Qwen3 Embedding 4B vs Cohere Embed v3

Detailed comparison between Qwen3 Embedding 4B and Cohere Embed v3. See which embedding best meets your accuracy and performance needs.

Model Comparison

Qwen3 Embedding 4B takes the lead.

Both Qwen3 Embedding 4B and Cohere Embed v3 are powerful embedding models designed to improve retrieval quality in RAG applications. However, their performance characteristics differ in important ways.

Why Qwen3 Embedding 4B:

  • Qwen3 Embedding 4B delivers better accuracy (nDCG@10: 0.802 vs 0.686)

Overview

Key metrics

ELO Rating

Overall ranking quality

Qwen3 Embedding 4B

1496

Cohere Embed v3

1488

Win Rate

Head-to-head performance

Qwen3 Embedding 4B

41.1%

Cohere Embed v3

41.0%

Accuracy (nDCG@10)

Ranking quality metric

Qwen3 Embedding 4B

0.802

Cohere Embed v3

0.686

Average Latency

Response time

Qwen3 Embedding 4B

27ms

Cohere Embed 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

MetricQwen3 Embedding 4BCohere Embed v3Description
Overall Performance
ELO Rating
1496
1488
Overall ranking quality based on pairwise comparisons
Win Rate
41.1%
41.0%
Percentage of comparisons won against other models
Pricing & Availability
Price per 1M tokens
$0.020
$0.100
Cost per million tokens processed
Dimensions
2560
1024
Vector embedding dimensions (lower is more efficient)
Release Date
2025-06-06
2024-02-07
Model release date
Accuracy Metrics
Avg nDCG@10
0.802
0.686
Normalized discounted cumulative gain at position 10
Performance Metrics
Avg Latency
27ms
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

MetricQwen3 Embedding 4BCohere Embed v3Description
Accuracy Metrics
Latency Metrics
Mean
18ms
6ms
Average response time
P50
18ms
6ms
50th percentile (median)
P90
21ms
7ms
90th percentile

business reports

MetricQwen3 Embedding 4BCohere Embed v3Description
Accuracy Metrics
Latency Metrics
Mean
37ms
6ms
Average response time
P50
36ms
6ms
50th percentile (median)
P90
42ms
7ms
90th percentile

DBPedia

MetricQwen3 Embedding 4BCohere Embed v3Description
Accuracy Metrics
nDCG@5
0.603
0.634
Ranking quality at top 5 results
nDCG@10
0.595
0.619
Ranking quality at top 10 results
Recall@5
0.234
0.219
% of relevant docs in top 5
Recall@10
0.375
0.353
% of relevant docs in top 10
Latency Metrics
Mean
21ms
6ms
Average response time
P50
21ms
6ms
50th percentile (median)
P90
24ms
7ms
90th percentile

FiQa

MetricQwen3 Embedding 4BCohere Embed v3Description
Accuracy Metrics
nDCG@5
0.724
0.641
Ranking quality at top 5 results
nDCG@10
0.759
0.650
Ranking quality at top 10 results
Recall@5
0.715
0.639
% of relevant docs in top 5
Recall@10
0.835
0.678
% of relevant docs in top 10
Latency Metrics
Mean
24ms
7ms
Average response time
P50
23ms
6ms
50th percentile (median)
P90
27ms
8ms
90th percentile

SciFact

MetricQwen3 Embedding 4BCohere Embed v3Description
Accuracy Metrics
nDCG@5
0.695
0.729
Ranking quality at top 5 results
nDCG@10
0.733
0.769
Ranking quality at top 10 results
Recall@5
0.787
0.788
% of relevant docs in top 5
Recall@10
0.893
0.900
% of relevant docs in top 10
Latency Metrics
Mean
28ms
8ms
Average response time
P50
28ms
8ms
50th percentile (median)
P90
33ms
9ms
90th percentile

MSMARCO

MetricQwen3 Embedding 4BCohere Embed v3Description
Accuracy Metrics
nDCG@5
1.000
1.000
Ranking quality at top 5 results
nDCG@10
1.000
0.996
Ranking quality at top 10 results
Recall@5
0.123
0.123
% of relevant docs in top 5
Recall@10
0.224
0.218
% of relevant docs in top 10
Latency Metrics
Mean
22ms
6ms
Average response time
P50
22ms
6ms
50th percentile (median)
P90
26ms
7ms
90th percentile

NorQuAD

MetricQwen3 Embedding 4BCohere Embed v3Description
Accuracy Metrics
Latency Metrics
Mean
33ms
9ms
Average response time
P50
33ms
9ms
50th percentile (median)
P90
38ms
10ms
90th percentile

ARCD

MetricQwen3 Embedding 4BCohere Embed v3Description
Accuracy Metrics
nDCG@5
0.915
0.349
Ranking quality at top 5 results
nDCG@10
0.922
0.398
Ranking quality at top 10 results
Recall@5
0.940
0.380
% of relevant docs in top 5
Recall@10
0.960
0.520
% of relevant docs in top 10
Latency Metrics
Mean
33ms
11ms
Average response time
P50
32ms
11ms
50th percentile (median)
P90
38ms
12ms
90th percentile

Explore More

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