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openGemini

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by openGemini community (Huawei Cloud) · since 2022 · also known as GeminiDB for Influx

CNCF sandbox distributed time-series database from Huawei Cloud, compatible with InfluxQL.

time-seriescolumnar / olapdatabase engineopen source (permissive)growing
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Overview

openGemini is a distributed time-series database open-sourced by Huawei Cloud in 2022 and now a CNCF sandbox project. It speaks the InfluxDB 1.x line protocol and InfluxQL, so Telegraf, Grafana and Influx clients work unchanged, while adding a shared-nothing cluster, columnar storage for high-cardinality data and Prometheus remote write. It targets operators who need InfluxDB 1.x compatibility at scale without InfluxDB Enterprise. Releases slowed in 2026, with release candidates but no stable release since January, so check activity before committing.

Time-series dataObservabilityIoT & telemetry

Strengths & trade-offs

Strengths

  • +Drop-in InfluxDB 1.x API and InfluxQL compatibility
  • +Open-source clustering, which InfluxDB 1.x reserved for Enterprise
  • +Columnar engine handles high series cardinality
  • +Apache-2.0 under CNCF governance

Trade-offs

  • −Stable releases have slowed; 2026 has seen only release candidates since January
  • −Small community outside China
  • −No SQL; InfluxQL is a limited language
  • −Few managed options outside Huawei Cloud

Great for

  • +Scaling out InfluxDB 1.x workloads
  • +Operations and infrastructure metrics
  • +IoT telemetry with high cardinality

Think twice for

  • −Teams wanting SQL
  • −Transactional workloads
  • −Organisations requiring strong vendor support outside Asia

Capabilities

Native or official first-party support · 6 of 25 tracked

✓TTL / expiry
✓Columnar storage
✓Durable persistence
✓Compression
✓Role-based access
✓Streaming ingest
–Transactions
–Joins
–Secondary indexes
–Full-text search
–Vector search
–Geospatial
–JSON
–Change data capture
–Triggers
–Stored procedures
–Materialized views
–Pub/Sub
–In-memory
–Encryption at rest
–Time travel
–Branching
–Online schema changes
–Offline sync
–Runs in WebAssembly

Scale & consistency

Comfortable data size
Large · ≤ 1 PB
Horizontal scaling
Native
Multi-region
No
Transactions
None
Consistency
Eventual
Schema
Schemaless
Architecture
Distributed, Client server
Query languages
InfluxQL, PromQL

ts-sql, ts-meta and ts-store roles scale horizontally in a shared-nothing cluster.

Deployment

Self-hosted Vendor-managed cloud Serverless Embedded Edge Kubernetes operator
GeminiDB Influx APIHuawei Cloud

Ecosystem

compatible withInfluxDB, Prometheus
apis & protocolsInfluxDB 1.x HTTP API, Line protocol, Prometheus remote write/read
client languagesGo, Java, Python

Alternatives to openGemini

Compare all→
InfluxDBTime-Series51.0

Purpose-built time-series database, rebuilt in Rust on Arrow, DataFusion and Parquet for version 3.

opengemini vs influxdb →
VictoriaMetricsTime-Series26.8

Resource-frugal, Prometheus-compatible metrics database, run as a single binary or a sharded cluster.

opengemini vs victoriametrics →
CnosDBTime-Series6.7

Rust cloud-native time-series database with SQL on DataFusion and InfluxDB-style ingestion.

opengemini vs cnosdb →
TDengineTime-Series17.4

Industrial-IoT time-series database with a table-per-device model and built-in streaming and caching.

opengemini vs tdengine →
Apache IoTDBTime-Series22.8

Apache time-series database for industrial IoT with tree and table models and edge-to-cloud sync.

opengemini vs apache-iotdb →
GreptimeDBTime-Series15.1

Rust observability database that keeps metrics, logs and traces in one columnar engine on object storage.

opengemini vs greptimedb →

openGemini FAQ

What is openGemini?

openGemini is a time-series database by openGemini community (Huawei Cloud), first released in 2022. openGemini is a distributed time-series database open-sourced by Huawei Cloud in 2022 and now a CNCF sandbox project. It speaks the InfluxDB 1.x line protocol and InfluxQL, so Telegraf, Grafana and Influx clients work unchanged, while adding a shared-nothing cluster, columnar storage for high-cardinality data and Prometheus remote write. It targets operators who need InfluxDB 1.x compatibility at scale without InfluxDB Enterprise. Releases slowed in 2026, with release candidates but no stable release since January, so check activity before committing.

Is openGemini open source?

Yes. openGemini is open source. License: Apache License 2.0.

Does openGemini support ACID transactions?

No. openGemini does not provide ACID transactions; its consistency model is eventual.

Does openGemini scale horizontally?

openGemini scales horizontally out of the box, with built-in sharding or partitioning. It is comfortable at large scale (≤ 1 PB).

How can I run openGemini?

You can self-host it. Managed offerings include GeminiDB Influx API.

What is openGemini best for?

openGemini is a strong fit for scaling out InfluxDB 1.x workloads; operations and infrastructure metrics; and IoT telemetry with high cardinality. Think twice for teams wanting SQL.

What are the best alternatives to openGemini?

Common alternatives to openGemini include InfluxDB, VictoriaMetrics, CnosDB, TDengine and Apache IoTDB. The right choice depends on your workload, scale and hosting; WhichDB's smart match ranks them against your requirements.

How popular is openGemini?

openGemini ranks #360 of 844 databases on the WhichDB Score (6.5/100), and #22 among time-series databases. The score combines public adoption signals such as package downloads, GitHub activity, job posts and developer discussion.