What is pgvector and when should you use it over a dedicated vector database?

pgvector is a PostgreSQL extension that adds a vector column type with HNSW and IVFFlat indexes, letting you run vector search alongside relational data in the same database. Use pgvector when vector search is secondary to relational workloads, when you already operate PostgreSQL, or when keeping one database simplifies your stack. Dedicated vector databases win at very large scale, when you need advanced features like complex hybrid search or GPU acceleration, or when vector workload size would hurt PostgreSQL performance on other queries.