Index Portability Ledger

Index Portability Ledger is a way of pricing a vector database decision by what it costs to leave, not what it costs to run. Every embedding index carries three transferable assets: the raw vectors, the model that produced them, and the query logic layered on top. Managed platforms compress operational work but often hold the vectors in a proprietary format, so a client migration means re-embedding the entire corpus and re-tuning relevance. Self-hosted engines such as Qdrant or Weaviate keep the index on infrastructure the agency controls, trading setup hours for exit freedom. The ledger matters because agency retainers renew on client trust, and a client who learns their knowledge assistant cannot move without a rebuild has leverage. Forrester's November 2026 research found AI vendors simultaneously set usage limits, control feature access, and arbitrate disputes, which is exactly the concentration this ledger exposes. Score each deployment on export format, re-embedding hours, and query rewrite effort before signing.