OpenAI text-embedding-3-small vs Voyage 3.5 Lite
Detailed comparison between OpenAI text-embedding-3-small and Voyage 3.5 Lite. See which embedding best meets your accuracy and performance needs.
Model Comparison
Voyage 3.5 Lite takes the lead.
Both OpenAI text-embedding-3-small and Voyage 3.5 Lite are powerful embedding models designed to improve retrieval quality in RAG applications. However, their performance characteristics differ in important ways.
Why Voyage 3.5 Lite:
- Voyage 3.5 Lite delivers better accuracy (nDCG@10: 0.803 vs 0.762)
Overview
Key metrics
ELO Rating
Overall ranking quality
OpenAI text-embedding-3-small
Voyage 3.5 Lite
Win Rate
Head-to-head performance
OpenAI text-embedding-3-small
Voyage 3.5 Lite
Accuracy (nDCG@10)
Ranking quality metric
OpenAI text-embedding-3-small
Voyage 3.5 Lite
Average Latency
Response time
OpenAI text-embedding-3-small
Voyage 3.5 Lite
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
| Metric | OpenAI text-embedding-3-small | Voyage 3.5 Lite | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall Performance | |||
| ELO Rating | 1503 | 1503 | Overall ranking quality based on pairwise comparisons |
| Win Rate | 44.6% | 44.4% | Percentage of comparisons won against other models |
| Pricing & Availability | |||
| Price per 1M tokens | $0.020 | $0.020 | Cost per million tokens processed |
| Dimensions | 1536 | 512 | Vector embedding dimensions (lower is more efficient) |
| Release Date | 2024-01-25 | 2025-05-20 | Model release date |
| Accuracy Metrics | |||
| Avg nDCG@10 | 0.762 | 0.803 | Normalized discounted cumulative gain at position 10 |
| Performance Metrics | |||
| Avg Latency | 10ms | 11ms | 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
| Metric | OpenAI text-embedding-3-small | Voyage 3.5 Lite | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accuracy Metrics | |||
| Latency Metrics | |||
| Mean | 9ms | 8ms | Average response time |
| P50 | 9ms | 8ms | 50th percentile (median) |
| P90 | 11ms | 9ms | 90th percentile |
business reports
| Metric | OpenAI text-embedding-3-small | Voyage 3.5 Lite | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accuracy Metrics | |||
| Latency Metrics | |||
| Mean | 7ms | 7ms | Average response time |
| P50 | 7ms | 7ms | 50th percentile (median) |
| P90 | 8ms | 8ms | 90th percentile |
DBPedia
| Metric | OpenAI text-embedding-3-small | Voyage 3.5 Lite | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accuracy Metrics | |||
| nDCG@5 | 0.605 | 0.641 | Ranking quality at top 5 results |
| nDCG@10 | 0.604 | 0.632 | Ranking quality at top 10 results |
| Recall@5 | 0.230 | 0.219 | % of relevant docs in top 5 |
| Recall@10 | 0.365 | 0.367 | % 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 |
FiQa
| Metric | OpenAI text-embedding-3-small | Voyage 3.5 Lite | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accuracy Metrics | |||
| nDCG@5 | 0.635 | 0.708 | Ranking quality at top 5 results |
| nDCG@10 | 0.647 | 0.736 | Ranking quality at top 10 results |
| Recall@5 | 0.623 | 0.687 | % of relevant docs in top 5 |
| Recall@10 | 0.681 | 0.780 | % of relevant docs in top 10 |
| Latency Metrics | |||
| Mean | 8ms | 16ms | Average response time |
| P50 | 8ms | 16ms | 50th percentile (median) |
| P90 | 9ms | 19ms | 90th percentile |
SciFact
| Metric | OpenAI text-embedding-3-small | Voyage 3.5 Lite | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accuracy Metrics | |||
| nDCG@5 | 0.682 | 0.670 | Ranking quality at top 5 results |
| nDCG@10 | 0.707 | 0.719 | Ranking quality at top 10 results |
| Recall@5 | 0.778 | 0.718 | % of relevant docs in top 5 |
| Recall@10 | 0.843 | 0.843 | % of relevant docs in top 10 |
| Latency Metrics | |||
| Mean | 11ms | 12ms | Average response time |
| P50 | 11ms | 11ms | 50th percentile (median) |
| P90 | 13ms | 13ms | 90th percentile |
MSMARCO
| Metric | OpenAI text-embedding-3-small | Voyage 3.5 Lite | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accuracy Metrics | |||
| nDCG@5 | 0.997 | 0.994 | Ranking quality at top 5 results |
| nDCG@10 | 0.990 | 0.995 | Ranking quality at top 10 results |
| Recall@5 | 0.122 | 0.122 | % of relevant docs in top 5 |
| Recall@10 | 0.213 | 0.222 | % of relevant docs in top 10 |
| Latency Metrics | |||
| Mean | 7ms | 10ms | Average response time |
| P50 | 7ms | 10ms | 50th percentile (median) |
| P90 | 8ms | 11ms | 90th percentile |
NorQuAD
| Metric | OpenAI text-embedding-3-small | Voyage 3.5 Lite | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accuracy Metrics | |||
| Latency Metrics | |||
| Mean | 16ms | 18ms | Average response time |
| P50 | 15ms | 18ms | 50th percentile (median) |
| P90 | 18ms | 21ms | 90th percentile |
ARCD
| Metric | OpenAI text-embedding-3-small | Voyage 3.5 Lite | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accuracy Metrics | |||
| nDCG@5 | 0.855 | 0.928 | Ranking quality at top 5 results |
| nDCG@10 | 0.862 | 0.935 | Ranking quality at top 10 results |
| Recall@5 | 0.900 | 0.960 | % of relevant docs in top 5 |
| Recall@10 | 0.920 | 0.980 | % of relevant docs in top 10 |
| Latency Metrics | |||
| Mean | 11ms | 13ms | Average response time |
| P50 | 10ms | 13ms | 50th percentile (median) |
| P90 | 12ms | 15ms | 90th percentile |
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