Create a cluster

Weaviate Cloud (WCD) provides two cluster types.

• Free clusters: Free clusters are free forever and need no credit card, which makes them the easiest way to get started. They are perfect for learning, hobby projects, and small workloads, and you can upgrade to a paid plan at any time without losing your data. For the current free tier limits, see the pricing page.
• Shared Cloud clusters: Shared Cloud clusters are robust, paid clusters designed for production use.

When you log into the Weaviate Cloud web console, the Clusters panel lists your clusters. There are no clusters when you log in to a new account.

Free clusters are the easiest way to start building with Weaviate. They are free forever, need no credit card, and are ideal for learning, hobby projects, and small workloads. Each user can create one free cluster, and you can upgrade to a paid plan at any time without losing your data.

The free tier includes a monthly allowance for the database, Weaviate Embeddings, and the Query Agent. For the current limits, see the pricing page.

Shared Cloud clusters require billing details. Weaviate Cloud prompts you to add billing details if you have not already added them.

When you create a cluster, the Optimization profile sets the default vector index and compression for new collections in that cluster. Choose the profile that matches your workload:

• Cost Optimized: Uses the HFresh vector index for a lower memory footprint and reduced storage costs. Suitable for small or non-latency-sensitive workloads.
• Performance Optimized: Uses the HNSW vector index for efficient in-memory retrieval that balances speed and search quality. Suitable for most workloads.

The optimization profile only sets the default for new collections. You can still configure the vector index and compression for each collection when you create it.

Weaviate Cloud clusters use API key authentication. The authentication approach depends on whether RBAC (Role-Based Access Control) is enabled:

New clusters with Weaviate version v1.30 (or later) have RBAC enabled by default. With RBAC enabled, you create API keys with specific roles for granular access control.

When you develop your client application, use an API key to connect your client to the cluster. For detailed instructions on finding and managing your API keys, including creating new keys and managing roles, check out this guide:

• Manage clusters: Authentication

If RBAC is not enabled (before v1.30), clusters use the traditional approach with two default API keys:

• Admin keys: Provide read-write access to the database
• ReadOnly keys: Provide read-only access to the database

Shared Cloud clusters can create, delete, edit, and rotate API keys, while free clusters cannot modify the default keys.

When you provision a new cluster, Weaviate Cloud uses the latest version of Weaviate to set up the new cluster. There may be a short delay between the release of a new Weaviate version and its availability in Weaviate Cloud.

Weaviate Cloud automatically updates existing clusters as new Weaviate versions become available.

For more details on Weaviate Cloud versioning, see:

• Account management: Server version.

Each user can create one (1) free cluster. By default, an organization can have up to six (6) Shared Cloud clusters at the same time. To change these limits, contact support.

If you use Weaviate Cloud (Database cluster(s) or Weaviate product in the cloud) or have a self-hosted support package, open a ticket in the Support Portal or email Weaviate support directly. To add a support plan, contact Weaviate sales.

Use the Support Portal for direct help from the Weaviate team: open and track tickets, and we'll respond in line with your support plan. The Community Forum is open to everyone, and a great place to ask questions, get help with your cluster, and connect with other developers. For all the ways to get help, see the Support overview.