BAAI/bge-m3 vs Qwen3 Embedding 0.6B

Detailed comparison between BAAI/bge-m3 and Qwen3 Embedding 0.6B. See which embedding best meets your accuracy and performance needs.

Model Comparison

BAAI/bge-m3 takes the lead.

Both BAAI/bge-m3 and Qwen3 Embedding 0.6B are powerful embedding models designed to improve retrieval quality in RAG applications. However, their performance characteristics differ in important ways.

Why BAAI/bge-m3:

  • BAAI/bge-m3 has 12 higher ELO rating
  • Qwen3 Embedding 0.6B is 10812ms faster on average

Overview

Key metrics

ELO Rating

Overall ranking quality

BAAI/bge-m3

1491

Qwen3 Embedding 0.6B

1478

Win Rate

Head-to-head performance

BAAI/bge-m3

40.9%

Qwen3 Embedding 0.6B

37.3%

Accuracy (nDCG@10)

Ranking quality metric

BAAI/bge-m3

0.753

Qwen3 Embedding 0.6B

0.751

Average Latency

Response time

BAAI/bge-m3

80874ms

Qwen3 Embedding 0.6B

70062ms

Visual Performance Analysis

Performance

ELO Rating Comparison

Win/Loss/Tie Breakdown

Accuracy Across Datasets (nDCG@10)

Latency Distribution (ms)

Breakdown

How the models stack up

MetricBAAI/bge-m3Qwen3 Embedding 0.6BDescription
Overall Performance
ELO Rating
1491
1478
Overall ranking quality based on pairwise comparisons
Win Rate
40.9%
37.3%
Percentage of comparisons won against other models
Pricing & Availability
Price per 1M tokens
$0.010
$0.010
Cost per million tokens processed
Release Date
2024-01-27
2025-06-06
Model release date
Accuracy Metrics
Avg nDCG@10
0.753
0.751
Normalized discounted cumulative gain at position 10
Performance Metrics
Avg Latency
80874ms
70062ms
Average response time across all datasets

Dataset Performance

By field

Comprehensive comparison of accuracy metrics (nDCG, Recall) and latency percentiles for each benchmark dataset.

PG

MetricBAAI/bge-m3Qwen3 Embedding 0.6BDescription
Accuracy Metrics
Latency Metrics
Mean
96375ms
77697ms
Average response time
P50
94448ms
76143ms
50th percentile (median)
P90
110831ms
89352ms
90th percentile

business reports

MetricBAAI/bge-m3Qwen3 Embedding 0.6BDescription
Accuracy Metrics
Latency Metrics
Mean
24163ms
15599ms
Average response time
P50
23680ms
15287ms
50th percentile (median)
P90
27787ms
17939ms
90th percentile

DBPedia

MetricBAAI/bge-m3Qwen3 Embedding 0.6BDescription
Accuracy Metrics
nDCG@5
0.625
0.549
Ranking quality at top 5 results
nDCG@10
0.603
0.556
Ranking quality at top 10 results
Recall@5
0.236
0.216
% of relevant docs in top 5
Recall@10
0.341
0.350
% of relevant docs in top 10
Latency Metrics
Mean
86619ms
67654ms
Average response time
P50
84887ms
66301ms
50th percentile (median)
P90
99612ms
77802ms
90th percentile

FiQa

MetricBAAI/bge-m3Qwen3 Embedding 0.6BDescription
Accuracy Metrics
nDCG@5
0.597
0.620
Ranking quality at top 5 results
nDCG@10
0.609
0.647
Ranking quality at top 10 results
Recall@5
0.607
0.590
% of relevant docs in top 5
Recall@10
0.666
0.680
% of relevant docs in top 10
Latency Metrics
Mean
159871ms
212205ms
Average response time
P50
156674ms
207961ms
50th percentile (median)
P90
183852ms
244036ms
90th percentile

SciFact

MetricBAAI/bge-m3Qwen3 Embedding 0.6BDescription
Accuracy Metrics
nDCG@5
0.578
0.666
Ranking quality at top 5 results
nDCG@10
0.617
0.686
Ranking quality at top 10 results
Recall@5
0.652
0.723
% of relevant docs in top 5
Recall@10
0.763
0.783
% of relevant docs in top 10
Latency Metrics
Mean
154804ms
102019ms
Average response time
P50
151708ms
99979ms
50th percentile (median)
P90
178025ms
117322ms
90th percentile

MSMARCO

MetricBAAI/bge-m3Qwen3 Embedding 0.6BDescription
Accuracy Metrics
nDCG@5
0.997
0.997
Ranking quality at top 5 results
nDCG@10
0.997
0.992
Ranking quality at top 10 results
Recall@5
0.122
0.122
% of relevant docs in top 5
Recall@10
0.220
0.215
% of relevant docs in top 10
Latency Metrics
Mean
96153ms
65717ms
Average response time
P50
94230ms
64403ms
50th percentile (median)
P90
110576ms
75575ms
90th percentile

NorQuAD

MetricBAAI/bge-m3Qwen3 Embedding 0.6BDescription
Accuracy Metrics
Latency Metrics
Mean
16285ms
12763ms
Average response time
P50
15959ms
12508ms
50th percentile (median)
P90
18728ms
14677ms
90th percentile

ARCD

MetricBAAI/bge-m3Qwen3 Embedding 0.6BDescription
Accuracy Metrics
nDCG@5
0.941
0.865
Ranking quality at top 5 results
nDCG@10
0.941
0.872
Ranking quality at top 10 results
Recall@5
0.960
0.880
% of relevant docs in top 5
Recall@10
0.960
0.900
% of relevant docs in top 10
Latency Metrics
Mean
12723ms
6841ms
Average response time
P50
12469ms
6704ms
50th percentile (median)
P90
14631ms
7867ms
90th percentile

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