Qwen3 Embedding 8B vs Qwen3 Embedding 0.6B

Detailed comparison between Qwen3 Embedding 8B and Qwen3 Embedding 0.6B. See which embedding best meets your accuracy and performance needs.

Model Comparison

Qwen3 Embedding 8B takes the lead.

Both Qwen3 Embedding 8B 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 8B:

  • Qwen3 Embedding 8B has 37 higher ELO rating
  • Qwen3 Embedding 8B delivers better accuracy (nDCG@10: 0.818 vs 0.751)
  • Qwen3 Embedding 0.6B is 60696ms faster on average
  • Qwen3 Embedding 8B has a 10.7% higher win rate

Overview

Key metrics

ELO Rating

Overall ranking quality

Qwen3 Embedding 8B

1516

Qwen3 Embedding 0.6B

1478

Win Rate

Head-to-head performance

Qwen3 Embedding 8B

47.9%

Qwen3 Embedding 0.6B

37.3%

Accuracy (nDCG@10)

Ranking quality metric

Qwen3 Embedding 8B

0.818

Qwen3 Embedding 0.6B

0.751

Average Latency

Response time

Qwen3 Embedding 8B

130758ms

Qwen3 Embedding 0.6B

70062ms

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 8BQwen3 Embedding 0.6BDescription
Overall Performance
ELO Rating
1516
1478
Overall ranking quality based on pairwise comparisons
Win Rate
47.9%
37.3%
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
2025-06-06
Model release date
Accuracy Metrics
Avg nDCG@10
0.818
0.751
Normalized discounted cumulative gain at position 10
Performance Metrics
Avg Latency
130758ms
70062ms
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 8BQwen3 Embedding 0.6BDescription
Accuracy Metrics
Latency Metrics
Mean
151470ms
77697ms
Average response time
P50
148441ms
76143ms
50th percentile (median)
P90
174191ms
89352ms
90th percentile

business reports

MetricQwen3 Embedding 8BQwen3 Embedding 0.6BDescription
Accuracy Metrics
Latency Metrics
Mean
93874ms
15599ms
Average response time
P50
91997ms
15287ms
50th percentile (median)
P90
107955ms
17939ms
90th percentile

DBPedia

MetricQwen3 Embedding 8BQwen3 Embedding 0.6BDescription
Accuracy Metrics
nDCG@5
0.633
0.549
Ranking quality at top 5 results
nDCG@10
0.625
0.556
Ranking quality at top 10 results
Recall@5
0.235
0.216
% of relevant docs in top 5
Recall@10
0.381
0.350
% of relevant docs in top 10
Latency Metrics
Mean
200373ms
67654ms
Average response time
P50
196366ms
66301ms
50th percentile (median)
P90
230429ms
77802ms
90th percentile

FiQa

MetricQwen3 Embedding 8BQwen3 Embedding 0.6BDescription
Accuracy Metrics
nDCG@5
0.760
0.620
Ranking quality at top 5 results
nDCG@10
0.781
0.647
Ranking quality at top 10 results
Recall@5
0.732
0.590
% of relevant docs in top 5
Recall@10
0.814
0.680
% of relevant docs in top 10
Latency Metrics
Mean
189471ms
212205ms
Average response time
P50
185682ms
207961ms
50th percentile (median)
P90
217892ms
244036ms
90th percentile

SciFact

MetricQwen3 Embedding 8BQwen3 Embedding 0.6BDescription
Accuracy Metrics
nDCG@5
0.750
0.666
Ranking quality at top 5 results
nDCG@10
0.765
0.686
Ranking quality at top 10 results
Recall@5
0.843
0.723
% of relevant docs in top 5
Recall@10
0.883
0.783
% of relevant docs in top 10
Latency Metrics
Mean
200031ms
102019ms
Average response time
P50
196030ms
99979ms
50th percentile (median)
P90
230036ms
117322ms
90th percentile

MSMARCO

MetricQwen3 Embedding 8BQwen3 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
180144ms
65717ms
Average response time
P50
176541ms
64403ms
50th percentile (median)
P90
207166ms
75575ms
90th percentile

NorQuAD

MetricQwen3 Embedding 8BQwen3 Embedding 0.6BDescription
Accuracy Metrics
Latency Metrics
Mean
18544ms
12763ms
Average response time
P50
18173ms
12508ms
50th percentile (median)
P90
21326ms
14677ms
90th percentile

ARCD

MetricQwen3 Embedding 8BQwen3 Embedding 0.6BDescription
Accuracy Metrics
nDCG@5
0.913
0.865
Ranking quality at top 5 results
nDCG@10
0.919
0.872
Ranking quality at top 10 results
Recall@5
0.920
0.880
% of relevant docs in top 5
Recall@10
0.940
0.900
% of relevant docs in top 10
Latency Metrics
Mean
12156ms
6841ms
Average response time
P50
11913ms
6704ms
50th percentile (median)
P90
13979ms
7867ms
90th percentile

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