Vespa

Open-source search and vector database for building retrieval and ranking applications at scale

Linked from vespa.ai · checked 29 Oct

Tool type: Open-source search and vector database platform
Made for: Developers and engineering teams building search and recommendation apps
Runs on: Self-hosted or Vespa Cloud (fully managed); Open-source engine on GitHub; managed cloud hosting also offered.
Last checked: 29 Oct 2026; 3 product sources

What it does

Vespa lets teams query, organize, and make inferences in vectors, tensors, text, and structured data. The homepage describes scaling to billions of constantly changing data items and thousands of queries per second with latencies below 100 milliseconds.

Listed use cases include search, generative AI retrieval (RAG), recommendation and personalization, semi-structured navigation, and personal or private search. The homepage also describes a streaming search mode for personal data that it says delivers Vespa's features 20x cheaper than indexing. Vespa is open source and developed on GitHub, and a fully managed option, Vespa Cloud, is offered alongside it.

Vespa suits developers and engineering teams building search, retrieval, or recommendation applications. Starting points include production-ready sample apps on GitHub, PyVespa for Python, the documentation, and a free trial linked from the homepage. Vespa Cloud pricing and trial terms are not published on the pricing page, so confirm them with Vespa before committing.

What it can do

Vector, text, and structured search in one platform
Hybrid search combining keyword and vector retrieval
Distributed machine-learned ranking and model inference
Streaming search mode for personal or private data
Continuous deployment and upgrades
Fully managed hosting with security (Vespa Cloud)

Works with

PyVespa (Python SDK)
IDE schema editing plugins for VSCode, IntelliJ, and PyCharm

Before you choose

Vespa Cloud pricing and free trial terms must be confirmed with Vespa before committing.
Self-hosting the open-source engine requires operational expertise to run a distributed system.
Performance figures such as latencies below 100 milliseconds at scale are vendor-stated on the homepage.

Listed under

Get started

Free trial linked on the homepage; sample apps and docs available without sign-up.

Browse the documentation or sample apps to choose a starting application.
Install PyVespa or the Vespa engine and define your schema and rank profiles.
Feed data, deploy the application, and run queries; use the Vespa Slack community for help.

Start a free trial or use sample apps

Plans and prices

A free trial is linked from the homepage; verify its duration and terms, and request Vespa Cloud rates, directly with Vespa.

We couldn’t find published prices for Vespa. See their pricing page ↗

Sources for this overview

Product pages, documentation, and pricing checked 29 Oct 2026. Each source supports part of the overview; availability and prices can change.

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What’s changed

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Signals

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Data and security

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Where this comes from

How we research

Company website: vespa.ai: product, pricing and policy pages
YC directory mirror: Batch and company name
Social accounts: Accounts the company links, and its posts on X
Human review: Checked by a person
knowledge_base
manual_review

Last checked 29 Oct 2026. Every field keeps its source and date; unknown means we couldn’t confirm it.