Search APIs · Comparison
Amazon OpenSearch Service vs Elastic Cloud
2 products compared side by side: what you pay for with each one first, then the five access facts, entry prices, recorded plan limits and the bottom line of each review. The evidence note under the table says how each product was checked.
Side by side
| Metric | Amazon OpenSearch Service | Elastic Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| What you're paying for | Compliance includedManaged OpenSearch in your AWS account from $0.036 an hour, with searches unbilled and AWS SOC reports and a HIPAA BAA self-serve. | Saves engineering timeManaged Elasticsearch with vector, semantic and hybrid search from $0.0282 an hour, with SOC 2, ISO 27001 and a HIPAA BAA on every tier. |
| Overall score | 7.7 | 8.0Best |
| Free option | Free trial | 14-day free trial |
| Card to start | –Not measured | No card needed |
| Getting access | Self-serve | Self-serve |
| Starter priceCheapest paid plan | $0.036/hour | $0.0282/hour |
| Pricing model | Usage-based | Usage-based |
| Pricing page | Public prices | Public prices |
| Billing units | Instance hours, EBS storage and data transfer; or compute units and storage (Serverless) | RAM-hours, data transfer and snapshot storage (Hosted); compute units and storage (Serverless) |
| Free option | AWS Free Tier credits for new accounts, not specific to OpenSearch | 14-day trial, no card |
| 100,000 records, 500,000 searches/mo | $27.50 (t3.small.search, one node) | $20.59 (Hosted, 1 GB, one zone); $41.17 in two zones |
| Vector or hybrid search | Every domain (k-NN, neural and hybrid search) | Every level; semantic models and reranking on Serverless and higher Hosted levels |
| SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 | Both (AWS reports in AWS Artifact) | Both |
| HIPAA BAA | Self-serve in AWS Artifact | Every subscription tier |
| EU hosting | Yes, AWS EU Regions incl. Frankfurt, Ireland and Paris | Yes, incl. Frankfurt and Ireland on AWS, Azure and GCP |
| SAML SSO | IAM Identity Center at no extra charge; SAML for OpenSearch Dashboards | Serverless, no extra cost; Hosted on Enterprise |
| Open-source engine | Yes, OpenSearch (Apache 2.0) | Yes, AGPLv3 option (also SSPL and Elastic License) |
| Bottom line | From its public pages, Amazon OpenSearch Service includes compliance, SSO and an Apache 2.0 engine on self-serve terms, and searches are not billed on a domain. You size the domain yourself, and the bill has more lines than a cluster price. | From its public pages, Elastic Cloud offers the most AI search and compliance here on self-serve terms and the lowest Hosted price at our scenario. Pricing has more settings than the others, and SSO and some AI features depend on the Hosted level or on using Serverless. |
Evidence: Amazon OpenSearch Service: facts checked 2026-10-15 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run; Elastic Cloud: facts checked 2026-10-15 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run. Prices in USD as listed, excluding tax. "–" means not recorded.
When to pick each
In the words of each review, with the date its facts were checked.
From our Amazon OpenSearch Service review
Checked Oct 15, 2026- Pick Amazon OpenSearch Service when
- You already run on AWS and want search billed and secured with the rest of your AWS account.
- Pick Elastic Cloud when
- You want RAG tools such as AI Playground, a 14-day trial without a card, and a lower Hosted price at our scenario.
Entry price
Baseline: each product's cheapest paid plan, per month. Included usage differs, so read the line under each price.
- Amazon OpenSearch Servicet3.small.search$26.28/mo$0.036/hr in us-east-1 (2 vCPUs, 2 GiB); plus gp3 storage from 10 GiB
- gp3 storage $0.122/GB-month
- Automated hourly snapshots kept 14 days, free
- Only on domains without standby
- Searches and records not billed
- Elastic CloudHosted Standard$0.0282/GB RAM-hourGeneral purpose (ARM), AWS us-east-1; 1 GB in one zone is $20.59/mo
- Kibana and Integrations Server at 1 GB shown as free
- Data transfer: 100 GB/mo free, then $0.05/GB out
- Vector data storage and retrieval
- Limited support, web-based
Prices as listed on each pricing page, in USD per month, excluding tax. Observed: Amazon OpenSearch Service 2026-10-15, Elastic Cloud 2026-10-15.
Which one fits
- If you need to start today without a sales call
- Elastic CloudSelf-serve sign-up, no card needed; the highest score of the 2 self-serve products here (8.0/10).
- If you want to try it without entering a card
- Elastic Cloud14-day free trial, no card needed; scored 8.0/10.
- Lowest starter price
- Amazon OpenSearch Service$0.036/hour for the t3.small.search (us-east-1) plan. Elastic Cloud lists no comparable paid price.
- Highest overall score
- Elastic Cloud8.0/10 (Excellent). The review shows the score breakdown and the run behind it.
Picked by fixed rules from the table above, not by hand. How we score
Full reviews
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