# Elasticsearch vs OpenSearch (slim)

> OpenSearch and Elasticsearch score within a point of each other for vector search, 68 and 67.7 out of 100. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elasticsearch-vs-opensearch.md (~2,600 tokens) · this version ~730 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elasticsearch-vs-opensearch.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/elasticsearch-vs-opensearch
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · Updated: 2026-10-09

OpenSearch and Elasticsearch score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 68 (B) and 67.7 (B). Elasticsearch leads on schema & documentation and transparency & trust. Both do vector search.

- Elasticsearch: B 67.7, rank #242 of 950 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/elasticsearch.min.md
- OpenSearch: B 68, rank #233 of 950 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/opensearch.min.md
- Elasticsearch, good for Retrieval that needs keyword relevance, filters and vectors in one query, and teams already running Elastic for logs or security. Ahead on Schema & documentation, 88 against 77; Transparency & trust, 71 against 57. Also Free to start without a card.
- OpenSearch, good for A team that already runs OpenSearch for logs or text search and wants vectors and hybrid search in the same cluster, with fine-grained access control. Ahead on Reliability, 77 against 62; Payments & pricing, 60 against 35. Also Runs on your own machine.

| Category | Elasticsearch | OpenSearch |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 62 | 77 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 88 | 77 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 77 | 80 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 72 | 70 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 35 | 60 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 83 | 84 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 71 | 57 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Elasticsearch | OpenSearch |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Elastic | OpenSearch Software Foundation |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, stdio |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Free |
| Licence | AGPL-3.0, SSPL-1.0 or Elastic Licence 2.0 at the user's choice for most source. The `x-pack` folder is under Elastic Licence 2.0 only. Elastic Cloud is a proprietary service under Elastic's terms | Apache-2.0 for the engine, the plugins, the clients, the API specification and the MCP server |
| Tools exposed | none | 9 |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-10-06 | 2026-09-22 |
| Terms last updated | couldn't be read | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-09-07 | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models | couldn't be read |  |
| Terms restrict automated access | couldn't be read |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | couldn't be read |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice | couldn't be read |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | couldn't be read |  |
| Popularity | 3.1M npm/wk, 7.8M PyPI/wk | 14k stars |