by AlgoliaSearch APIs
Hosted search billed per search request and record, with a permanent free plan and nothing to size.
Hosted search with no cluster to size: pay per search request and record, starting from a permanent free plan.
Algolia runs the search infrastructure and bills only for what you use: search requests and records. There is no server or memory size to choose, the free plan covers 10,000 searches and 50,000 records a month without a card, and Grow is billed monthly with no contract. Every plan can be hosted in the US, the UK or EU West, and Algolia lists SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001.
Against 3 other products we reviewed in Search APIs: what you pay for with each, the five access facts, the plan limits we recorded and each review's bottom line. The note under the table says how each one was checked.
| Metric | Algolia | Elastic Cloud | Amazon OpenSearch Service | Typesense Cloud |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What you're paying for | Saves engineering timeHosted search with no cluster to size: pay per search request and record, starting from a permanent free plan. | 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. | 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. | Worth the priceA dedicated, managed cluster of open-source search from $21.60 a month, with no per-search or per-record charges. |
| Overall score | 5.8 | 8.0Best | 7.7 | 7.6 |
| Free option | Free plan | 14-day free trial | Free trial | Free trial |
| Card to start | No card needed | No card needed | –Not measured | –Not measured |
| Getting access | Self-serve | Self-serve | Self-serve | Self-serve |
| Starter priceCheapest paid plan | $0.50/1k searches | $0.0282/hour | $0.036/hour | $21.60/mo |
| Pricing model | Usage-based | Usage-based | Usage-based | Usage-based |
| Pricing page | Public prices | Public prices | Public prices | Public prices |
| Billing units | Search requests and records | RAM-hours, data transfer and snapshot storage (Hosted); compute units and storage (Serverless) | Instance hours, EBS storage and data transfer; or compute units and storage (Serverless) | Cluster hours (RAM and vCPU) and outbound bandwidth |
| Free option | Free plan: 10,000 searches and 50,000 records/mo, no card | 14-day trial, no card | AWS Free Tier credits for new accounts, not specific to OpenSearch | 720 cluster hours and 10 GB once per account |
| 100,000 records, 500,000 searches/mo | $245 (Grow, listed rates) | $20.59 (Hosted, 1 GB, one zone); $41.17 in two zones | $27.50 (t3.small.search, one node) | $21.60 (0.5 GB, one node); $64.80 with high availability |
| Vector or hybrid search | NeuralSearch on Elevate (annual contract) | Every level; semantic models and reranking on Serverless and higher Hosted levels | Every domain (k-NN, neural and hybrid search) | Every cluster |
| SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 | Both | Both | Both (AWS reports in AWS Artifact) | SOC 2 Type II (report with Business support) |
| HIPAA BAA | Not stated | Every subscription tier | Self-serve in AWS Artifact | With the Business support plan ($400 per 28 days) |
| EU hosting | Yes, EU West and UK on every plan | Yes, incl. Frankfurt and Ireland on AWS, Azure and GCP | Yes, AWS EU Regions incl. Frankfurt, Ireland and Paris | Yes, 6 EU locations incl. Frankfurt and Paris, same price as the US |
| SAML SSO | Elevate (annual contract) | Serverless, no extra cost; Hosted on Enterprise | IAM Identity Center at no extra charge; SAML for OpenSearch Dashboards | Every account, no extra charge |
| Open-source engine | No | Yes, AGPLv3 option (also SSPL and Elastic License) | Yes, OpenSearch (Apache 2.0) | Yes, GPL-3.0 |
| Bottom line | From its public pages, Algolia is the simplest to price for small volumes and the only one here with a permanent free plan. Per-request billing makes it the most expensive at our 500,000-search scenario. | 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. | 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, Typesense Cloud is the cheapest here at our scenario and includes the most on a self-serve plan: vector search, SAML SSO and an open-source engine. You size the cluster, and compliance documents need a support plan. |
Evidence: Algolia: 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; Amazon OpenSearch Service: facts checked 2026-10-15 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run; Typesense 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.
Review from public pages
Written from Algolia's public pages (pricing, security or privacy, and docs) as read on Oct 15, 2026. We did not sign up, and no hands-on run is published yet.
We read Algolia's pricing page, security measures page, trust center and documentation on Oct 15, 2026; we did not sign up for this review. The pricing page shows four plans. Free covers 10,000 search requests and 50,000 records a month with no card. Grow and Grow Plus start at $0 a month, include 10,000 requests and 100,000 records, and then charge per 1,000: $0.50 (Grow) or $1.75 (Grow Plus) per 1,000 requests and $0.40 per 1,000 records, billed monthly with no contract. Elevate is custom-priced on an annual contract.
The main thing to know is how requests are counted. Algolia's guide to search request usage says each keystroke sent to an index counts as one search request, so an as-you-type search box sends several billed requests per search unless you debounce it.
The feature grid places NeuralSearch, which combines semantic and keyword search, and SSO on Elevate. Free, Grow and Grow Plus can be hosted in the US, the UK or EU West. The trust center lists a SOC 2 Type 2 report, and the security measures page says Algolia was certified to ISO 27001 and ISO 27017 in March 2020. We found no statement about a HIPAA BAA.
The bill follows search requests and records; there is no RAM, vCPU or instance size to estimate.
vs Meilisearch Cloud: Typesense Cloud and resource-based Meilisearch Cloud price by the cluster or instance size you choose.
10,000 search requests and 50,000 records a month, with no credit card.
vs Meilisearch Cloud: Typesense Cloud gives 720 free cluster hours once; Meilisearch Cloud gives a 14-day trial.
Grow Plus includes AI Ranking, AI Synonyms, Advanced Personalization and Query Categorization, billed monthly.
Algolia lists SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001 and ISO 27017.
vs Meilisearch Cloud: Typesense Cloud and Meilisearch Cloud list SOC 2 Type II but not ISO 27001.
The docs count each keystroke sent to an index as one search request, so as-you-type search multiplies billed requests.
Workaround: The docs recommend debouncing and grouping queries to reduce request counts.
At 500,000 searches a month, Grow comes to $245 and Grow Plus to $857.50 at the listed rates.
Workaround: The pricing page suggests talking to sales about volume discounts on an annual contract.
NeuralSearch, SSO and the enhanced SLA are listed on Elevate, which requires an annual contract and custom pricing.
The pricing, security and trust pages we read do not mention a HIPAA BAA.
Algolia bills two units: search requests and records. Grow includes 10,000 requests and 100,000 records a month, then charges $0.50 per 1,000 requests and $0.40 per 1,000 records; Grow Plus charges $1.75 per 1,000 requests for its AI features. Both are billed monthly with no contract.
For 100,000 records and 500,000 searches a month, Grow comes to (500,000 − 10,000) / 1,000 × $0.50 = $245 (our arithmetic), with the records included. That assumes each search is one request; search-as-you-type sends one per keystroke unless debounced. Recommendations ($0.60 per 1,000 above 10,000) and crawls ($0.80 per 1,000 above 10,000) are billed separately, and paid support plans are an add-on.
The docs describe exporting records through the API browse endpoint or the Algolia CLI (`algolia objects browse`); the dashboard exports index settings, synonyms and rules, not records.
From its public pages, Algolia is the simplest to price for small volumes and the only one here with a permanent free plan. Per-request billing makes it the most expensive at our 500,000-search scenario.
| Limit | As recorded |
|---|---|
| Billing units | Search requests and records |
| Free option | Free plan: 10,000 searches and 50,000 records/mo, no card |
| 100,000 records, 500,000 searches/mo | $245 (Grow, listed rates) |
| Vector or hybrid search | NeuralSearch on Elevate (annual contract) |
| SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 | Both |
| HIPAA BAA | Not stated |
| EU hosting | Yes, EU West and UK on every plan |
| SAML SSO | Elevate (annual contract) |
| Open-source engine | No |
Read from the vendor's public pages on Oct 15, 2026. No hands-on run is published yet. How we check
We have not published a sign-up run for Algolia yet. The access facts above were read from its sign-up and pricing pages on Oct 15, 2026.
We have not published API calls for Algolia yet.
Algolia lists 4 plans. The cheapest paid plan, Grow, costs $0.50/1k searches.
Prices as listed, USD, excluding tax; observed 2026-10-15.
Source: algolia.com pricing page. Prices change; the observed date above is when our agent read them.
We read the pricing, security and docs pages of three hosted search APIs on the same day and scored them on the same six indicators. How each one bills, what 100,000 records and 500,000 searches a month cost, and who should pick which.
