Qwen3 Embedding 8B vs BAAI/bge-m3
Detailed comparison between Qwen3 Embedding 8B and BAAI/bge-m3. See which embedding best meets your accuracy and performance needs.
Model Comparison
Qwen3 Embedding 8B takes the lead.
Both Qwen3 Embedding 8B and BAAI/bge-m3 are powerful embedding models designed to improve retrieval quality in RAG applications. However, their performance characteristics differ in important ways.
Why Qwen3 Embedding 8B:
- Qwen3 Embedding 8B has 25 higher ELO rating
- Qwen3 Embedding 8B delivers better accuracy (nDCG@10: 0.818 vs 0.753)
- BAAI/bge-m3 is 49884ms faster on average
- Qwen3 Embedding 8B has a 7.1% higher win rate
Overview
Key metrics
ELO Rating
Overall ranking quality
Qwen3 Embedding 8B
BAAI/bge-m3
Win Rate
Head-to-head performance
Qwen3 Embedding 8B
BAAI/bge-m3
Accuracy (nDCG@10)
Ranking quality metric
Qwen3 Embedding 8B
BAAI/bge-m3
Average Latency
Response time
Qwen3 Embedding 8B
BAAI/bge-m3
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 | Qwen3 Embedding 8B | BAAI/bge-m3 | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall Performance | |||
| ELO Rating | 1516 | 1491 | Overall ranking quality based on pairwise comparisons |
| Win Rate | 47.9% | 40.9% | Percentage of comparisons won against other models |
| Pricing & Availability | |||
| Price per 1M tokens | $0.050 | $0.010 | Cost per million tokens processed |
| Release Date | 2025-06-06 | 2024-01-27 | Model release date |
| Accuracy Metrics | |||
| Avg nDCG@10 | 0.818 | 0.753 | Normalized discounted cumulative gain at position 10 |
| Performance Metrics | |||
| Avg Latency | 130758ms | 80874ms | 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 | Qwen3 Embedding 8B | BAAI/bge-m3 | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accuracy Metrics | |||
| Latency Metrics | |||
| Mean | 151470ms | 96375ms | Average response time |
| P50 | 148441ms | 94448ms | 50th percentile (median) |
| P90 | 174191ms | 110831ms | 90th percentile |
business reports
| Metric | Qwen3 Embedding 8B | BAAI/bge-m3 | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accuracy Metrics | |||
| Latency Metrics | |||
| Mean | 93874ms | 24163ms | Average response time |
| P50 | 91997ms | 23680ms | 50th percentile (median) |
| P90 | 107955ms | 27787ms | 90th percentile |
DBPedia
| Metric | Qwen3 Embedding 8B | BAAI/bge-m3 | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accuracy Metrics | |||
| nDCG@5 | 0.633 | 0.625 | Ranking quality at top 5 results |
| nDCG@10 | 0.625 | 0.603 | Ranking quality at top 10 results |
| Recall@5 | 0.235 | 0.236 | % of relevant docs in top 5 |
| Recall@10 | 0.381 | 0.341 | % of relevant docs in top 10 |
| Latency Metrics | |||
| Mean | 200373ms | 86619ms | Average response time |
| P50 | 196366ms | 84887ms | 50th percentile (median) |
| P90 | 230429ms | 99612ms | 90th percentile |
FiQa
| Metric | Qwen3 Embedding 8B | BAAI/bge-m3 | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accuracy Metrics | |||
| nDCG@5 | 0.760 | 0.597 | Ranking quality at top 5 results |
| nDCG@10 | 0.781 | 0.609 | Ranking quality at top 10 results |
| Recall@5 | 0.732 | 0.607 | % of relevant docs in top 5 |
| Recall@10 | 0.814 | 0.666 | % of relevant docs in top 10 |
| Latency Metrics | |||
| Mean | 189471ms | 159871ms | Average response time |
| P50 | 185682ms | 156674ms | 50th percentile (median) |
| P90 | 217892ms | 183852ms | 90th percentile |
SciFact
| Metric | Qwen3 Embedding 8B | BAAI/bge-m3 | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accuracy Metrics | |||
| nDCG@5 | 0.750 | 0.578 | Ranking quality at top 5 results |
| nDCG@10 | 0.765 | 0.617 | Ranking quality at top 10 results |
| Recall@5 | 0.843 | 0.652 | % of relevant docs in top 5 |
| Recall@10 | 0.883 | 0.763 | % of relevant docs in top 10 |
| Latency Metrics | |||
| Mean | 200031ms | 154804ms | Average response time |
| P50 | 196030ms | 151708ms | 50th percentile (median) |
| P90 | 230036ms | 178025ms | 90th percentile |
MSMARCO
| Metric | Qwen3 Embedding 8B | BAAI/bge-m3 | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accuracy Metrics | |||
| nDCG@5 | 1.000 | 0.997 | Ranking quality at top 5 results |
| nDCG@10 | 1.000 | 0.997 | Ranking quality at top 10 results |
| Recall@5 | 0.123 | 0.122 | % of relevant docs in top 5 |
| Recall@10 | 0.224 | 0.220 | % of relevant docs in top 10 |
| Latency Metrics | |||
| Mean | 180144ms | 96153ms | Average response time |
| P50 | 176541ms | 94230ms | 50th percentile (median) |
| P90 | 207166ms | 110576ms | 90th percentile |
NorQuAD
| Metric | Qwen3 Embedding 8B | BAAI/bge-m3 | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accuracy Metrics | |||
| Latency Metrics | |||
| Mean | 18544ms | 16285ms | Average response time |
| P50 | 18173ms | 15959ms | 50th percentile (median) |
| P90 | 21326ms | 18728ms | 90th percentile |
ARCD
| Metric | Qwen3 Embedding 8B | BAAI/bge-m3 | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accuracy Metrics | |||
| nDCG@5 | 0.913 | 0.941 | Ranking quality at top 5 results |
| nDCG@10 | 0.919 | 0.941 | Ranking quality at top 10 results |
| Recall@5 | 0.920 | 0.960 | % of relevant docs in top 5 |
| Recall@10 | 0.940 | 0.960 | % of relevant docs in top 10 |
| Latency Metrics | |||
| Mean | 12156ms | 12723ms | Average response time |
| P50 | 11913ms | 12469ms | 50th percentile (median) |
| P90 | 13979ms | 14631ms | 90th percentile |
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