ColBERT Zero Supervised measured on 3 of 261 Embeddings benchmarks3
BenchmarkByScoreRank
No benchmark matches
self-host onlyprice
51.9BEIR
Feb 2026released
1K tokensMax input
enLanguages
Alternatives?
ModelScoreCostPriceWhat changes
BetterQwen 3 Embedding 8BunstatedOpen+21%—$0.01Languages: not verified+1
OpenNV Embed v2unstated+22%——Memory (4-bit): 0.1 GB → 4.7 GB
BetterBge En IclunstatedOpen+20%—$0.01Languages: not verified+1BetterQwen 3 Embedding 0.6BunstatedOpen+7%—$0.01Languages: not verified+1BetterBge Large En v1.5unstatedOpen+5%—$0.01Memory (4-bit): 0.1 GB → 0.2 GBModelScoreCostPriceWhat changes
Nothing here yet.
ModelScoreCostPriceWhat changes
Qwen 3 Embedding 8BunstatedOpen+21%—$0.01Languages: not verified+1Bge En IclunstatedOpen+20%—$0.01Languages: not verified+1Qwen 3 Embedding 0.6BunstatedOpen+7%—$0.01Languages: not verified+1Bge Large En v1.5unstatedOpen+5%—$0.01Memory (4-bit): 0.1 GB → 0.2 GBQwen 3 Embedding 4BunstatedOpen+19%—$0.02Languages: not verified+1ModelScoreCostPriceWhat changes
NV Embed v2unstatedOpen+22%——Memory (4-bit): 0.1 GB → 4.7 GBQwen 3 Embedding 8BunstatedOpen+21%—$0.01Languages: not verified+1Bge En IclunstatedOpen+20%—$0.01Languages: not verified+1yLENS D8000unstatedOpen+19%——Languages: not verified+1iInf Retriever v1unstatedOpen+19%——Memory (4-bit): 0.1 GB → 4.2 GBModelScoreCostPriceWhat changes
lmLateOnOpen+11%——Memory (4-bit): 0.1 GB → 0.2 GBlLateOnOpen+10%——Max input: 1K tokens → 0K tokenslmDenseOnOpen+9%——Memory (4-bit): 0.1 GB → 0.2 GBlDenseOnOpen+8%——lColBERT ZeroOpen+7%——lGTE ModernColBERT v1Open+5%——Max input: 1K tokens → 0K tokenslColBERT Zero UnsupervisedOpensame——Max input: 1K tokens → 0K tokenslDenseOn UnsupervisedOpen-5%——All lightonai models →Run it yourself
estimateFits on✓ 8 GB (phone, laptop) · full quality✓ 16 GB · full quality✓ 24 GB GPU · full quality✓ 48 GB GPU · full quality✓ 80 GB GPU · full quality
LicenceApache-2.0free for commercial use
Benchmarks
in Embeddings & RetrievalBEIR · Retrieval · English51.9#78
FAQ
How much does ColBERT Zero Supervised cost?›
There is no per-unit API price: self-host only.
Is ColBERT Zero Supervised free to use?›
There is no free API. The weights are open, so you can run it yourself.
How good is ColBERT Zero Supervised, and what is it best at?›
#76 of 194 in Embeddings.
Is ColBERT Zero Supervised better than Ember v1?›
On BEIR · Mean over tasks · English, ColBERT Zero Supervised scores 51.9 vs 51.9 — about the same.
When was ColBERT Zero Supervised released? Is there a newer version?›
Released 2026-02-19. It is the current version in its line.
Is ColBERT Zero Supervised open source?›
Yes, the weights are open (Apache-2.0 licence).
Can I run ColBERT Zero Supervised locally?›
The weights are open and can be self-hosted; hardware needs are not confirmed yet.
What is ColBERT Zero Supervised?›
ColBERT Zero Supervised is an open-weights embeddings & retrieval model from lightonai, released Feb 2026.
What are the best alternatives to ColBERT Zero Supervised?›
Qwen 3 Embedding 8B (better), NV Embed v2 (open weights).