Qwen3 Embedding 4B vs Qwen3 Embedding 0.6B

Detailed comparison between Qwen3 Embedding 4B and Qwen3 Embedding 0.6B. See which embedding best meets your accuracy and performance needs.

Model Comparison

Qwen3 Embedding 4B takes the lead.

Both Qwen3 Embedding 4B 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 Qwen3 Embedding 4B:

  • Qwen3 Embedding 4B has 17 higher ELO rating
  • Qwen3 Embedding 4B delivers better accuracy (nDCG@10: 0.802 vs 0.751)

Overview

Key metrics

ELO Rating

Overall ranking quality

Qwen3 Embedding 4B

1496

Qwen3 Embedding 0.6B

1478

Win Rate

Head-to-head performance

Qwen3 Embedding 4B

41.1%

Qwen3 Embedding 0.6B

37.3%

Accuracy (nDCG@10)

Ranking quality metric

Qwen3 Embedding 4B

0.802

Qwen3 Embedding 0.6B

0.751

Average Latency

Response time

Qwen3 Embedding 4B

27ms

Qwen3 Embedding 0.6B

22ms

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 4BQwen3 Embedding 0.6BDescription
Overall Performance
ELO Rating
1496
1478
Overall ranking quality based on pairwise comparisons
Win Rate
41.1%
37.3%
Percentage of comparisons won against other models
Pricing & Availability
Price per 1M tokens
$0.020
$0.010
Cost per million tokens processed
Dimensions
2560
1024
Vector embedding dimensions (lower is more efficient)
Release Date
2025-06-06
2025-06-06
Model release date
Accuracy Metrics
Avg nDCG@10
0.802
0.751
Normalized discounted cumulative gain at position 10
Performance Metrics
Avg Latency
27ms
22ms
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 4BQwen3 Embedding 0.6BDescription
Accuracy Metrics
Latency Metrics
Mean
18ms
13ms
Average response time
P50
18ms
13ms
50th percentile (median)
P90
21ms
15ms
90th percentile

business reports

MetricQwen3 Embedding 4BQwen3 Embedding 0.6BDescription
Accuracy Metrics
Latency Metrics
Mean
37ms
22ms
Average response time
P50
36ms
21ms
50th percentile (median)
P90
42ms
25ms
90th percentile

DBPedia

MetricQwen3 Embedding 4BQwen3 Embedding 0.6BDescription
Accuracy Metrics
nDCG@5
0.603
0.549
Ranking quality at top 5 results
nDCG@10
0.595
0.556
Ranking quality at top 10 results
Recall@5
0.234
0.216
% of relevant docs in top 5
Recall@10
0.375
0.350
% of relevant docs in top 10
Latency Metrics
Mean
21ms
13ms
Average response time
P50
21ms
13ms
50th percentile (median)
P90
24ms
15ms
90th percentile

FiQa

MetricQwen3 Embedding 4BQwen3 Embedding 0.6BDescription
Accuracy Metrics
nDCG@5
0.724
0.620
Ranking quality at top 5 results
nDCG@10
0.759
0.647
Ranking quality at top 10 results
Recall@5
0.715
0.590
% of relevant docs in top 5
Recall@10
0.835
0.680
% of relevant docs in top 10
Latency Metrics
Mean
24ms
42ms
Average response time
P50
23ms
41ms
50th percentile (median)
P90
27ms
49ms
90th percentile

SciFact

MetricQwen3 Embedding 4BQwen3 Embedding 0.6BDescription
Accuracy Metrics
nDCG@5
0.695
0.666
Ranking quality at top 5 results
nDCG@10
0.733
0.686
Ranking quality at top 10 results
Recall@5
0.787
0.723
% of relevant docs in top 5
Recall@10
0.893
0.783
% of relevant docs in top 10
Latency Metrics
Mean
28ms
20ms
Average response time
P50
28ms
19ms
50th percentile (median)
P90
33ms
23ms
90th percentile

MSMARCO

MetricQwen3 Embedding 4BQwen3 Embedding 0.6BDescription
Accuracy Metrics
nDCG@5
1.000
0.997
Ranking quality at top 5 results
nDCG@10
1.000
0.992
Ranking quality at top 10 results
Recall@5
0.123
0.122
% of relevant docs in top 5
Recall@10
0.224
0.215
% of relevant docs in top 10
Latency Metrics
Mean
22ms
13ms
Average response time
P50
22ms
13ms
50th percentile (median)
P90
26ms
15ms
90th percentile

NorQuAD

MetricQwen3 Embedding 4BQwen3 Embedding 0.6BDescription
Accuracy Metrics
Latency Metrics
Mean
33ms
32ms
Average response time
P50
33ms
31ms
50th percentile (median)
P90
38ms
36ms
90th percentile

ARCD

MetricQwen3 Embedding 4BQwen3 Embedding 0.6BDescription
Accuracy Metrics
nDCG@5
0.915
0.865
Ranking quality at top 5 results
nDCG@10
0.922
0.872
Ranking quality at top 10 results
Recall@5
0.940
0.880
% of relevant docs in top 5
Recall@10
0.960
0.900
% of relevant docs in top 10
Latency Metrics
Mean
33ms
23ms
Average response time
P50
32ms
23ms
50th percentile (median)
P90
38ms
27ms
90th percentile

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