Skip to main content
Home / AI Glossary / Reranker

Reranker

A second-stage scoring model that re-orders retrieved chunks for relevance, typically a cross-encoder that scores each (query, chunk) pair more accurately than the initial vector search.

What Is Reranker?

Vector search (bi-encoder) is fast but imprecise. A reranker (cross-encoder like Cohere Rerank, BGE Rerank, or Voyage Rerank) takes the top-50 retrieved chunks and scores each against the query in a single forward pass. The reranked top-5 is what is actually given to the LLM. Adds 50-200ms latency but lifts RAG answer quality 10-30%.

How Groovy Web Uses This

We add a reranker to every production RAG system above 10k documents. Cohere or BGE is the default; we benchmark per client corpus.

Related Terms

Hybrid Search Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) Semantic Search Vector Database

Need Help with This?

Our AI-First engineers build production systems using Reranker technology. Talk to us.

Get Free Assessment
Start a Project

Got an Idea?
Let's Build It Together

Tell us about your project and we'll get back to you within 24 hours with a game plan.

Schedule a Call Book a Free Strategy Call
30 min, no commitment
Response Time

Mon-Fri, 8AM-12PM EST

4hr overlap with US Eastern
247+ Projects Delivered
10+ Years Experience
3 Global Offices

Follow Us

1-week risk-free trial — keep the code

Hire Senior AI Engineers
Production-Grade. Your US Hours.

For startups & product teams

One senior engineer, AI-accelerated — owns architecture, security, and the last 20% AI tools leave broken. No recruitment, no ramp-up.

Trusted by 200+ startups worldwide

Production-grade delivery
4hr live US overlap
Start in 48 hours
Start Your Risk-Free Trial

No long-term commitment · 100% IP yours · Cancel anytime