Comprehensive comparison of affordable vector database options for small-scale AI projects in 2025. Covers free tiers from Qdrant, Zilliz Cloud, Pinecone, Chroma, pgvector, and LanceDB for handling 1,000-5,000 vectors with 3,000 dimensions. Includes storage calculations, cost optimization strategies like dimensionality reduction and quantization, and practical guidance on when to use embedded vs. managed solutions. Highlights serverless pricing trends and pgvector's maturation as a PostgreSQL-native alternative.