# Multi-Tenancy Patterns

> Architectural patterns for isolating data between different tenants (customers/organizations) in vector databases. Includes collection-per-tenant, partition-per-tenant, and filter-based approaches with different trade-offs.

- **URL:** https://weaviate.io/blog/multi-tenancy
- **Category:** Concepts & Definitions
- **Tags:** Multi Tenant, architecture, security
- **Updated:** 2026-03-15 12:39
- **Canonical page:** https://vectordb.ever.works/pt/items/multi-tenancy-patterns

## Details

## Overview

Multi-tenancy patterns enable SaaS applications to serve multiple customers from a single vector database deployment while maintaining data isolation, security, and performance.

## Approaches

### 1. Collection Per Tenant
**Pattern**: Each tenant gets own collection

**Pros**:
- Complete isolation
- Easy backup/restore per tenant
- Independent scaling

**Cons**:
- Management overhead (1000s of collections)
- Resource inefficiency
- Higher operational complexity

### 2. Partition Per Tenant
**Pattern**: Single collection, partitions by tenant

**Pros**:
- Better resource utilization
- Easier management
- Native database feature

**Cons**:
- Partition limits
- Shared resources

### 3. Filter-Based  
**Pattern**: Single collection, filter by tenant_id

**Pros**:
- Simplest implementation
- Best resource efficiency
- Easiest to manage

**Cons**:
- Must ensure filter on every query
- Potential security risk if filter forgotten
- Shared query resources

## Implementation Example

```python
# Filter-based
results = client.search(
    collection="documents",
    query_vector=embedding,
    filter={"tenant_id": current_user.tenant_id},
    limit=10
)
```

## Security Considerations

- **Access Control**: Enforce at application layer
- **Query Validation**: Always include tenant filter
- **Audit Logging**: Track cross-tenant access attempts
- **Encryption**: Tenant-specific keys if needed

## Choosing a Pattern

**Collection-per-tenant**: < 100 tenants, strict isolation needed
**Partition-per-tenant**: 100-10K tenants, balanced approach
**Filter-based**: 10K+ tenants, operational simplicity priority

## Database Support

- **Weaviate**: Native multi-tenancy feature
- **Qdrant**: Collection sharding
- **Milvus**: Partition keys
- **Pinecone**: Namespaces

## Pricing

Not applicable (architectural pattern).

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