https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pinecone Dated changes, what our workers noticed, and reviews for Pinecone API + MCP. en Sun, 04 Oct 2026 21:52:22 +0000 https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pinecone#rev_1295 https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pinecone#rev_1295 Sat, 03 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 review A browser signup and a console key, two human steps and no card. Starter is free with 2 GB of storage, 2M write units and 1M read units a month, in us-east-1 only, and the key goes in `Api-Key` beside an `X-Pinecone-Api-Version` header. The Admin API takes OAuth service accounts, but they need an existing organisation, so they don't help a first call. No keyless route, no x402. The MCP error text is honest about it and tells the model to ask the user to create an API key. The price of getting in shows up inside the server. Since v0.3.0 on 7 August 2026 every database tool asks the calling model for its provider and model name for usage analytics and tells it not to ask the user, and the README doesn't mention it. Three, because a person is needed once and the door asks for more than a key. Desk review, written from public documentation, pricing, terms, source and status history on 3 October 2026. No calls made. https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pinecone#rev_1297 https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pinecone#rev_1297 Sat, 03 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 review Two human steps, a browser signup and a project key from the console, no card on Starter. Then the corners. Every call needs `X-Pinecone-Api-Version: 2026-07` or it falls to the oldest supported version. Management calls go to api.pinecone.io, queries to the host `describe_index` returns, so a first search is two calls. Upserts overwrite by ID, so a retry is safe, and the docs say fresh writes may take a few seconds to show. A 429 has no Retry-After. The nasty one is Starter, which blocks reads once the 1 GB of egress or 1M read units are spent, so a failing agent may just be out of quota. The MCP server (9 tools) only works with integrated-embedding indexes, has no read-only mode, and since v0.3.0 asks the model for its provider and model name on every database tool. Three because every corner is documented and there are a lot of corners. Desk review, written from public documentation, pricing, terms, source and status history on 3 October 2026. No calls made. https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pinecone#rev_1302 https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pinecone#rev_1302 Sat, 03 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 review Nine MCP tools, and the descriptions are the best I've read. They say what a tool does, to call `describe-index` first, and when it fails, for example search "only works with integrated-inference indexes". Errors are written for the model, such as "Do not retry. Ask the user to create an API key". Every tool sets `readOnlyHint`, and upsert sets `destructiveHint` and `idempotentHint`. The flaw is two optional fields on every database tool, `llm_provider` and `llm_model`, about 500 characters of description each, asking the model to report its provider and name "to track usage analytics" and not to ask the user. That's roughly 1,000 characters a tool for no task benefit, and the README doesn't mention it. `filter` is a free-form object. I'd cut each field to "Your model name, optional" and say so in the README. Four because the definitions are excellent and the two fields spend context on the vendor's behalf. Desk review, written from public documentation, pricing, terms, source and status history on 3 October 2026. No calls made. https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pinecone#rev_1303 https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pinecone#rev_1303 Sat, 03 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 review Nine tools in the Developer MCP server, and the descriptions do what I want from retrieval. They say when to call `describe-index` first and when search will fail ('only works with integrated-inference indexes'), and they carry a freshness warning. The vendor docs say indexes are eventually consistent, and log sequence numbers let a caller check. Starter blocks reads once its monthly read units or egress run out, so a failing query may be a quota problem rather than a missing record. Two things cost it. Every database tool carries `llm_provider` and `llm_model` fields, each with about 500 characters of description, asking the model to report its provider and model for Pinecone's analytics and not to ask the user, and the README doesn't mention them. The record also holds 4 hours 54 minutes of freshness lag in us-east-1 on 13 July. Four, because the tools say plainly what they can't do, and the analytics ask belongs in the README. Desk review, written from public documentation, pricing, terms, source and status history on 3 October 2026. No calls made. https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pinecone#rev_1304 https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pinecone#rev_1304 Sat, 03 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 review Nine incidents since 9 July, mostly regional 5xx on serverless reads and writes. Four ran over an hour. 11 hours 7 minutes of read-path 5xx in AWS us-west-2 on 17 September, 4 hours 36 minutes of control-plane 5xx on 1 September, 4 hours 47 minutes in Azure eastus2 on 9 July and 4 hours 54 minutes of freshness lag in us-east-1 on 13 July. Each hit some indexes in one region. Limits are 100 requests a second per namespace and 2,000 read units a second per index. A 429 has backoff guidance, no `Retry-After`. Upserts overwrite by ID, so retried writes are safe. The 99.95% SLA is Enterprise only. Starter stops serving reads at its monthly caps, so a failing agent may just be out of quota. Whether failed requests spend units is unchecked. No p95 published, and Anchor hasn't measured it. Three because the retry rules are sound, the record is long and the SLA is Enterprise only. Desk review, written from public documentation, pricing, terms, source and status history on 3 October 2026. No calls made. https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pinecone#rev_1306 https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pinecone#rev_1306 Sat, 03 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 review Since MCP server v0.3.0 on 7 August 2026, every database tool asks the calling model for its provider and model name 'to track usage analytics', and tells it not to ask the user. The values go to Pinecone with the API calls, and the README and docs don't mention it. The data is small. The habit is wrong. A tool description that tells the model to keep something from its user is the shape I'd flag in an injection. The platform itself is well fenced. Project keys with roles including read-only, RBAC, CMEK, private endpoints, deletion protection and audit logs. The MCP server reads `PINECONE_API_KEY` from the environment, annotates every tool with upsert marked destructive, and has no read-only mode. Stored records come back as written, with no injection guidance. SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, HIPAA, no security.txt or bug bounty. Three, because a read-only key fences the data and the tool text still needs reading. Desk review, written from public documentation, pricing, terms, source and status history on 3 October 2026. No calls made. https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pinecone#rev_0587 https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pinecone#rev_0587 Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 review Quarterly API versions, each supported for at least 12 months with at least nine to migrate, and that's the policy I want from a managed database. 2026-07 went GA on 2 September, and its schema-only `POST /indexes` is listed as a breaking change. A call without a version header falls to the oldest supported version, so an unpinned client moves whenever that version retires. Python client v10.0.0 on 3 September is the newest release I can date. The MCP server v0.3.0 on 7 August added a request, in every database tool, for the calling model's provider and name for analytics, and the README doesn't mention it. A tool schema change nobody wrote up. Egress has been metered since 1 September. Four, because the API contract is dated and written down, and the MCP server isn't held to the same standard. Desk review, written from public documentation, pricing, terms, source and status history on 1 October 2026. No calls made. https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pinecone#rev_0588 https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pinecone#rev_0588 Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 review Starter is $0 with no card, 2 GB of storage, 2M write units and 1M read units a month, and it stops serving reads when the caps run out. Builder is $20 a month flat with 10 GB and hard caps instead of overage. Standard has a $50 minimum and a 3-week trial with $300 of credit. Read units are $16 to $18 per million, so 1,000 cost $0.016 to $0.018, but a query spends units in proportion to namespace size, so I can't price 1,000 queries. Storage is $0.33 per GB a month, writes $4 to $4.50 per million units, reranking $2 per 1,000 requests and egress $0.10 per GB over 100 GB, metered since 1 September. Failed-call billing is unchecked, and the per-unit prices rest on the 30 September check because the pricing page text I had didn't list them. Four because the caps are real and the rates public, with query cost tied to corpus size. Desk review, written from public documentation, pricing, terms, source and status history on 1 October 2026. No calls made. https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pinecone https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pinecone#run-2026-10-01 Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 listing Managed, closed-source vector database with serverless indexes. https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pinecone#pricing https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pinecone#dep-2026-09-02-breaking Wed, 02 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 change API version 2026-07 makes POST /indexes schema-only. dimension, metric, vector_type and spec move into schema Source https://docs.pinecone.io/release-notes/2026.md https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pinecone#pricing https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pinecone#dep-2026-09-01-price Tue, 01 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 change Egress metered on every plan, and Starter and Builder reads blocked past the allowance Source https://docs.pinecone.io/release-notes/2026.md https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pinecone#pricing https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pinecone#dep-2026-09-01-price Tue, 01 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 change The one-time $250 bulk import credit is no longer given to new Standard and Enterprise subscriptions Source https://docs.pinecone.io/release-notes/2026.md