Algolia Cost Tuning

Overview

Algolia pricing is based on search requests and records. A search request is one API call (which may contain multiple queries via search({ requests: [...] })). Records are counted across all indices including replicas.

Pricing Structure (2025)

Plan	Records Included	Search Requests	Additional Cost
Build (Free)	1M records	10K requests/mo	N/A
Grow	100K free, then $0.40/1K	10K free, then $0.50/1K	Pay as you go
Grow Plus	100K free, then $0.40/1K	10K free, then $1.75/1K	+ AI features
Premium	Custom	Custom	Volume discounts

What Counts as Records

• Every object in every index = 1 record
• Standard replicas duplicate records (multiply your count)
• Virtual replicas share records (no extra cost)
• Synonyms and rules do NOT count as records

What Counts as Search Requests

• searchSingleIndex() = 1 request
• search({ requests: [q1, q2, q3] }) = 1 request (multi-query)
• browse() = 1 request per page
• saveObjects() = NOT a search request (indexing operations are free)

Instructions

Step 1: Audit Current Usage

import { algoliasearch } from 'algoliasearch';

const client = algoliasearch(process.env.ALGOLIA_APP_ID!, process.env.ALGOLIA_ADMIN_KEY!);

// Check total records across all indices
const { items } = await client.listIndices();
let totalRecords = 0;
let replicaRecords = 0;

items.forEach(idx => {
  const records = idx.entries || 0;
  console.log(`${idx.name}: ${records.toLocaleString()} records, ${(idx.dataSize || 0 / 1024).toFixed(0)}KB`);
  if (idx.name.includes('_replica') || idx.primary) {
    replicaRecords += records;
  }
  totalRecords += records;
});

console.log(`\nTotal: ${totalRecords.toLocaleString()} records (${replicaRecords.toLocaleString()} in replicas)`);

Step 2: Replace Standard Replicas with Virtual Replicas

// Standard replicas: duplicate all records (doubles cost)
// Virtual replicas: share records with primary (no extra cost)

// BEFORE: 3 standard replicas = 4x record count
await client.setSettings({
  indexName: 'products',
  indexSettings: {
    replicas: [
      // 'products_price_asc',      // Standard: costs records
      // 'products_price_desc',     // Standard: costs records
      'virtual(products_price_asc)',  // Virtual: FREE
      'virtual(products_price_desc)', // Virtual: FREE
    ],
  },
});

// Virtual replica limitation: can only customize ranking and customRanking
// If you need different searchableAttributes or attributesForFaceting, use standard

Step 3: Use Multi-Query to Reduce Request Count

// BAD: 3 separate requests = 3 search operations billed
const results1 = await client.searchSingleIndex({ indexName: 'products', searchParams: { query: 'laptop' } });
const results2 = await client.searchSingleIndex({ indexName: 'articles', searchParams: { query: 'laptop' } });
const results3 = await client.searchSingleIndex({ indexName: 'faq', searchParams: { query: 'laptop' } });

// GOOD: 1 multi-query request = 1 search operation billed
const { results } = await client.search({
  requests: [
    { indexName: 'products', query: 'laptop', hitsPerPage: 5 },
    { indexName: 'articles', query: 'laptop', hitsPerPage: 3 },
    { indexName: 'faq', query: 'laptop', hitsPerPage: 3 },
  ],
});

Step 4: Cache Frequent Searches

import { LRUCache } from 'lru-cache';

// Cache popular searches — Algolia's own CDN caches are limited
const searchCache = new LRUCache<string, any>({
  max: 1000,
  ttl: 5 * 60 * 1000, // 5 minutes for product search
});

async function cachedSearch(query: string, filters?: string) {
  const key = JSON.stringify({ query, filters });
  const cached = searchCache.get(key);
  if (cached) {
    console.log('Cache hit — saved 1 search request');
    return cached;
  }
  const result = await client.searchSingleIndex({
    indexName: 'products',
    searchParams: { query, filters },
  });
  searchCache.set(key, result);
  return result;
}

Step 5: Delete Unused Indices

// Audit and clean up test/development indices
const { items } = await client.listIndices();
const devIndices = items.filter(i =>
  i.name.startsWith('test_') ||
  i.name.startsWith('dev_') ||
  i.name.startsWith('ci_')
);

for (const idx of devIndices) {
  console.log(`Deleting unused index: ${idx.name} (${idx.entries} records)`);
  await client.deleteIndex({ indexName: idx.name });
}

Step 6: Monitor Usage with Analytics API

// Track search volume trends
const { count: searchCount } = await client.getSearchesCount({
  index: 'products',
  startDate: '2025-01-01',
  endDate: '2025-01-31',
});
console.log(`Search requests this month: ${searchCount.toLocaleString()}`);

// Identify no-result queries (wasted searches users will retry)
const { searches } = await client.getSearchesNoResults({
  index: 'products',
  startDate: '2025-01-01',
  endDate: '2025-01-31',
});
console.log('Top no-result searches (fix these to reduce retries):');
searches.slice(0, 10).forEach(s => console.log(`  "${s.search}" — ${s.count} times`));

Cost Reduction Summary

Strategy	Savings	Effort
Virtual replicas	50-75% record cost	Low
Multi-query search	60-80% fewer requests	Low
Client-side caching	30-50% fewer requests	Low
Delete unused indices	Variable	Low
Fix no-result queries (synonyms)	10-20% fewer retries	Medium
Reduce record size	Indirect (faster = cheaper)	Medium

Error Handling

Issue	Cause	Solution
Unexpected bill spike	Uncached bot traffic	Add rate limiting, cache layer
Record count higher than expected	Standard replicas	Switch to virtual replicas
Search requests over budget	No caching	Add LRU cache in API layer
Analytics API returns empty	Wrong date range or region	Check region parameter matches your app

Resources

• Algolia Pricing
• How Algolia Counts Records
• Virtual Replicas
• Analytics API

Next Steps

For architecture patterns, see algolia-reference-architecture.