alternatives: Milvus / Zilliz Cloud, Pinecone, Weaviate
Perplexity SonarQdrant, pgvector alternatives: Milvus, Pinecone, Weaviate
DeepSeek V4 FlashQdrant, Weaviate alternatives: pgvector
Pinecone first, Qdrant an alternative
1 of 12 modelsQdrant was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.Kimi K2Pinecone, pgvector alternatives: Qdrant, Weaviate
Neither was the first choice, one was named
6 of 12 modelsThe answer put something else first and named one of the two as an alternative.Gemini 3.5 Flashpgvector alternatives: Pinecone, Qdrant, Weaviate
Grok 4.1 Fastpgvector alternatives: Pinecone, Qdrant
Mistral Smallpgvector alternatives: Pinecone, Qdrant, Weaviate
Qwen 3.7 Flashpgvector alternatives: Pinecone, Qdrant, Weaviate
GLM 4.7 FlashXpgvector alternatives: Pinecone, Qdrant, Weaviate
MiniMax M2.5pgvector alternatives: Pinecone, Qdrant, Weaviate
Neither was named
1 of 12 modelsThe answer made no first choice from these two in this category.Llama 4 Maverickpgvector
Bold names in an answer are the products the judge labeled a first choice; a model naming several gives each of them that label. The full answer text for every row is in the record.
By buyer segment
The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment and they are never added together. The figures above are the mid-market standing, which is the one the category orders by.
Small business
Qdrant leads by fourteen points.
Qdrant30%#2 of 7Pinecone16%#3 of 7Mid-marketThe figures above
Enterprise
The order flips: Pinecone leads at enterprise.
Pinecone53%#1 of 11Qdrant19%#2 of 11What the models said about Qdrant
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Six of seven in this category shown.
“Weaviate, Milvus, Pinecone, and Qdrant are all losing adoption share to custom stacks and provider-native retrieval options.” Claude Haiku 4.5 · negative prompt · soft negative
“Vector-only DBs such as Pinecone, Weaviate, Qdrant, Milvus | When you also need SQL/JSON/transactions in the same system” Perplexity Sonar · negative prompt · soft negative
“it may not be the best choice for those that want zero ops overhead” Llama 4 Maverick · negative prompt · soft negative
“For a budget-conscious company, Qdrant or Weaviate are generally recommended. Qdrant offers the best performance-to-cost ratio” MiniMax M2.5 · budget prompt · first choice
“the best default choice is usually Qdrant if you want a production-ready open-source vector database with low operational cost” GPT-5.4 mini · budget prompt · first choice
“Best overall budget pick: Qdrant — it is repeatedly described as the strongest price-performance option” Perplexity Sonar · budget prompt · first choice
What the models said about Pinecone
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Six of eight in this category shown.
“Specific Targets to Watch Out For: Pinecone (purely managed serverless)... you cannot take your data elsewhere without significant re-architecture.” Qwen 3.7 Flash · negative prompt · hard negative
“Be most cautious about: 1. Pinecone if you value control, portability, or cost predictability.” DeepSeek V4 Flash · negative prompt · hard negative
“Avoid Initially: Pinecone/Weaviate Cloud ... not "limited budget"” Grok 4.1 Fast · budget prompt · hard negative
“I'd recommend starting with pgvector if you're already on PostgreSQL, or Pinecone if you want fully managed with minimal ops overhead” Kimi K2 · direct prompt · first choice
“Pinecone | Managed SaaS (serverless pods) | Zero-ops, low-latency RAG/enterprise AI | Billions | Usage-based; $$ but predictable” Grok 4.1 Fast · scale prompt · first choice
“Start with Pinecone if speed to market and operational simplicity are paramount, or Qdrant if you prefer open-source” Claude Haiku 4.5 · direct prompt · first choice
Comparisons are drawn for the top three products in each category. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.