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What's the Difference Between Amazon CloudSearch and OpenSearch Serverless?

Compare Amazon CloudSearch and OpenSearch Serverless side by side — features, pricing, and ideal use cases to help you choose the right product.

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Comparisons
Amazon CloudSearch
OpenSearch Serverless
Category

Analytics, Search

Analytics, Serverless Search
Description

Managed search service for setting up, managing, and scaling a search solution for your website or application.

Run search and analytics workloads without managing OpenSearch clusters.
Best for
  • Website search
  • Document search
  • E-commerce search
  • Log search
  • Log analytics
  • Full-text search
  • Vector search
  • Application monitoring
Key features
  • Auto scaling
  • Faceting
  • Highlighting
  • Geospatial search
  • Multiple languages
  • No cluster management
  • Auto scaling
  • Vector search
  • Time-series collections
  • Encryption
Pricing model

Pay per search instance hour + data transfer

Pay per OCU-hour + data stored
Free tier

No

No
Expert take

“CloudSearch provides managed search with auto-scaling and multi-AZ. For new projects, OpenSearch offers more flexibility, but CloudSearch remains simpler for basic full-text search needs.”
— Riku Kobayashi, re:Post Top Contributor [profile]

“OpenSearch Serverless auto-scales compute and storage independently. Choose time-series or search collections based on your access pattern for optimal cost.”
— Didier Durand, re:Post Top Contributor [profile]
Product page

Learn more about Amazon CloudSearch »

Learn more about OpenSearch Serverless »

When to use Amazon CloudSearch or OpenSearch Serverless

Use Amazon CloudSearch when:

  • Website search
  • Document search
  • E-commerce search
  • Log search

Learn more about Amazon CloudSearch »

Use OpenSearch Serverless when:

  • Log analytics
  • Full-text search
  • Vector search
  • Application monitoring

Learn more about OpenSearch Serverless »

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