---
title: "The unified data layer for AI | SurrealDB"
description: "SurrealDB is a database and an agent memory layer. Documents, graphs, vectors, and SQL in one engine - and context for your AI agents wherever your data lives."
url: https://surrealdb.com
---

# The unified data layer for AI

Graphs, vectors, documents, and relational data in one engine.
Agent memory that connects and retrieves context wherever your data lives.

[Explore the database](https://surrealdb.com/surrealdb) [Explore agent memory](https://surrealdb.com/agent-memory) [Get started](https://studio.surrealdb.com/?signin=true)

SOC 2 Type 2

GDPR

Cyber Essentials Plus

ISO 27001

1. ![Babcock](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/babcock.lo4rnVg1.svg)
2. ![ING](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/ing.X3I6S3_V.svg)
3. ![British Airways](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/british-airways.KEsZiwV-.svg)
4. ![Nvidia](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/nvidia.DaIEuMil.svg)
5. ![Apple](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/apple.D5pq4flY.svg)
6. ![SpaceX](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/spacex.CQJEk-IL.svg)
7. ![Samsung](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/samsung.CH-vQgnb.svg)
8. ![adidas](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/adidas.DdTC5qhk.svg)
9. ![Tencent](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/tencent.paQmLxyy.svg)
10. ![Alibaba](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/alibaba.B16idgfM.svg)
11. ![PolyAI](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/poly-ai.c3w_fAg6.svg)
12. ![Later](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/later.Ds736jFO.svg)
13. ![Verizon](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/verizon.BI7CajdX.svg)
14. ![Liberty Mutual](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/liberty-mutual.B7qOU1pd.svg)
15. ![Walmart](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/walmart.BjDg_Sr8.svg)
16. ![Carrier](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/carrier.D21gC6NX.svg)
17. ![Saks Fifth Avenue](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/saks-fifth-avenue.COIDpLSb.svg)
18. ![San Francisco Compute Company](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/sfcc.B7jlImq4.svg)
19. ![Shield AI](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/shield-ai.pINZ0KJr.svg)
20. ![Wix](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/wix.DvHhmoBi.svg)

CHOOSE YOUR PATH

## What are you building?

One platform, two ways in: a database you model yourself, or a memory layer that does the AI modelling for you.

### [Database](https://surrealdb.com/surrealdb)

One engine for your data - modelled by you, queried your way.

Documents, graphs, vectors, and SQL in one ACID engine

You design the schema and own the model

In production at Samsung, Verizon, and Tencent

Explore the database

![The database: documents, graphs, vectors, and time-series in one engine](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/modalities.Dv1PxgLJ.avif)

### [Agent memory](https://surrealdb.com/agent-memory)

Memory for your agents - built for you from your own data.

Connect and retrieve context in one line of code

Assembles itself from conversations, documents, and your systems

In early access - join now

Explore agent memory

![Agent memory: persistent agent memory built on the database](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/pillar-memory.BwHPJ2cD.avif)

THE PROBLEM → THE FIX

## Agents fail due to context. Not models.

Your model can reason. It just has nothing reliable to reason over. Each failure below has a structural fix - built into the engine.

Context that leaks at every seam

Data flows between six systems. Relationships, history, and metadata fragment at every boundary, silently eroding accuracy.

App state

User session

Vector DB

Embeddings

Graph DB

Relations

Doc store

Documents

Auth

Identity

Data fragments at every system boundary

Token bills that balloon

Every store returns its own copy of the same context. Duplicate chunks inflate each prompt - and the token bill with them.

Vector DB

same fact

Graph DB

same fact

Doc store

same fact

Prompt

One fact, 3x the tokens

Latency that compounds

Every system adds a network hop. Round trips stack under load until agents miss their response window.

Agent

Vector DB

Graph DB

Doc store

Auth

Total

Cumulative latency

Six systems to keep alive

Six failure modes, six monitoring setups, six sets of credentials. The glue code becomes the product.

Vector DB

Similarity search

auth

config

monitor

Graph DB

Relationship store

auth

config

monitor

Doc store

Raw document index

auth

config

monitor

Auth service

Identity & tokens

auth

config

monitor

Cache layer

Hot key store

auth

config

monitor

Five systems. Five auth configs. Five things to scale, secure, and keep alive.

HOW IT FITS TOGETHER

## One platform. The database at the core. Memory on top.

They're not two stacks to run: Agent memory, the agent memory layer, sits on top of SurrealDB, the database - one transaction boundary, one permission model, one deployment.

Applications

![Agent memory](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/surrealdb-icon.C3ORaDk9.svg)

Agent memory

Entity extraction

Knowledge graph

Temporal facts

Hybrid retrieval

![SurrealDB](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/surrealdb-icon.C3ORaDk9.svg)

Database

Documents

Graphs

Vectors

Time-series

Auth

APIs

Distributed write nodes

Node A

Node B

Node C

Object storage (S3 / GCS / Azure Blob)

USE CASES

## What teams build on one engine

Memory for agents and a multi-model database in one platform - each use case runs on the product built for it.

### [GraphRAG](https://surrealdb.com/solutions/graph-rag)

Database

Retrieval that combines graph traversal with vector search for grounded, connected context.

Traverse relationships instead of returning disconnected chunks

Rank by semantic relevance and full-text in the same query

Lower latency, with no vector database stitched to a graph database

Explore the database

### [Agent memory](https://surrealdb.com/agent-memory)

Agent memory

Persistent, queryable memory for agents - relationships, semantics, and recency in one store.

Knowledge-graph memory of entities, threads, and episodic timelines

Vector recall of past facts and decisions, per user or per tenant

Build memory yourself, or build your memory product on top of it

Explore Agent memory

### [Knowledge graphs](https://surrealdb.com/use-cases/knowledge-graphs)

Database

Model entities and relationships natively - query structure and meaning together.

First-class nodes, edges, and properties

Semantic and full-text search over all your knowledge

Type-safe traversals in Rust, Go, TypeScript and Python

Explore the database

### [Company brain](https://surrealdb.com/agent-memory)

Agent memory

One queryable source of truth across every document, person, tool, and decision.

Connect org structure, docs, and projects as a graph

Temporal awareness of when facts changed

Agents traverse sub-graphs and tenants with permissions intact

Explore Agent memory

PROVEN IN PRODUCTION

## In production at Samsung, Verizon, Tencent & PolyAI.

Proof from production, every quote and figure tagged by product. The database runs in production across industries.

TRUSTED BY THE BEST

> The SurrealDB integration was seamless and delivered performance on par with our internal stack. It proves that enterprises can bring their own knowledge base without sacrificing speed, quality, or control.

DATABASE

*Colman Yau*

VP of Engineering, PolyAI

[PolyAI case study](https://surrealdb.com/customer/polyai) [Tencent case study](https://surrealdb.com/customer/tencent) [Later case study](https://surrealdb.com/customer/later) [See all case studies](https://surrealdb.com/casestudies)

BY THE NUMBERS

700K

DATABASE

Users on Aspire

Scaled in 8 hours after replacing 5 backend tools with SurrealDB.

50M

DATABASE

Graph edges at Tencent

Across 8M nodes at 10,000+ QPS on a single context graph.

~30ms

DATABASE

RAG latency at PolyAI

Vector search on par with their internal stack - no perceptible delay.

BENCHMARKED IN THE OPEN

## Faster with every release

Performance measured in the open. SurrealDB 3.x against 2.x with the open-source crud-bench harness on the same hardware.

[View the benchmarks](https://surrealdb.com/surrealdb/benchmarks)

↑ 31%

DATABASE

Faster CRUD

Mean across creates, reads, updates, deletes - 2.x to 3.x

↑ 58%

DATABASE

Faster batches

Mean across batched operations - 2.x to 3.x

↑ 11894%

DATABASE

Faster full-table scans

Mean across non-indexed read scans - 2.x to 3.x

↑ 136%

DATABASE

Faster indexed queries

Mean across indexed read scans - 2.x to 3.x

CASE STUDIES

## See what teams have shipped

How enterprise teams are building on the database - every story tagged by product.

![Samsung](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/4c58b81e7b3c9466.C_Hv0eml.svg) DATABASE

### [Unlocking insights with knowledge graphs](https://surrealdb.com/customer/samsung)

Samsung Ads uses SurrealDB to build dynamic, real-time knowledge graphs for smarter campaign execution - collapsing three legacy data stores into one.

Read case study

![Verizon](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/18b99996c689000f.B5PQ-nI9.svg) DATABASE

### [AI assistant empowering 10,000 technicians](https://surrealdb.com/customer/verizon)

Verizon uses SurrealDB to power a generative AI assistant for 10,000 field technicians, delivering instant access to documentation, outage updates, and workflows.

Read case study

![Tencent](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/401d8346058682c8.DqM87mst.svg) DATABASE

### [Unified infrastructure monitoring](https://surrealdb.com/customer/tencent)

Tencent consolidated nine backend tools into one real-time monitoring platform powered by SurrealDB's multi-model context graph.

Read case study

![PolyAI](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/c5fa07c66cd05131.BnC7wHcc.svg) DATABASE

### [High-performance customer service AI powered by RAG](https://surrealdb.com/customer/polyai)

PolyAI connects SurrealDB to Agent Studio for low-latency, customer-controlled RAG across voice AI experiences.

Read case study

![Saks Fifth Avenue](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/saks-fifth-avenue-white.pDJ9HGmf.svg) DATABASE

### [AI-powered personalisation at massive scale](https://surrealdb.com/customer/saks)

Saks Fifth Avenue uses SurrealDB's vector search and graph capabilities to deliver real-time, AI-powered personalisation across 5 million luxury customers and 45 million monthly product-recommendation queries.

Read case study

THE COMMUNITY

## Building the future together

Join a growing community of developers, engineers, and teams building the next generation of intelligent applications on SurrealDB.

[Join the community](https://discord.gg/surrealdb)

Stay in the loop

Product announcements, technical deep dives, AI agent recipes, and event invites - in your inbox every two weeks.

[Verizon IndyCar racing team](https://surrealdb.com/customer/verizon) [Tencent headquarters building](https://surrealdb.com/customer/tencent) [Samsung headquarters building](https://surrealdb.com/customer/samsung)

![Apple retail store](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/apple-store.BajGhTjM.avif)

![BYD headquarters building](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/byd-building.Q3RGKNj2.avif)

[Verizon IndyCar racing team](https://surrealdb.com/customer/verizon) [Tencent headquarters building](https://surrealdb.com/customer/tencent) [Samsung headquarters building](https://surrealdb.com/customer/samsung)

![Apple retail store](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/apple-store.BajGhTjM.avif)

![BYD headquarters building](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/byd-building.Q3RGKNj2.avif)

[Verizon IndyCar racing team](https://surrealdb.com/customer/verizon) [Tencent headquarters building](https://surrealdb.com/customer/tencent) [Samsung headquarters building](https://surrealdb.com/customer/samsung)

![Apple retail store](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/apple-store.BajGhTjM.avif)

![BYD headquarters building](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/byd-building.Q3RGKNj2.avif)

[Verizon IndyCar racing team](https://surrealdb.com/customer/verizon) [Tencent headquarters building](https://surrealdb.com/customer/tencent) [Samsung headquarters building](https://surrealdb.com/customer/samsung)

![Apple retail store](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/apple-store.BajGhTjM.avif)

![BYD headquarters building](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/byd-building.Q3RGKNj2.avif)

GET STARTED

## Pick your path and start today

Spin up the database free - fully self-serve, no sales call. Building agents? Join the agent memory early access.

[Start the database free](https://studio.surrealdb.com/current/instances/deploy) [Join agent memory early access](https://surrealdb.com/agent-memory/get-started)

[Need security review or procurement? Talk to enterprise](https://surrealdb.com/enterprise)

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