Hybrid Search

What Is Hybrid Search?

Hybrid search combines two complementary search approaches: keyword search (which excels at finding exact terms and is fast) and semantic search (which understands meaning). Different queries benefit from different approaches. Hybrid search uses both, combining results intelligently to maximize relevance.

For example, searching for "GPT pricing" works well with keywords because users want documents mentioning "GPT" and "pricing" specifically. But searching for "How does modern AI understand language?" benefits from semantic search understanding the conceptual meaning. Hybrid search handles both scenarios well.

Hybrid search implementation typically involves running both keyword and semantic searches in parallel, then combining and reranking results. Weighting between keyword and semantic scores depends on query type. Well-implemented hybrid search outperforms either approach alone, providing robustness across diverse queries.