Dense Embeddings Concepts

January 21, 2025

Sparse vs Dense vs Hybrid Retrieval: BM25, BERT, and Reranking Compared

How sparse retrieval (BM25/TF-IDF), dense retrieval (BERT-style embeddings), and hybrid systems that combine both compare on recall, semantic understanding, computational cost, and operational complexity for modern search.

Sparse Embeddings Dense Embeddings BM25 TF-IDF BERT Hybrid Search Retrieval

12 min readConcept

Dense Embeddings

Concepts Related to Dense Embeddings

Sparse vs Dense vs Hybrid Retrieval: BM25, BERT, and Reranking Compared