What are embeddings?

By the Variask team · Updated

Definition

An embedding is a list of numbers that captures the meaning of a piece of text, so that texts with similar meaning get similar numbers. AI systems use embeddings to find, group and compare content.

Also called Vector embeddings, Text embeddings

How embeddings work

An embedding model reads a sentence, paragraph or page and outputs a vector, often hundreds or thousands of numbers long. Texts about the same idea end up close together in that space, even when they share no words. That closeness is what vector search uses to retrieve relevant passages.

What it means for brands

  • A page that tries to cover everything produces a blurry embedding. Clear sections with one idea each are easier to match.
  • Plain, specific language beats vague marketing phrases, because the meaning is easier to capture.

Questions

Embeddings:
common questions

You can create embeddings with public models, but you cannot see the exact embeddings an AI engine uses internally.

No. Keywords are words. Embeddings represent meaning, so they match related ideas even with different wording.

Related terms

Keep exploring

How AI search works

Vector search

Vector search finds content by meaning instead of exact words. Text is turned into lists of numbers called embeddings, and the search returns the items whose numbers sit closest to the question's.

Read

How AI search works

Content chunking

Content chunking is the splitting of a page into smaller passages, so an AI system can store, find and quote the most relevant part instead of the whole page.

Read

How AI search works

Semantic search

Semantic search is search that understands the meaning and intent behind a query, not only its exact words, so it can return results that answer the question even when they use different wording.

Read

How AI search works

Tokenization

Tokenization is how an AI model splits text into small pieces called tokens, often parts of words, before it reads or writes. Limits, costs and context windows are all measured in tokens.

Read

How AI search works

Large language model (LLM)

A large language model (LLM) is an AI model trained on very large amounts of text to understand and write language. LLMs power assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Grok and DeepSeek.

Read
Full glossary