AI Glossary Term
What does “Cross-Encoder” mean?
Definition
A model that scores a query and document together in one pass for high-accuracy relevance judgments.
How Cross-Encoder works
Example
A cross-encoder reads 'how do I reset my password' together with a help article and outputs a single relevance score. Because it sees both at once, it can pick up on subtle matches.
Why it matters
Cross-encoders are a standard choice for reranking. They are too slow to run on an entire collection.
Common questions
Why more accurate?
It can compare words in the query with words in the document directly.
Why slower?
Each query-document pair needs its own pass, so nothing can be precomputed.
Where is it used?
Reranking search results and judging relevance.