MongoDB Atlas is a multi-cloud database service that simplifies deploying and managing your databases while offering the versatility you need to build resilient and performant global applications on the cloud providers of your choice.
Atlas runs your databases on AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, and handles the operational work of running them: provisioning, patching, backup, monitoring, and scaling. You interact with your data through the MongoDB Query API, so your application code, drivers, and tools work the same way that they do against a self-managed deployment.
Atlas offers two database editions, Atlas Core and Atlas Infinite, which differ in how they manage compute and storage. To understand the differences and choose between them, see Database Editions.
What You Can Do with Atlas
Atlas makes it easy to deploy and manage databases on-demand when and where you need them. With Atlas, you can:
Build AI-powered features: Semantic search, RAG, and agents with automatic embeddings all run on your existing operational data.
Run transactional workloads at scale: Flexible document modeling and elastic scaling handle both steady growth and traffic spikes.
Search and analyze live data where it lives: Full-text, vector, and hybrid search plus real-time analytics run directly on Atlas data, no separate systems to sync or manage.
Deploy anywhere with enterprise-grade security and resilience: Multi-cloud, multi-region, and built-in compliance controls support complex business needs, coupled with automated backups, self-healing, and automatic failover.
Scale from prototype to production on one platform: The same APIs, drivers, and tools are available all the way from free tiers to scaled deployments.
Features
Atlas includes a mature feature set of services and capabilities designed for scalability, integrations, and AI-centric workflows that you can add as needed without having to deploy and maintain separate systems:
Build full-text search and Vector Search on your operational data so that RAG, recommendations, and AI agents work against the same data, indexes, and security model as the rest of the app.
Drive your app's retrieval capacity with Voyage AI embedding models and APIs that turn data into high-accuracy vectors natively in the platform.
Automate embeddings with no need for pipelines or machine learning expertise, generated by MongoDB and updated automatically so AI agents can access accurate contextual information in real time.
Orchestrate agents using a precise semantic search interface with long-term memory store integration and lexical prefilters.
Use Atlas Stream Processing to read, write, and transform streams of complex data as it arrives.
Database Editions
Atlas offers two database editions. Both editions run MongoDB and use the same interface, drivers, APIs, and most operational workflows. They differ in how they provision compute and storage:
Atlas Core: the Atlas cluster architecture where compute and storage run on the same node. It is available across Free clusters, Flex clusters, and dedicated cluster tiers.
Atlas Infinite: an architecture that separates compute from storage into independent layers, designed for mission-critical high-performance use cases. Atlas Infinite is available as a public preview, and both the product and its documentation might change during the preview period.
The following diagram compares the two editions.
Atlas Core couples compute and storage on each node, while Atlas Infinite runs compute and storage as separate layers
Compare Editions
Aspect | Atlas Core | Atlas Infinite |
|---|---|---|
Architecture | Compute and storage run on the same node. Each data-bearing node runs on a virtual machine with attached storage. | Compute and storage run as independent layers. MongoDB manages the storage layer separately from the compute nodes. |
Compute scaling | You change compute capacity by selecting a different cluster tier. Atlas restarts the cluster's nodes when you change the tier, with no downtime on dedicated clusters. | You scale the cluster tier independently of storage. Scaling doesn't move your data, so it is fast. |
Storage scaling | You scale storage capacity and IOPS independently of compute on dedicated clusters, up to the maximum for the cluster tier. To add capacity beyond that maximum, you scale to a higher tier. | Storage capacity increases automatically based on usage, independently of the cluster tier, without downtime. |
Horizontal scaling | You shard a cluster when its data approaches the storage capacity, and add workload-specific nodes, like read-only or analytics nodes, as needed. | Higher storage capacity means you can store up to 128TB on a single shard without sharding. Adding workload-specific nodes is much faster. |
Recovery | Atlas monitors your database regularly, and performs auto-healing if it discovers an issue. If it replaces a node, the new node performs an initial sync before it serves queries. | Atlas monitors your database regularly, and performs auto-healing if it discovers an issue. If it replaces a node, the new node immediately connects to the storage layer, with no need for an initial sync. |
Cloud provider and tier availability | Free clusters, Flex clusters, and dedicated cluster tiers, on AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud. | Public preview: |
Feature coverage | Supports the full Atlas feature set. | Some Atlas features aren't supported during public preview. |
Choose an Edition
Consider Atlas Core when:
You want the full Atlas feature set
You need multi-region or multi-cloud clusters (coming soon to Atlas Infinite)
You need sharded clusters (coming soon to Atlas Infinite)
Consider Atlas Infinite when:
You want to scale compute and storage independently
Your workload has spikes that are difficult to preprovision for
You want to grow storage capacity without scaling the cluster tier
You want faster failover and recovery
Confirm that your workload fits the public preview limitations first.
The Atlas Infinite architecture describes how the compute and storage layers interact.
How This Documentation Is Organized
Most Atlas documentation applies to both Atlas Core and Atlas Infinite, because the Atlas interface, drivers, APIs, and most operational workflows are the same across editions. Documentation describes which editions each page or section applies to, as follows:
Applies to both editions: Unless a page says otherwise, its content applies to both Atlas Core and Atlas Infinite.
Applies to one edition only: When content applies to a single edition, the page identifies that edition in its title or text.
Not supported on Atlas Infinite: When a feature isn't available on Atlas Infinite during public preview, the page includes a note and links to the supported features.
Behaves differently on Atlas Infinite: When a workflow or option differs between editions, the page or section calls out the difference in place.
Next Steps
To get started with Atlas: