Algolia Alternatives 2026: Search API Pricing Compared

For 100,000 records and 500,000 searches a month, Meilisearch Cloud is the cheapest hosted search API we sized, at $22.53 a month on its resource-based XS instance. Typesense Cloud's single 1 GB node costs $28.80 before bandwidth, and Algolia's Grow plan costs $245 at the same volume. Every price was read on the vendor's own pricing page on October 10, 2026.

The Meilisearch figure holds only while records average under 3.5 KB. Self-hosting Meilisearch costs only the server you run it on, and this page does not price servers.

Devshot data: our list has 28,000 developers, and the average open rate is 30% (Beehiiv, updated September 20, 2026). Our readers build products, so every figure below is one production app's monthly bill.

The summary table

Rows are sorted by cost at the scenario. Elastic is missing, and the reason is in its section below.

How each bill is worked out

We priced the same scenario everywhere: 100,000 records and 500,000 search requests a month. The arithmetic is shown once here.

• Algolia Grow: 10,000 searches are included, so 490,000 are billed. That is 490 blocks of 1,000 at $0.50, or $245. The 100,000 records sit exactly at the included limit, so they add nothing.
• Algolia Grow Plus: the same 490 blocks at $1.75 come to $857.50.
• Meilisearch usage-based: the $30 base covers 100,000 documents and 50,000 searches. The other 450,000 searches are 450 blocks at $0.40, which adds $180, for $210.
• Meilisearch resource-based: the calculator puts this load on the XS instance (0.5 vCPU, 1 GB RAM). The instance costs $17.73 and the disk minimum of 32 GiB costs $4.80, so $22.53. The calculator shows the two lines rounded to $18 and $5, which is why its total reads $23.
• Typesense: one 1 GB node costs $0.04 an hour, and 720 hours is $28.80. The three-node setup costs $0.15 an hour in total.
• Bandwidth: we assume 10 KB per search response, so 500,000 responses are 5 GB. Typesense bills $0.09 per GB out, which is $0.45. Neither Algolia's nor Meilisearch's pricing page lists a bandwidth charge.

Meilisearch: cheapest, with a size condition

Meilisearch's Cloud pricing has two models. The usage-based plan starts at $30 a month for 100,000 documents and 50,000 searches, and the calculator adds $0.30 per 1,000 extra documents and $0.40 per 1,000 extra searches. That is predictable at small volumes, but 500,000 searches push it to $210.

The resource-based model is the cheap one, because it bills the instance the calculator picks for your records and searches. The Cloud card says it starts at $20 a month, and the calculator's default estimate of 100,000 records and 10,000 searches shows $23 for the same XS instance.

The condition is memory. The calculator estimates about 0.86 GiB for 100,000 records at 3 KB each, which fits the XS instance's 1 GB. Once records average more than about 3.5 KB, the calculator moves to the S instance (1 vCPU, 2 GB), which costs about $40 a month with disk. Check your average record size before you choose this option.

Self-hosting is also an option. Meilisearch's pricing FAQ says it is MIT-licensed and has no usage limits when you run it on your own infrastructure.

Typesense: priced by the hour, with no per-search meter

Typesense Cloud gives each cluster dedicated nodes, and its pricing page says there are no limits on records or operations. You pay per node per hour and per GB of bandwidth out. The smallest size, 0.5 GB, costs $21.60 a month, below every option priced here, and its first 720 hours are free once per account. We did not size it for this scenario. The vendor lists 0.5 GB as its minimum, and 100,000 records at 3 KB are about 300 MB of raw data before the index adds its overhead, which leaves little headroom. We priced 1 GB instead.

The page recommends high availability for production. Three 1 GB nodes come to $108.00 a month, which is the production figure in the table. Each node bills every hour it runs, busy or idle.

Algolia: the leader's bill has more meters

Algolia Grow is pay as you go with no contract. It includes 10,000 search requests and 100,000 records a month, then bills $0.50 per extra 1,000 searches and $0.40 per extra 1,000 records. At this volume Grow costs $222.47 a month more than Meilisearch's resource-based instance.

Two rules change the bill. Autocomplete sends a new search request on every keystroke, so a search box can count far more requests than the searches a user finishes. And record overage is charged on the highest record count reached in the month, after ignoring the three busiest days.

Grow Plus adds AI synonyms, AI ranking and advanced personalization, and its search overage is $1.75 per extra 1,000. Algolia's enterprise tier has no public price, so it is not in the table.

What changes at a million searches

Volume moves the ranking more than the entry price does. Each vendor scales differently, so the same four bills look very different at one million searches a month, with records held at 100,000.

• Meilisearch resource-based: the calculator sizes one vCPU per million searches a month, so the instance moves from XS to S (1 vCPU, 2 GB). That is $34.98 plus $4.80 of disk, about $40.
• Meilisearch usage-based: 950,000 searches above the included 50,000 add $380 at $0.40 per 1,000, for $410 a month.
• Algolia Grow: 990,000 billed searches at $0.50 per 1,000 come to $495 a month.
• Typesense: the node price does not move with search volume. The vendor advises at least 4 vCPUs above 20 requests a second, and a million searches a month averages about 0.39 a second. Check your peak traffic before you settle on the 1 GB size.

The ranking flips at a million searches. The 1 GB Typesense node, at $29.70 once bandwidth for 10 GB is added, undercuts Meilisearch's resource-based S instance at about $40, because Typesense does not add a charge for each search.

Elastic: left out

Elastic's pricing page describes resource-based and usage-based billing for Elastic Cloud but lists no dollar rate. This table leaves Elastic out rather than quote a number from elsewhere.

Which to pick at this volume

• Lowest bill we sized, records under 3.5 KB: Meilisearch resource-based. Its price moves with record size.
• Production failover with a per-node price: Typesense, three nodes, plus bandwidth. Idle nodes still cost money.
• Managed keyword search, if per-search billing is acceptable: Algolia Grow. Autocomplete raises the request count.
• A prototype: Algolia's free plan, or Typesense's first 720 hours on the 0.5 GB size.

The rest of the stack has its own bills. Vercel pricing, Supabase pricing and Supabase vs Firebase cover hosting and database costs, and cloud free tiers compared lists what the big clouds give away. For the backend around a search box, read best backend-as-a-service platforms, the Supabase review and the Firebase review. For cheaper hosting alternatives in general, see cheaper Vercel alternatives and object storage pricing compared.

Method

We read each vendor's pricing page on October 10, 2026, and used only the rates those pages publish, including their calculators. The scenario is one production app with 100,000 records averaging 3 KB and 500,000 search requests a month, with bandwidth at an assumed 10 KB per response. We did not measure query speed or relevance. Those depend on your data and should be checked on it.

Prices were read on Algolia pricing, Meilisearch pricing, Typesense Cloud pricing and Typesense's free tier article. Vendor records are on Toolradar: Algolia and Typesense.

FAQ

Is Meilisearch a free Algolia alternative?

Self-hosting Meilisearch has no software fee: it is MIT-licensed, and its pricing FAQ says it has no usage limits, so you pay only for the server. Hosted, the cheapest option we sized at this volume is Meilisearch Cloud's resource-based XS instance, at $22.53 a month for records averaging under 3.5 KB.

How much does Algolia cost at 500,000 searches a month?

Grow costs $245 a month, because 10,000 searches are included and the other 490,000 cost $0.50 per 1,000. Grow Plus costs $857.50 at the same volume. The enterprise tier has no public price.

Does Algolia have a free plan?

Yes. It covers 10,000 search requests and 50,000 records a month, with no credit card required. It suits a prototype or a small project, and this scenario is well past its limit.

Is Typesense cheaper than Algolia?

At this scenario, yes. One 1 GB node costs $28.80 a month plus $0.45 bandwidth, and three nodes for high availability cost $108.00 plus bandwidth.

Does Typesense charge per search?

No. Its pricing page describes a dedicated cluster with no limits on records or operations, and it bills nodes by the hour and bandwidth out per GB.

Does autocomplete make Algolia more expensive?

Yes. Algolia's pricing FAQ says autocomplete sends a new search request on every keystroke, so the request count can run well above the searches a user completes.

Cite this: Devshot, "Algolia Alternatives 2026: Search API Pricing Compared", October 2026, with prices read on October 10, 2026.

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