OpenAI text-embedding-3-small vs Cohere Embed Multilingual v3

Detailed comparison between OpenAI text-embedding-3-small and Cohere Embed Multilingual v3. See which embedding best meets your accuracy and performance needs.

Model Comparison

Cohere Embed Multilingual v3 takes the lead.

Both OpenAI text-embedding-3-small and Cohere Embed Multilingual v3 are powerful embedding models designed to improve retrieval quality in RAG applications. However, their performance characteristics differ in important ways.

Why Cohere Embed Multilingual v3:

  • Cohere Embed Multilingual v3 delivers better accuracy (nDCG@10: 0.781 vs 0.762)

Overview

Key metrics

ELO Rating

Overall ranking quality

OpenAI text-embedding-3-small

1503

Cohere Embed Multilingual v3

1501

Win Rate

Head-to-head performance

OpenAI text-embedding-3-small

44.6%

Cohere Embed Multilingual v3

42.9%

Accuracy (nDCG@10)

Ranking quality metric

OpenAI text-embedding-3-small

0.762

Cohere Embed Multilingual v3

0.781

Average Latency

Response time

OpenAI text-embedding-3-small

10ms

Cohere Embed Multilingual v3

7ms

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

MetricOpenAI text-embedding-3-smallCohere Embed Multilingual v3Description
Overall Performance
ELO Rating
1503
1501
Overall ranking quality based on pairwise comparisons
Win Rate
44.6%
42.9%
Percentage of comparisons won against other models
Pricing & Availability
Price per 1M tokens
$0.020
$0.100
Cost per million tokens processed
Dimensions
1536
512
Vector embedding dimensions (lower is more efficient)
Release Date
2024-01-25
2024-02-07
Model release date
Accuracy Metrics
Avg nDCG@10
0.762
0.781
Normalized discounted cumulative gain at position 10
Performance Metrics
Avg Latency
10ms
7ms
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

MetricOpenAI text-embedding-3-smallCohere Embed Multilingual v3Description
Accuracy Metrics
Latency Metrics
Mean
9ms
6ms
Average response time
P50
9ms
6ms
50th percentile (median)
P90
11ms
7ms
90th percentile

business reports

MetricOpenAI text-embedding-3-smallCohere Embed Multilingual v3Description
Accuracy Metrics
Latency Metrics
Mean
7ms
7ms
Average response time
P50
7ms
7ms
50th percentile (median)
P90
8ms
8ms
90th percentile

DBPedia

MetricOpenAI text-embedding-3-smallCohere Embed Multilingual v3Description
Accuracy Metrics
nDCG@5
0.605
0.619
Ranking quality at top 5 results
nDCG@10
0.604
0.591
Ranking quality at top 10 results
Recall@5
0.230
0.222
% of relevant docs in top 5
Recall@10
0.365
0.329
% of relevant docs in top 10
Latency Metrics
Mean
7ms
7ms
Average response time
P50
7ms
7ms
50th percentile (median)
P90
8ms
8ms
90th percentile

FiQa

MetricOpenAI text-embedding-3-smallCohere Embed Multilingual v3Description
Accuracy Metrics
nDCG@5
0.635
0.637
Ranking quality at top 5 results
nDCG@10
0.647
0.654
Ranking quality at top 10 results
Recall@5
0.623
0.621
% of relevant docs in top 5
Recall@10
0.681
0.692
% of relevant docs in top 10
Latency Metrics
Mean
8ms
7ms
Average response time
P50
8ms
7ms
50th percentile (median)
P90
9ms
9ms
90th percentile

SciFact

MetricOpenAI text-embedding-3-smallCohere Embed Multilingual v3Description
Accuracy Metrics
nDCG@5
0.682
0.723
Ranking quality at top 5 results
nDCG@10
0.707
0.732
Ranking quality at top 10 results
Recall@5
0.778
0.808
% of relevant docs in top 5
Recall@10
0.843
0.833
% of relevant docs in top 10
Latency Metrics
Mean
11ms
8ms
Average response time
P50
11ms
8ms
50th percentile (median)
P90
13ms
9ms
90th percentile

MSMARCO

MetricOpenAI text-embedding-3-smallCohere Embed Multilingual v3Description
Accuracy Metrics
nDCG@5
0.997
0.996
Ranking quality at top 5 results
nDCG@10
0.990
0.994
Ranking quality at top 10 results
Recall@5
0.122
0.122
% of relevant docs in top 5
Recall@10
0.213
0.218
% of relevant docs in top 10
Latency Metrics
Mean
7ms
6ms
Average response time
P50
7ms
6ms
50th percentile (median)
P90
8ms
7ms
90th percentile

NorQuAD

MetricOpenAI text-embedding-3-smallCohere Embed Multilingual v3Description
Accuracy Metrics
Latency Metrics
Mean
16ms
10ms
Average response time
P50
15ms
9ms
50th percentile (median)
P90
18ms
11ms
90th percentile

ARCD

MetricOpenAI text-embedding-3-smallCohere Embed Multilingual v3Description
Accuracy Metrics
nDCG@5
0.855
0.925
Ranking quality at top 5 results
nDCG@10
0.862
0.933
Ranking quality at top 10 results
Recall@5
0.900
0.940
% of relevant docs in top 5
Recall@10
0.920
0.960
% of relevant docs in top 10
Latency Metrics
Mean
11ms
8ms
Average response time
P50
10ms
7ms
50th percentile (median)
P90
12ms
9ms
90th percentile

Explore More

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