lancedb/docs/web/search/vector-search.mdx

---
title: "Vector Search"
sidebarTitle: "Vector Search"
description: "Search by vector similarity, choose a distance metric and tune your queries."
icon: "arrow-up-right-dots"
availability:
  oss: available
  enterprise: available
  summary: >-
    Vector search is available in OSS and Enterprise.
---

import {
    PyConfigureDistanceMetric as ConfigureDistanceMetric,
    PySelectVectorColumn as SelectVectorColumn,
    PyIndexNestedColumn as IndexNestedColumn,
    PyExactVsApproximateDistances as ExactVsApproximateDistances,
    PyVectorSearchPrefilter as VectorSearchPrefilter,
    PyVectorSearchPostfilter as VectorSearchPostfilter,
    PyMultivectorSearch as MultivectorSearch,
    PySearchDistanceRange as SearchDistanceRange,
    PySearchBinaryVectors as SearchBinaryVectors,
    PyBatchSearch as BatchSearch,
    PyFastSearch as FastSearch,
    PyBruteForceSearch as BruteForceSearch,
    PyBypassVectorIndex as BypassVectorIndex,
    TsSearch2,
    TsSelectVectorColumn,
    TsIndexNestedColumn,
    TsExactVsApproximate,
    TsVectorSearchPrefilter,
    TsVectorSearchPostfilter,
    TsDistanceRange,
    TsBinarySearch,
    TsBatchSearch,
    TsFastSearch,
    TsBruteForceSearch,
    TsBypassVectorIndex,
    RsConfigureDistanceMetric,
    RsExactVsApproximate,
    RsVectorSearchPrefilter,
    RsVectorSearchPostfilter,
    RsSearchDistanceRange,
    RsFastSearch,
    RsBruteForceSearch,
    RsBypassVectorIndex,
    RsBatchSearch,
    RsBinarySearch,
} from '/snippets/search.mdx';

import { PyVectorSearch, TsVectorSearchBody, TsVectorSearchTail } from '/snippets/search_examples.mdx';
import { RsExampleBody as RsVectorSearchBody, RsExampleTail as RsVectorSearchTail } from '/snippets/search_vector_search.mdx';

Vector search finds similar items by comparing their embeddings: numerical
representations of text, images, audio or other data. An embedding model maps
related items to nearby points in vector space, so you can search by meaning
or similarity instead of matching exact words.

![An embedding model maps data into vectors for similarity search.](/static/assets/images/search/vector-db-basics.png)

To run a search, pass a query vector to LanceDB and specify how many matches
to return. Generate the query vector with the same model and settings used for
your stored embeddings. LanceDB ranks the results by distance from the query.

For small tables, you can search the vectors directly. A [vector index](/indexing/vector-index)
speeds up searches on larger tables by narrowing the candidates to examine.

<span id="run-a-nearest-neighbor-query"></span>

<Accordion title="Run a complete example in Python, TypeScript or Rust">

These examples create a three-row table and find the two closest matches to a
query vector. They use hand-written vectors, so you can try the query without
an embedding model. The temporary table is removed when the program finishes.

- **Python:** Install with `pip install lancedb`, save as `vector_search.py`, then run `python vector_search.py`.
- **TypeScript:** Install with `npm install @lancedb/lancedb`, save as `vector_search.mts`, then run `node vector_search.mts` with Node.js 22.18 or later.
- **Rust:** Download and extract the [complete Rust examples](/static/code/search-rust.zip), then run `cargo run --locked --bin vector_search` from the extracted directory.

<CodeGroup>
<CodeBlock filename="Python" language="python" icon="python">
{PyVectorSearch}
</CodeBlock>
<CodeBlock filename="TypeScript" language="typescript" icon="square-js">
{TsVectorSearchBody + "\n" + TsVectorSearchTail}
</CodeBlock>
<CodeBlock filename="Rust" language="rust" icon="rust">
{RsVectorSearchBody + "\n" + RsVectorSearchTail}
</CodeBlock>
</CodeGroup>

The first result is the puppy record, whose vector exactly matches the query.
The dog record is next. `_distance` is smaller for closer matches. This example
uses an exhaustive scan; the indexing section explains how to search larger tables.

</Accordion>

## Supported distance metrics {#supported-distance-metrics}

A distance metric determines how LanceDB compares vectors. Choose the metric
recommended by your embedding model. Use the same metric when building an index
and querying it.

LanceDB supports `l2`, `cosine`, `dot` and `hamming`. An unindexed search uses
`l2` by default; Hamming distance is for binary vectors. The table below shows
the value returned in the `_distance` column. Smaller values rank first.

| Distance metric | Mathematical form | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| `l2` | $\sum_i (x_i-y_i)^2$ | Squared Euclidean distance returned in `_distance`. |
| `cosine` | $1-\frac{x\cdot y}{\|x\|_2\|y\|_2}$ | Measures directional difference between vectors. Insensitive to nonzero scaling of vectors. |
| `dot` | $1-\sum_i x_i y_i$ | Dot-product distance. For unit-normalized vectors, this equals cosine distance. |
| `hamming` | $\underset{i}{\sum} \,\: \mathbf{1}_{\, [x_i\neq y_i]}$ | Counts the number of bitwise-differing bits between binary vectors. |

For indexed search, supported distance metrics vary by index type:

| Index type | Supported distance metrics |
|---|---|
| `IVF_FLAT` | `["l2", "cosine", "dot", "hamming"]` |
| `IVF_PQ` | `["l2", "cosine", "dot"]` |
| `IVF_SQ` | `["l2", "cosine", "dot"]` |
| `IVF_RQ` | `["l2", "cosine", "dot"]` |
| `IVF_HNSW_FLAT` | `["l2", "cosine", "dot"]` |
| `IVF_HNSW_PQ` | `["l2", "cosine", "dot"]` |
| `IVF_HNSW_SQ` | `["l2", "cosine", "dot"]` |

### Configure Distance Metric

Without a vector index, searches use `l2` by default. You can specify `cosine` or
`dot` instead (`hamming` is supported for `IVF_FLAT` indexes only).

When a vector index exists, the search metric must match the metric used to build
the index. If you explicitly request a different metric, LanceDB cannot use that
index and falls back to an exhaustive (brute-force) search. On LanceDB Cloud, the
brute-force KNN safety limit can reject that search on a large table instead of
executing it. LanceDB Enterprise doesn't have the limit.

If you omit the search metric, current SDKs use the index metric when an index is
available. Some older SDK versions sent `l2` when the metric was omitted; with a
non-`l2` index, explicitly set the matching metric or upgrade the SDK.

<CodeGroup>
<CodeBlock filename="Python" language="python" icon="python">
{ConfigureDistanceMetric}
</CodeBlock>

<CodeBlock filename="TypeScript" language="typescript" icon="square-js">
{TsSearch2}
</CodeBlock>

<CodeBlock filename="Rust" language="rust" icon="rust">
{RsConfigureDistanceMetric}
</CodeBlock>
</CodeGroup>

These examples use cosine distance and return up to ten matches. If the table
has a vector index, build it with the same metric.

Set `.limit(...)` on vector searches you run in applications. You can page through results with `.offset(...)` and include LanceDB's internal row id with `.with_row_id()` / `.withRowId()` when an operation requires internal row IDs. Use your own ID column for application identifiers.

## Selecting the vector column

If your table has exactly one vector column, you can omit the column name and LanceDB will pick it for you. This works for both top-level columns (such as `vector`) and vector fields nested inside a struct (such as `image.embedding`).

When LanceDB can't infer a single column, it raises a `ValueError` (Python) or rejects the query (Node/Rust). Two cases trigger this:

- No vector column: the schema has no `fixed_size_list` or `list` of floats.
- Multiple candidates: more than one column matches the query's dimension. The error lists every candidate path so you can pick one explicitly.

To disambiguate, pass the field path with dot notation. Wrap any segment that contains characters outside `[A-Za-z0-9_]` in backticks (for example, `` `image-meta`.`embedding.v1` ``).

<CodeGroup>
<CodeBlock filename="Python" language="python" icon="python">
{SelectVectorColumn}
</CodeBlock>

<CodeBlock filename="TypeScript" language="typescript" icon="square-js">
{TsSelectVectorColumn}
</CodeBlock>
</CodeGroup>

The same field-path syntax works when creating an index on a nested vector column:

<CodeGroup>
<CodeBlock filename="Python" language="python" icon="python">
{IndexNestedColumn}
</CodeBlock>

<CodeBlock filename="TypeScript" language="typescript" icon="square-js">
{TsIndexNestedColumn}
</CodeBlock>
</CodeGroup>

When several columns share a name across structs (for example, `image.embedding` and `text.embedding`), LanceDB still picks the one whose dimension matches your query vector. If two candidates have the same dimension, you must pass the column name explicitly.

## Search with a vector index {#vector-search-with-ann-index}

An approximate nearest-neighbor (ANN) index narrows the set of vectors examined
for a query. It can reduce query latency, but may miss neighbors that an
exhaustive search would find. Compare recall and latency on queries that
represent your application before choosing an index and its search settings.

<Warning>
When a vector index is used, `_distance` is not always the true distance between full vectors. On quantized ANN indexes, LanceDB may compute `_distance` from the compressed representation for speed. Use `refine_factor` when you want reranking on full vectors.
</Warning>

### Exact vs Approximate Distances

When doing vector search, the meaning of "distance" depends on whether you are using an index and whether `refine_factor` is specified as part of your query.
`nprobes` controls how many partitions are searched to find candidates, `approx_mode` controls the query-time speed/recall trade-off for RQ-quantized indexes, and `refine_factor` controls how many candidates are rescored on full vectors for better distance fidelity and reranking quality.

The table below summarizes the behavior of `_distance` in search results based on your query configuration:

| Query mode | Neighbor quality | `_distance` in results |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| No index or `.bypass_vector_index()` | Exact kNN (100% recall) | True distance on full vectors |
| Indexed ANN, no `refine_factor` | Approximate neighbors | Distance on the index representation: exact for flat indexes, approximate for quantized indexes |
| Indexed ANN + `refine_factor(1)` | Approximate neighbors (same candidate set) | Distances recomputed on full vectors for reranked candidates |
| Indexed ANN + `refine_factor(>1)` | Better recall than no refine (usually) | Distances recomputed on full vectors for reranked candidates |

<CodeGroup>
<CodeBlock filename="Python" language="python" icon="python">
{ExactVsApproximateDistances}
</CodeBlock>

<CodeBlock filename="TypeScript" language="typescript" icon="square-js">
{TsExactVsApproximate}
</CodeBlock>

<CodeBlock filename="Rust" language="rust" icon="rust">
{RsExactVsApproximate}
</CodeBlock>
</CodeGroup>

See [vector indexes](/indexing/vector-index) for index configuration. The
following sections cover query-time settings.

### Tuning `approx_mode`

Use `approx_mode` when you want to adjust the speed/recall trade-off for approximate vector search at query time. This setting currently applies only to RQ-quantized indexes, such as `IVF_RQ`; other index types ignore it.

The supported values are:

| Value | Behavior |
| :--- | :--- |
| `fast` | Prefer lower query latency, which can reduce recall. |
| `normal` | Use the default balance between query latency and recall. This only has an effect for RQ indexes built with `num_bits > 1`. |
| `accurate` | Prefer higher recall, which can increase query latency. |

Only the Rust SDK sets `approx_mode`; the Python and TypeScript SDKs do not expose it. You can change `approx_mode` per query without rebuilding the index. For RQ indexes built with `num_bits=1`, `normal` uses the same one-bit scoring path as `fast`. If you also set `refine_factor`, LanceDB first uses `approx_mode` while finding candidates, then reranks the selected candidates on full vectors.

### Tuning `nprobes`

- `nprobes` controls how many partitions are searched at query time.
- `nprobes` improves candidate recall, but does not by itself make `_distance` exact.
- The default probe selection is a starting point. Measure recall and latency for your data before overriding it.
- In most cases, leave `nprobes` unset and use the auto-tuned value.
- Only tune `nprobes` manually when recall is below your target, or when you need even higher performance for your workload.
- If recall is too low, increase `nprobes` gradually, but after a certain threshold, increasing `nprobes` yields only marginal accuracy gains.
- If you need higher performance and have recall headroom, decrease `nprobes` gradually.

For filtered ANN searches, you can also set `minimum_nprobes` and `maximum_nprobes`. LanceDB starts
with the minimum and can scan more partitions up to the maximum if the filter leaves too few
candidates. Calling `nprobes(n)` fixes both values to `n`, which disables that adaptive behavior.
Whether a deployment honors this range depends on its version; one that does not searches exactly
`minimum_nprobes` partitions.

### Vector Search with Prefiltering

This is the default vector search setting. You can use prefiltering to boost query performance by reducing the search space before vector calculations begin. The system first applies your filter criteria to the dataset, then conducts vector search operations only on the remaining relevant subset.

<CodeGroup>
<CodeBlock filename="Python" language="python" icon="python">
{VectorSearchPrefilter}
</CodeBlock>

<CodeBlock filename="TypeScript" language="typescript" icon="square-js">
{TsVectorSearchPrefilter}
</CodeBlock>

<CodeBlock filename="Rust" language="rust" icon="rust">
{RsVectorSearchPrefilter}
</CodeBlock>
</CodeGroup>

The filter limits which rows can match. Use `select()` to choose the returned
columns and `limit()` to set the maximum number of results.

### Vector Search with Postfiltering

Postfiltering selects vector-search candidates before applying the metadata
predicate. It can return fewer matches than requested, even when other rows in
the table satisfy the predicate. Use prefiltering when you want the nearest
records within the matching subset.

<CodeGroup>
<CodeBlock filename="Python" language="python" icon="python">
{VectorSearchPostfilter}
</CodeBlock>

<CodeBlock filename="TypeScript" language="typescript" icon="square-js">
{TsVectorSearchPostfilter}
</CodeBlock>

<CodeBlock filename="Rust" language="rust" icon="rust">
{RsVectorSearchPostfilter}
</CodeBlock>
</CodeGroup>

Only retrieved candidates that satisfy the predicate remain in the result.
Increase the candidate limit or use prefiltering if too few records are returned.

<Card icon="book">
[Post-filtering](/search/filtering/#post-filtering-with-vector-search) in LanceDB applies
the filter condition after obtaining the nearest neighbors based on vector similarity.
</Card>

## Multivector Search

Use multivector search when your documents contain multiple embeddings and you need sophisticated matching between query and document vector pairs. The late interaction approach finds the most relevant combinations across all available embeddings and provides nuanced similarity scoring.

Only `cosine` similarity is supported as the distance metric for multivector search operations.
Every query vector must match the inner dimension of the multivector column.

<CodeGroup>
<CodeBlock filename="Python" language="python" icon="python">
{MultivectorSearch}
</CodeBlock>
</CodeGroup>

Here you can see how to take 2 query vectors and find the best matching pairs between them and document vectors using late interaction. The `np.random.random(size=(2, 256))` creates a 2×256 array with two random query vectors, `.limit(5)` returns the top 5 best document-query combinations, and `.to_pandas()` provides results in a DataFrame format. 

**Read more:** [Multivector search walkthrough](#multivector)

## Advanced Search Scenarios

### Search With Distance Range

Use `distance_range` search when you need vectors within particular similarity bounds rather than just the closest neighbors. The system filters results to only include vectors that fall within your specified distance thresholds from the query.

<CodeGroup>
<CodeBlock filename="Python" language="python" icon="python">
{SearchDistanceRange}
</CodeBlock>

<CodeBlock filename="TypeScript" language="typescript" icon="square-js">
{TsDistanceRange}
</CodeBlock>

<CodeBlock filename="Rust" language="rust" icon="rust">
{RsSearchDistanceRange}
</CodeBlock>
</CodeGroup>

This shows three ways to search within distance ranges: bounded, upper bound only, and lower bound only. 

The `distance_range()` method filters results by similarity thresholds - the first example finds vectors with distance between `0.1` and `0.5`, the second finds vectors closer than `0.5`, and the third finds vectors farther than `0.1`. 

  Each approach returns Arrow tables with vectors that fall within your specified distance thresholds.

### Search With Binary Vectors

Use binary vector search for scenarios involving binary embeddings, such as those produced by hashing algorithms. The system stores these efficiently as packed uint8 arrays and uses Hamming distance calculations to determine vector similarity.

<Tip>
The number of dimensions of the binary vector must be a multiple of 8. A vector of dimensionality 128 will be stored as a `uint8` array of size 16.
</Tip>

<CodeGroup>
<CodeBlock filename="Python" language="python" icon="python">
{SearchBinaryVectors}
</CodeBlock>

<CodeBlock filename="TypeScript" language="typescript" icon="square-js">
{TsBinarySearch}
</CodeBlock>

<CodeBlock filename="Rust" language="rust" icon="rust">
{RsBinarySearch}
</CodeBlock>
</CodeGroup>

Here you can see how to set up a table for binary vectors, pack them efficiently into bytes, and search using Hamming distance. 

The schema defines a 32-byte vector field (256 bits ÷ 8), `np.random.randint(0, 2, size=256)` creates binary vectors, `np.packbits()` compresses them to bytes, and `.distance_type("hamming")` specifies `hamming` distance for similarity calculation. 

The search produces an Arrow table with binary vectors ranked by how many bits differ from the query.

## Scaling Vector Search

### Query multiple vectors in a batch {#batch-search}

Batch search accepts multiple query vectors in one request. The `query_index`
column identifies which query produced each result. Measure throughput and
latency with your workload when choosing a batch size.

<CodeGroup>
<CodeBlock filename="Python" language="python" icon="python">
{BatchSearch}
</CodeBlock>

<CodeBlock filename="TypeScript" language="typescript" icon="square-js">
{TsBatchSearch}
</CodeBlock>

<CodeBlock filename="Rust" language="rust" icon="rust">
{RsBatchSearch}
</CodeBlock>
</CodeGroup>

Each input vector has its own nearest-neighbor results. Use `query_index` to
associate each row with the corresponding input vector.

### Include or skip unindexed rows {#search-with-asynchronous-indexing}

To optimize for speed over completeness, enable the `fast_search` flag in your query to skip searching unindexed data.

By default, search includes both indexed vectors and unindexed rows visible to
the query. LanceDB scans the unindexed rows directly. `fast_search` skips that
scan, which can reduce query time but omit recent records.

<CodeGroup>
<CodeBlock filename="Python" language="python" icon="python">
{FastSearch}
</CodeBlock>

<CodeBlock filename="TypeScript" language="typescript" icon="square-js">
{TsFastSearch}
</CodeBlock>

<CodeBlock filename="Rust" language="rust" icon="rust">
{RsFastSearch}
</CodeBlock>
</CodeGroup>

Use this option only when results from indexed data are sufficient.

## Search without a vector index {#brute-force-search}

### Search With No Index

The simplest way to perform vector search is to perform a brute force search, without an index, where the distance between the query vector and all the vectors in the database are computed, with the top-k closest vectors returned. 

This is equivalent to a k-nearest neighbours (kNN) search in vector space.

Choose brute force search when you need guaranteed 100% recall, typically with smaller datasets where query speed isn't the primary concern. The system scans every vector in the table and calculates precise distances to find the exact nearest neighbors.

<CodeGroup>
<CodeBlock filename="Python" language="python" icon="python">
{BruteForceSearch}
</CodeBlock>

<CodeBlock filename="TypeScript" language="typescript" icon="square-js">
{TsBruteForceSearch}
</CodeBlock>

<CodeBlock filename="Rust" language="rust" icon="rust">
{RsBruteForceSearch}
</CodeBlock>
</CodeGroup>

These queries return the three nearest matches. Without a vector index, LanceDB
calculates distances directly from the stored vectors.

![](/static/assets/images/search/knn_search.png)

Exhaustive search does more work as the table grows. When query latency becomes
too high, add an ANN index and compare its results with the exhaustive baseline.

### Bypass the Vector Index

Use `bypass_vector_index` to get exact, ground-truth results by performing exhaustive searches across all vectors. Instead of relying on approximate methods, the system directly compares your query against every vector in the table, ensuring 100% recall at the cost of increased query time.

<CodeGroup>
<CodeBlock filename="Python" language="python" icon="python">
{BypassVectorIndex}
</CodeBlock>

<CodeBlock filename="TypeScript" language="typescript" icon="square-js">
{TsBypassVectorIndex}
</CodeBlock>

<CodeBlock filename="Rust" language="rust" icon="rust">
{RsBypassVectorIndex}
</CodeBlock>
</CodeGroup>

This skips the approximate index and checks every single vector for exact, ground-truth results. 

The `.bypass_vector_index()` method forces LanceDB to perform an exhaustive search through all vectors instead of using the approximate nearest neighbor index, ensuring exact results but at the cost of slower performance. 

The query returns the nearest five rows within its filters and distance bounds.
Use an exhaustive scan as a baseline when measuring ANN recall.

This approach is particularly useful when:
- Evaluating ANN index quality
- Calculating recall metrics to tune index parameters
- Ensuring exact results for critical applications

## Multi-vector search {#multivector}

LanceDB's multivector support enables you to store and search multiple vector embeddings for a single item.

This capability is particularly valuable when working with late-interaction models like ColBERT and ColPaLi, which generate multiple embeddings per document.

In this tutorial, you'll create a table with multiple vector embeddings per document and learn how to perform multivector search. For more end-to-end examples, see the [VectorDB recipes repository](https://github.com/lancedb/vectordb-recipes/tree/main/examples).

### Multivector Support

Each item in your dataset can have a column containing multiple vectors, which LanceDB can efficiently index and search. When performing a search, you can query with either a single vector embedding or multiple vector embeddings.

<Warning>
Currently, only the `cosine` metric is supported for multivector search. The vector value type can be `float16`, `float32`, or `float64`.
</Warning>

Each query vector must match the inner vector dimension in the multivector column. This applies to both single-vector queries and multi-vector query matrices.

### Computing Similarity

MaxSim (Maximum Similarity) is a key concept in late-interaction models that:

- Computes the maximum similarity between each query embedding and all document embeddings
- Sums these maximum similarities to get the final relevance score
- Effectively captures fine-grained semantic matches between query and document tokens

The MaxSim calculation can be expressed as:

$$
\text{MaxSim}(Q, D) = \sum_{i=1}^{|Q|} \max_{j=1}^{|D|} \text{sim}(q_i, d_j)
$$

Where $sim$ is the similarity function (e.g., cosine similarity).

$$
Q = \{q_1, q_2, ..., q_{|Q|}\}
$$

$Q$ represents the query embeddings, and $D = \{d_1, d_2, ..., d_{|D|}\}$ represents the document embeddings.

### Using Multivector Search

#### 1. Setup

Connect to LanceDB and import the required libraries.

<CodeGroup>
```python Python icon="python"
import lancedb
import numpy as np
import pyarrow as pa

db = lancedb.connect(
    uri="db://your-project-slug",
    api_key="your-api-key",
    region="your-region"
)
```
</CodeGroup>

#### 2. Define Schema

Define a schema that specifies a multivector field. A multivector field is a nested list structure in which each document contains multiple vectors. In this case, we'll create a schema with:

1. An ID field as an integer (int64)
2. A vector field that is a list of lists of float32 values
   - The outer list represents multiple vectors per document
   - Each inner list is a 256-dimensional vector
   - Using float32 for memory efficiency while maintaining precision

<CodeGroup>
```python Python icon="python"
db = lancedb.connect("data/multivector_demo")
schema = pa.schema(
    [
        pa.field("id", pa.int64()),
        # float16, float32, and float64 are supported
        pa.field("vector", pa.list_(pa.list_(pa.float32(), 256))),
    ]
)
```
</CodeGroup>

#### 3. Generate Multivectors

Generate sample data where each document contains multiple vector embeddings, which can represent different aspects or views of the same document.

In this example, we create **1024 documents** where each document has **2 random vectors** of **dimension 256**, simulating a real-world scenario where you might have multiple embeddings per item.

<CodeGroup>
```python Python icon="python"
data = [
    {
        "id": i,
        "vector": np.random.random(size=(2, 256)).tolist(),  # Each document has 2 vectors
    }
    for i in range(1024)
]
```
</CodeGroup>

#### 4. Create a Table

Create a table with the defined schema and sample data, which will store multiple vectors per document for similarity search.

<CodeGroup>
```python Python icon="python"
tbl = db.create_table("multivector_example", data=data, schema=schema)
```
</CodeGroup>

#### 5. Build an Index

Only cosine similarity is supported for multivector search operations.
For faster search, build the standard `IVF_PQ` index over your vectors:

<CodeGroup>
```python Python icon="python"
tbl.create_index(metric="cosine", vector_column_name="vector")
```
</CodeGroup>

<Info>
**Indexing matters more for multivector tables than for single-vector ones.**

A brute-force scan over a multivector column has to compare every query vector to every document vector in every row, so the cost grows with both the row count and the number of vectors per row. 
In LanceDB OSS, the query will just run, so a large unindexed multivector table can stall a process for a long time before returning results.

On LanceDB Cloud, the brute-force KNN safety check applies a stricter row threshold to multivector columns; roughly 10× lower than for single-vector columns. So an unindexed multivector table can be rejected with a "vector search would use brute-force KNN" error well before a comparable single-vector table would. LanceDB Enterprise doesn't have the limit. Build the index before you start hitting it from production traffic, even if the dataset is small enough that you'd skip indexing for a single-vector workload.
</Info>

#### 6. Query a Single Vector

When searching with a single query vector, it will be compared against all vectors in each document, and the similarity scores will be aggregated to find the most relevant documents.

<CodeGroup>
```python Python icon="python"
query = np.random.random(256)
results_single = tbl.search(query).limit(5).to_pandas()
```
</CodeGroup>

#### 7. Query Multiple Vectors

With multiple query vectors, LanceDB calculates similarity using late interaction, a late-interaction technique that computes relevance by finding the best-matching pairs between query and document vectors. This approach provides more nuanced matching while maintaining fast retrieval speeds.

<CodeGroup>
```python Python icon="python"
query_multi = np.random.random(size=(2, 256))
results_multi = tbl.search(query_multi).limit(5).to_pandas()
```
</CodeGroup>


Visit the [Hugging Face embedding integration](/integrations/embedding/huggingface/) page for information on embedding models.

### Simple Example: ColBERT Embeddings

[ColBERT](https://arxiv.org/abs/2004.12832) is the most well-known late-interaction retrieval model that
represents each document and query as multiple token embeddings and scores matches by taking the best
token-to-token similarities (MaxSim) across them.

Install the dependencies before running this example:

```bash
pip install pylate lancedb pandas
```

<CodeGroup>
```python Python icon="python"
import numpy as np
import pyarrow as pa
import lancedb
from pylate import models

## 1) Load a late-interaction model via PyLate
## PyLate docs show ColBERT() + encode(..., is_query=...)
model = models.ColBERT(model_name_or_path="lightonai/GTE-ModernColBERT-v1")

## You can discover dim from one embedding (avoid guessing)
dim = model.encode(["hello"], is_query=True)[0].shape[1]

## 2) Create a LanceDB table with a multivector column
db = lancedb.connect("./pylate_lancedb")
schema = pa.schema([
    pa.field("doc_id", pa.string()),
    pa.field("text", pa.string()),
    # multivector: list<list<float32, dim>>
    pa.field("mv", pa.list_(pa.list_(pa.float32(), dim))),
])

docs = [
    {"doc_id": "1", "text": "The train to Tokyo leaves at 5pm."},
    {"doc_id": "2", "text": "That Pho restaurant in Hanoi is highly rated."},
    {"doc_id": "3", "text": "This is a noodle bar in Osaka, Japan."},
]

## 3) Encode documents with PyLate (token vectors per doc)
doc_texts = [d["text"] for d in docs]
doc_embs = model.encode(doc_texts, is_query=False)  # list/array of (T, dim) per doc

rows = []
for d, emb in zip(docs, doc_embs):
    emb = np.asarray(emb, dtype=np.float32)
    rows.append({**d, "mv": emb.tolist()})

tbl = db.create_table("docs", data=rows, schema=schema, mode="overwrite")

## 4) Build an index + query using a query matrix.
## Multivector brute-force scales with rows × vectors-per-row, so build the index
## at much smaller dataset sizes than you would for single-vector search; and
## always before exposing the table to remote traffic.
tbl.create_index(vector_column_name="mv", metric="cosine")

query = "Tell me about ramen in Japan"
q_emb = np.asarray(model.encode([query], is_query=True)[0], dtype=np.float32)  # (Tq, dim)

out = tbl.search(q_emb).limit(5).to_pandas()  # multivector search accepts a matrix
print(out[["doc_id", "text"]])
```
</CodeGroup>

Late-interaction model implementations evolve rapidly, so it's a good idea to check the latest popular models
when trying multivector search.

### Advanced Example: XTR Embeddings

[ConteXtualized Token Retriever (XTR)](https://arxiv.org/abs/2304.01982) is a late-interaction retrieval model that represents text as token-level vectors instead of a single embedding.
This lets search score token-to-token matches (MaxSim), which can improve fine-grained relevance.

The notebook linked below shows how to integrate XTR, which prioritizes critical document
tokens during the initial retrieval stage and removes the gathering stage to improve performance significantly.
By focusing on the most semantically salient tokens early in the process, XTR reduces computational complexity
while improving recall and ensuring rapid identification of candidate documents.

<Card
    icon="book"
    title="Multivector search with ColPali + XTR embeddings and LanceDB"
    href="https://colab.research.google.com/github/lancedb/vectordb-recipes/blob/main/examples/multivector_xtr/main.ipynb"
>
</Card>