Definition
Embeddings
Numeric vectors that represent the meaning of text, so that similar meanings end up close together and can be found with vector search.
An embedding model turns a piece of text into a list of numbers. Texts with similar meaning produce vectors that are close to each other, which is what makes semantic search possible.
Choosing an embedding model involves trade-offs between quality, language support, vector size (which drives storage cost) and whether the model can run in your own environment. Re-embedding a large corpus is expensive, so the choice is worth evaluating up front.
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