General questions
What is Oracle AI Database 26ai?
Oracle AI Database 26ai is a long-term support release that replaces Oracle Database 23ai. Customers can simply apply the October 2025 release update to go from 23ai to 26ai. Oracle AI Database 26ai delivers time-tested mission-critical functionalities that bring AI to data securely, performantly, and reliably wherever it resides—in the public cloud, multicloud, hybrid cloud, private cloud, or on-premises. There is no database upgrade or application re-certification required and advanced AI features, such as AI Vector Search, are included at no additional charge.
What are the key features of Oracle AI Database 26ai?
See the key features.
Can you explain AI Vector Search in more detail?
AI Vector Search uses vectors to enable fast and simple queries on business data in conjunction with LLMs. To better understand this functionality, check out the following sub-questions. See more details about AI Vector Search
- What is a vector?
A vector is a numerical representation of text, images, audio, or video that encodes the meaning of the data, not the underlying words or pixels. - Can vectors be created inside the database?
Yes, via the vector_embedding() SQL function.
Choose Sentence-Transformer embedding models from Hugging Face and then securely upload them to the database.
- Can vectors be created outside the database?
Yes, using both commercial and open source models with either REST calls or local libraries.
Embedding models that have been tested include openai.com, cohere.com, Hugging Face Transformers, Sentence-Transformers, Transformers.js, and using the ONNX Runtime.
- Are GPUs needed to create vectors?
Vectors can be created using CPUs or GPUs. - Which LLMs does AI Vector Search work with?
AI Vector Search should be able to work with any LLM.
OpenAI GPT 3.5 and 4.0, Cohere, Llama2, Mistral, Gemini, Palm2, and Vertex AI LLMs have all been tested.
Some of these LLMs are available through Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) Generative AI service.
- Which embedding models does AI Vector Search work with?
More than 90 embedding models from OpenAI, Cohere, Transformer, Sentence Transformer, Transformer.js, Xenova, FastEmbed, and the ONNX Runtime have been tested. - Does AI Vector Search support LangChain or LlamaIindex?
Oracle AI Vector Search supports the Oracle AI Vector Search provider for LangChain and LlamaIndex.
Why should you upgrade from Oracle Database 19c to 26ai?
Oracle AI Database 26ai is the next long-term support release of Oracle Database, superseding 19c. A long-term release of Oracle Database offers five years of premium support and three years of extended support. Read Oracle MOS Note 742060.1 to learn more about release and support schedules for each release.
Are there any upgrade considerations from a previous version to Oracle AI Database 26ai?
Oracle provides upgrade paths from either Oracle Database 19c or Oracle Database 21c to 26ai. All other versions of the database need to upgrade to one of the versions listed prior, and then to 26ai. The specific upgrade process may vary depending on the current version and configuration of your particular Oracle Database deployment.
Is there a free trial available for Oracle AI Database 26ai?
Yes, Oracle offers free trials for Oracle AI Database 26ai through Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) with Autonomous AI Database Free Tier. Users can sign up for a free trial account and explore the features and capabilities of Oracle AI Database 26ai on OCI. Alternatively, Oracle AI Database 26ai Free is available for download as a Linux RPM file, an Oracle Linux-based Docker image, Oracle Virtual Box VM, or packed with Vagrant.