---
title: "What is semantic search?"
description: "Semantic search ranks items by meaning, using embeddings, not only by exact keyword match."
url: "https://www.pixeltable.com/learn/what-is-semantic-search"
updated: "2026-09-29"
vertical: "Retrieval"
doc: "https://docs.pixeltable.com/datastore/embedding-index"
---

# What is semantic search?

Semantic search ranks items by meaning, using embeddings, not only by exact keyword match.

Updated: 2026-09-29


## On this page

- [How it works](https://www.pixeltable.com/learn/what-is-semantic-search#how-it-works)
- [What it is not](https://www.pixeltable.com/learn/what-is-semantic-search#what-it-is-not)
- [Comparison](https://www.pixeltable.com/learn/what-is-semantic-search#comparison)
- [Where Pixeltable fits](https://www.pixeltable.com/learn/what-is-semantic-search#where-pixeltable-fits)
- [Questions](https://www.pixeltable.com/learn/what-is-semantic-search#questions)

## How it works {#how-it-works}


- The query and the stored pieces are embedded with the same model.
- Nearest neighbors are the hits.
- Keyword search can still sit beside it when exact tokens matter.

## What it is not {#what-it-is-not}

It is not full-text search, and it is not listing files by name.

## semantic search: this, and the thing it is confused with {#comparison}

|  | This | Not this |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Matches | Similar meaning | Exact words only |
| Misses | A paraphrase, if you only have keywords | A filename |
| Needs | An embedding model and an index | An inverted word index alone |

## Where Pixeltable fits {#where-pixeltable-fits}

Pixeltable expresses it as column.similarity(...) on a column that has an embedding index.

## Questions {#questions}

### How does semantic search work? {#faq-1}

The query and the stored pieces are embedded with the same model. Nearest neighbors are the hits. Keyword search can still sit beside it when exact tokens matter.

### What is semantic search often confused with? {#faq-2}

It is not full-text search, and it is not listing files by name.

## In the blog

- [Find a Video from an Image with Pixeltable](https://www.pixeltable.com/blog/find-video-from-image-pixelsearch)
- [Build Your Own Multimodal Search Engine with Pixeltable](https://www.pixeltable.com/blog/pixelsearch-multimodal-search-engine)
- [Pixeltable vs Pinecone: When You Need a Vector Database vs Unified AI Infrastructure](https://www.pixeltable.com/blog/pixeltable-vs-pinecone-vector-database-comparison)
- [Video Frame Similarity Search: The Hard Way vs. Pixeltable](https://www.pixeltable.com/blog/video-similarity-search)

## How-to guides

- [How do I do semantic search in Python?](https://www.pixeltable.com/learn/how-to/semantic-search-in-python)
- [How do I do hybrid search in Python?](https://www.pixeltable.com/learn/how-to/hybrid-search-in-python)
- [How do I transcribe audio uploads and make them searchable?](https://www.pixeltable.com/learn/how-to/transcribe-audio-and-search-it)
- [How do I migrate from FAISS to an embedding index on the table?](https://www.pixeltable.com/learn/how-to/migrate-from-faiss)
- [How do I migrate from Pinecone to an embedding index on the table?](https://www.pixeltable.com/learn/how-to/migrate-from-pinecone)
- [How do I migrate from pgvector to an embedding index on the table?](https://www.pixeltable.com/learn/how-to/migrate-from-pgvector)
- [How do I switch embedding models without a reindex script?](https://www.pixeltable.com/learn/how-to/switch-embedding-models-without-a-reindex-script)

## Related

- [Documentation](https://docs.pixeltable.com/datastore/embedding-index)
- [Video Frame Similarity Search: The Hard Way vs. Pixeltable](https://www.pixeltable.com/blog/video-similarity-search)
- [Find a Video from an Image with Pixeltable](https://www.pixeltable.com/blog/find-video-from-image-pixelsearch)
- [Multimodal application](https://www.pixeltable.com/use-cases/multimodal-ai-application-development)
- [semantic-search](https://www.pixeltable.com/tools/semantic-search)