Migrate Between Qdrant Instances

Use the qdrant subcommand to copy a collection from one Qdrant instance to another — or between collections within the same instance. The tool automatically recreates the full collection schema (vector config, HNSW settings, quantization, sharding) on the target.

What You Need

• Source Qdrant URL — gRPC endpoint of the source instance
• Target Qdrant URL — gRPC endpoint of the target instance
• Source collection name
• Target collection name (must be different from source if using the same instance)
• API keys — for each instance, if authentication is enabled

Concept Mapping

Run the Migration

Between Two Instances

docker run --net=host --rm -it registry.cloud.qdrant.io/library/qdrant-migration qdrant \
    --source.url 'http://source-instance:6334' \
    --source.api-key 'source-api-key' \
    --source.collection 'your-collection' \
    --target.url 'https://your-instance.cloud.qdrant.io:6334' \
    --target.api-key 'your-qdrant-api-key' \
    --target.collection 'your-collection'

Within the Same Instance

docker run --net=host --rm -it registry.cloud.qdrant.io/library/qdrant-migration qdrant \
    --source.url 'http://localhost:6334' \
    --source.collection 'original-collection' \
    --target.url 'http://localhost:6334' \
    --target.collection 'new-collection'

With Parallel Workers

docker run --net=host --rm -it registry.cloud.qdrant.io/library/qdrant-migration qdrant \
    --source.url 'http://source-instance:6334' \
    --source.api-key 'source-api-key' \
    --source.collection 'your-collection' \
    --target.url 'https://your-instance.cloud.qdrant.io:6334' \
    --target.api-key 'your-qdrant-api-key' \
    --target.collection 'your-collection' \
    --migration.num-workers 4

All Source Flags

All Target Flags

Parallel Worker Option

Gotchas

• Source and target must differ: You cannot migrate a collection to itself.
• Parallel workers and resume: Migration progress is tracked per worker. If you change --migration.num-workers between runs, the saved offsets are invalidated and the migration restarts from scratch. Use --migration.restart explicitly if you intentionally want to change the worker count.
• Large messages: If you encounter gRPC message size errors, increase --source.max-message-size.
• Existing target collection: If the target collection already exists, the tool uses it as-is without modifying the schema.

Next Steps

After migration, verify your data arrived correctly with the Migration Verification Guide.