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OpenAI vs Weaviate
Side-by-side comparison of OpenAI and Weaviate.
Quick summary
OpenAI — The company behind ChatGPT, GPT-4o, and o1. OpenAI provides the most widely used LLM API with GPT-4o, GPT-4o mini, o1 reasoning models, embeddings, DALL-E image generation, Whisper speech-to-text, and Assistants API.
Weaviate — Open source vector database with built-in ML. Weaviate is an open-source vector database with native multi-modal search, built-in vectorizer modules, hybrid search, and cloud or self-hosted deployment.
Feature comparison
| Feature | OpenAI | Weaviate |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Paid | Freemium |
| Starting price | Pay per token | $25/mo |
| Free tier | No | Yes |
| Open source | No | Yes |
| Vision | Yes | — |
| Streaming | Yes | — |
| Embeddings | Yes | — |
| Max Output | 16K | — |
| Fine-tuning | Yes | — |
| Context Window | 128K | — |
| Flagship Model | GPT-4o | — |
| Reasoning Model | o1 | — |
| Function Calling | Yes | — |
| EU Data Residency | Yes | — |
| Type | — | Hybrid |
| Free Tier | — | 14-day sandbox |
| Serverless | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Multi-tenant | — | Yes |
| Hybrid Search | — | Yes |
| Max Dimensions | — | 65535 |
| Metadata Filtering | — | Yes |
OpenAI
The company behind ChatGPT, GPT-4o, and o1
Pros
- Most capable general-purpose LLM
- Huge ecosystem and SDK support
- Battle-tested at scale
- Best function calling reliability
Cons
- Most expensive at scale
- No free tier
- Rate limits can bite
- Vendor lock-in risk
Weaviate
Open source vector database with built-in ML
Pros
- Fully open source, self-hostable
- Built-in vectorizer modules
- Native multi-modal (text + image)
- GraphQL API
Cons
- Heavier ops than Pinecone if self-hosting
- Cloud tier pricing more complex
- Community smaller than Pinecone's
Which should you choose?
Choose OpenAI if you need production-grade features and are ready to pay. Choose Weaviate if you value open source and want the option to self-host, and a free tier is important for your stage.