Apache-2.0, a Linux Foundation project

Fast, small, open: pick three.

Vortex is an open-source columnar file format for fast scans, random access, and compression.

$ cargo add vortex

$ uv add vortex-data

$ uvx --from vortex-data vx --help

INSTALL vortex; LOAD vortex; SELECT * FROM read_vortex('data.vortex');

$ cargo add vortex-datafusion

implementation("dev.vortex:vortex-spark_2.13:0.90.0:all")

File format benchmarksbench.vortex.devread 9 Nov 2026

Benchmark	Vortex	Parquet	Lance	Arrow	vs Parquet
Scan	5.12×	1.00×	0.96×	—	5.1× faster
Write	1.95×	1.00×	0.67×	—	95% faster
ClickBench	40.13 ms	65.65 ms	578.87 ms	—	64% faster
GPU, cuDF, end to end, hot, on GH200, NDS-H SF10, Parquet the fastest of four configurations per query, from the Vortex UW–Madison talk	17.00 ms	65.88 ms	N/A	—	3.9× faster
Random access	0.75 ms	68.25 ms	2.12 ms	3.86 ms	92× faster
File size	1.23×	1×	2.12×	6.52×	23% larger

Underlined: the best in each row

Ecosystem