Model reference · open weights
voyage-4-nano is an open-weight embedding model from voyageai. voyage-4-nano (BF16) weighs 693 MB; the smallest configuration that runs it is RTX 3060 12 GB.
Summary of the voyageai/voyage-4-nano model card, 2026-10-01
What it is
| Released by | voyageai |
|---|---|
| Released | 2026-01-06 |
| Parameters | 346M |
| VRAM | 693 MB for the weights |
What it runs on
| Card | Runs | Memory |
|---|---|---|
| RTX 3060 12 GB | fits | 11.6 GB |
| RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB | fits | 15.4 GB |
| RTX 3090 24 GB | fits | 23.4 GB |
| RTX 4090 24 GB | fits | 23.4 GB |
| RTX 5090 32 GB | fits | 31.0 GB |
| L40S 48 GB | fits | 44.0 GB |
| A100 80 GB | fits | 78.2 GB |
| H100 80 GB | fits | 78.1 GB |
| RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell 96 GB | fits | 93.8 GB |
| DGX Spark (GB10) 128 GB unified | fits | 107 GB |
| H200 141 GB | fits | 138 GB |
| B200 180 GB | fits | 176 GB |
From the model card
voyage-4-nano is a state-of-the-art text embedding model from the Voyage 4 series, designed for high-performance semantic search and retrieval tasks. This model features:
For detailed performance metrics and benchmarks, please refer to:
voyage-4 seriesThe shared embedding space introduced in the Voyage 4 model series eliminates the need to re-index your data when switching between models in the series. Embeddings generated by different Voyage 4 models (voyage-4-large, voyage-4, voyage-4-lite, and voyage-4-nano) can be directly compared and used interchangeably. For example, use voyage-4-large for high-fidelity indexing, voyage-4-lite for high-throughput queries, and voyage-4-nano for local development.
Outperforms much larger existing embedding models, including voyage-3.5-lite.
voyage-4-nano is trained with Matryoshka Representation Learning to enable flexible embedding dimensions with minimal loss of retreival quality. It supports 2048, 1024, 512, and 256 dimensional embeddings.
voyage-4-nano uses quantization-aware training to enable flexible output data types with minimal loss of retreival quality. It supports 32-bit floating point, signed and unsigned 8-bit integer, and binary precision outputs.
import torch
from transformers import AutoModel, AutoTokenizer
def mean_pool(
last_hidden_states: torch.Tensor, attention_mask: torch.Tensor
) -> torch.Tensor:
input_mask_expanded = (
attention_mask.unsqueeze(-1).expand(last_hidden_states.size()).float()
)
sum_embeddings = torch.sum(last_hidden_states * input_mask_expanded, 1)
sum_mask = input_mask_expanded.sum(1)
sum_mask = torch.clamp(sum_mask, min=1e-9)
output_vectors = sum_embeddings / sum_mask
return output_vectors
# If you have an Nvidia GPU, it's recommended to use exactly the same arguments for Nvidia GPUs. attn_implementation="eager" or "sdpa" also works, but some minor differences in embeddings are expected
device = "cuda"
model = AutoModel.from_pretrained(
"voyageai/voyage-4-nano",
trust_remote_code=True,
attn_implementation="flash_attention_2",
dtype=torch.bfloat16,
).to(device)
tokenizer = AutoTokenizer.from_pretrained("voyageai/voyage-4-nano")
# Embed queries with prompts
query = "What is the fastest route to 88 Kearny?"
prompt = "Represent the query for retrieving supporting documents: "
inputs = tokenizer(
prompt + query, return_tensors="pt", padding=True, truncation=True, max_length=32768
)
inputs = {k: v.to(device) for k, v in inputs.items()}
with torch.no_grad():
outputs = model.forward(**inputs)
embeddings = mean_pool(outputs.last_hidden_state, inputs["attention_mask"])
embeddings = torch.nn.functional.normalize(embeddings, p=2, dim=1)
from sentence_transformers import SentenceTransformer
import torch
# Standard loading, assuming no GPU access
model = SentenceTransformer(
"voyageai/voyage-4-nano",
trust_remote_code=True,
truncate_dim=2048
)
# OPTIONAL: Loading for high-performance inference with GPUs
# Use 'flash_attention_2' and 'bfloat16' if your GPU supports it (e.g., A100, H100, RTX 30/40 series)
# model = SentenceTransformer(
# "voyageai/voyage-4-nano",
# trust_remote_code=True,
# truncate_dim=2048,
# model_kwargs={
# "attn_implementation": "flash_attention_2",
# "dtype": torch.bfloat16
# }
# )
query = "Which planet is known as the Red Planet?"
documents = [
"Venus is often called Earth's twin because of its similar size and proximity.",
"Mars, known for its reddish appearance, is often referred to as the Red Planet.",
"Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, has a prominent red spot.",
"Saturn, famous for its rings, is sometimes mistaken for the Red Planet."
]
# Encode via encode_query and encode_document to automatically use the right prompts
query_embedding = model.encode_query(query)
document_embeddings = model.encode_document(documents)
# Inspect the output shapes
print(f"Query Shape: {query_embedding.shape}") # Expected: (2048,)
print(f"Document Shape: {document_embeddings.shape}") # Expected: (4, 2048)
encode_query and encode_document methods automatically prepend the "Represent the query for retrieving supporting documents: " and "Represent the document for retrieval: " prompts as defined in config_sentence_transformers.json, respectively.truncate_dim argument in the encode_query and encode_document methods, or when initializing the model via the truncate_dim parameter. For example, model.encode_query(query, truncate_dim=512) will yield 512-dimensional embeddings. The model supports 2048, 1024, 512, and 256-dimensional embeddings.precision argument in the encode_query and encode_document methods. For example, model.encode_query(query, precision='int8') will yield signed 8-bit integer embeddings. The supported precisions are 'float32', 'int8', 'uint8', 'binary', and 'ubinary'."""
Example: Run voyage-4-nano on vLLM and compare output embeddings with HuggingFace.
Requires: pip install vllm==0.16.0 sentence-transformers
""Quoted from the model card on Hugging Face. The full card is behind the Hugging Face link above.