Qwen3 Embedding 8B vs Voyage 3.5 Lite

Detailed comparison between Qwen3 Embedding 8B and Voyage 3.5 Lite. See which embedding best meets your accuracy and performance needs.

Model Comparison

Qwen3 Embedding 8B takes the lead.

Both Qwen3 Embedding 8B 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 Qwen3 Embedding 8B:

  • Qwen3 Embedding 8B has 13 higher ELO rating
  • Qwen3 Embedding 8B delivers better accuracy (nDCG@10: 0.818 vs 0.803)
  • Voyage 3.5 Lite is 94622ms faster on average

Overview

Key metrics

ELO Rating

Overall ranking quality

Qwen3 Embedding 8B

1516

Voyage 3.5 Lite

1503

Win Rate

Head-to-head performance

Qwen3 Embedding 8B

47.9%

Voyage 3.5 Lite

44.4%

Accuracy (nDCG@10)

Ranking quality metric

Qwen3 Embedding 8B

0.818

Voyage 3.5 Lite

0.803

Average Latency

Response time

Qwen3 Embedding 8B

130758ms

Voyage 3.5 Lite

36136ms

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 8BVoyage 3.5 LiteDescription
Overall Performance
ELO Rating
1516
1503
Overall ranking quality based on pairwise comparisons
Win Rate
47.9%
44.4%
Percentage of comparisons won against other models
Pricing & Availability
Price per 1M tokens
$0.050
$0.020
Cost per million tokens processed
Release Date
2025-06-06
2025-05-20
Model release date
Accuracy Metrics
Avg nDCG@10
0.818
0.803
Normalized discounted cumulative gain at position 10
Performance Metrics
Avg Latency
130758ms
36136ms
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 8BVoyage 3.5 LiteDescription
Accuracy Metrics
Latency Metrics
Mean
151470ms
47120ms
Average response time
P50
148441ms
46178ms
50th percentile (median)
P90
174191ms
54188ms
90th percentile

business reports

MetricQwen3 Embedding 8BVoyage 3.5 LiteDescription
Accuracy Metrics
Latency Metrics
Mean
93874ms
5629ms
Average response time
P50
91997ms
5516ms
50th percentile (median)
P90
107955ms
6473ms
90th percentile

DBPedia

MetricQwen3 Embedding 8BVoyage 3.5 LiteDescription
Accuracy Metrics
nDCG@5
0.633
0.641
Ranking quality at top 5 results
nDCG@10
0.625
0.632
Ranking quality at top 10 results
Recall@5
0.235
0.219
% of relevant docs in top 5
Recall@10
0.381
0.367
% of relevant docs in top 10
Latency Metrics
Mean
200373ms
32706ms
Average response time
P50
196366ms
32052ms
50th percentile (median)
P90
230429ms
37612ms
90th percentile

FiQa

MetricQwen3 Embedding 8BVoyage 3.5 LiteDescription
Accuracy Metrics
nDCG@5
0.760
0.708
Ranking quality at top 5 results
nDCG@10
0.781
0.736
Ranking quality at top 10 results
Recall@5
0.732
0.687
% of relevant docs in top 5
Recall@10
0.814
0.780
% of relevant docs in top 10
Latency Metrics
Mean
189471ms
85143ms
Average response time
P50
185682ms
83440ms
50th percentile (median)
P90
217892ms
97914ms
90th percentile

SciFact

MetricQwen3 Embedding 8BVoyage 3.5 LiteDescription
Accuracy Metrics
nDCG@5
0.750
0.670
Ranking quality at top 5 results
nDCG@10
0.765
0.719
Ranking quality at top 10 results
Recall@5
0.843
0.718
% of relevant docs in top 5
Recall@10
0.883
0.843
% of relevant docs in top 10
Latency Metrics
Mean
200031ms
58245ms
Average response time
P50
196030ms
57080ms
50th percentile (median)
P90
230036ms
66982ms
90th percentile

MSMARCO

MetricQwen3 Embedding 8BVoyage 3.5 LiteDescription
Accuracy Metrics
nDCG@5
1.000
0.994
Ranking quality at top 5 results
nDCG@10
1.000
0.995
Ranking quality at top 10 results
Recall@5
0.123
0.122
% of relevant docs in top 5
Recall@10
0.224
0.222
% of relevant docs in top 10
Latency Metrics
Mean
180144ms
49482ms
Average response time
P50
176541ms
48492ms
50th percentile (median)
P90
207166ms
56904ms
90th percentile

NorQuAD

MetricQwen3 Embedding 8BVoyage 3.5 LiteDescription
Accuracy Metrics
Latency Metrics
Mean
18544ms
7081ms
Average response time
P50
18173ms
6939ms
50th percentile (median)
P90
21326ms
8143ms
90th percentile

ARCD

MetricQwen3 Embedding 8BVoyage 3.5 LiteDescription
Accuracy Metrics
nDCG@5
0.913
0.928
Ranking quality at top 5 results
nDCG@10
0.919
0.935
Ranking quality at top 10 results
Recall@5
0.920
0.960
% of relevant docs in top 5
Recall@10
0.940
0.980
% of relevant docs in top 10
Latency Metrics
Mean
12156ms
3679ms
Average response time
P50
11913ms
3605ms
50th percentile (median)
P90
13979ms
4231ms
90th percentile

Explore More

Compare more embeddings

See how all embedding models stack up. Compare OpenAI, Cohere, Jina AI, Voyage, and more. View comprehensive benchmarks, compare performance metrics, and find the perfect embedding for your RAG application.