#10 in Vector & RetrievalUpdated 2026-08

Algolia

by Algolia · AI search and retrieval platform for search, generative and agentic use

24.2 — BenchRank score out of 100

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Overview

Algolia is a hosted search and retrieval platform used for product discovery, site search and generative or agentic experiences. Content is loaded as records into an index and queried through its API, with keyword search, browse, query suggestions, rules, synonyms, personalisation and A/B testing. Higher tiers add NeuralSearch and AI ranking.

Best for: Teams adding search to sites or apps who can price by search requests and record count
Pricing: Free Build tier, then pay-as-you-go: Grow from $0.50 and Grow Plus from $1.75 per extra 1K search requests, both $0.40 per extra 1K records, with Elevate priced on application.

Strengths and trade-offs

Strengths

Free Build tier: full feature access, 1M records, 10K searches
Per-unit rates published: $0.50 or $1.75 per extra 1K searches
Grow includes US, UK and EU hosting plus third-party connectors

Trade-offs

NeuralSearch, SSO and 99.99% availability only on contact-priced Elevate
No fixed monthly price shown; bills track traffic and index size
Grow caps rules at 10 per index and analytics retention at 30 days
Free Build tier limited to 10K search requests per month

Pricing

Published plans from Algolia’s own pricing page, in USD. Usage charges and add-ons may apply on top.

Algolia pricing tiers, monthly rates in USD
Plan	Monthly	Includes
Elevate	Contact sales	Custom search requests and records, volume-based discounts NeuralSearch, AI Collections, Smart Groups Real-time personalisation, 99.99% availability SSO, enhanced SLA and enterprise support plans
Grow Plus	—$1.75 per additional 1K search requests; $0.40 per additional 1K records	10K search requests/month and 100K records included Everything in Grow, plus AI Synonyms and AI Ranking Rules: 10,000 per index, Query Categorization, Collections Advanced Personalization, 90 days analytics retention
Grow	—$0.50 per additional 1K search requests; $0.40 per additional 1K records	10K search requests/month and 100K records included Keyword search and browse, query suggestions, manual synonyms Rules: 10 per index, 30 days analytics retention Third-party integrations; US, UK and EU hosting
Build	—	Free, with access to the full feature suite for testing 10K search requests/month, 1M records, 10K crawls/month 10K AI Recommendation requests/month, 1 Generative Experience Guide Personalization, AI Dynamic Re-ranking, AI Synonyms

How this score is made up

Each dimension is scored out of 100 and combined into the headline score using fixed weights.

MCP support: 80 out of 100
API quality: 0 out of 100
Documentation: 0 out of 100
Agent friendliness: 18 out of 100
Changelog: 0 out of 100
Marketing site structure: 50 out of 100
Operational trust: 0 out of 100

Measured, but not part of the score

Useful to know, but not a mark for or against the product — so these do not affect the ranking.

Openness: 60 out of 100
Maintenance: 100 out of 100

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