Snowflake Arctic Embed M
Snowflake's Apache-2.0 efficient embedder — MTEB-competitive at 110M parameters.
About
Snowflake-Arctic-Embed-M (April 2024) is Snowflake's efficient embedding model: 110M parameters with MTEB-competitive retrieval quality — the "M" (medium) of the Arctic Embed family (XS/S/M/L).
Apache 2.0 licensed — commercial use allowed. 387k Hugging Face downloads. The efficiency story (110M, fast, cheap to serve) targets Snowflake's Cortex AI customers and cost-sensitive RAG. A 2024 model; the Arctic Embed 2.0 family has since taken the lead. For Snowflake-centric architectures or minimal-compute retrieval, a solid Apache-2.0 pick.
Specs
Context window
Pricing
Free quota
API access
Weights
Released
Benchmarks
Provider-claimed at release (2024): competitive MTEB for 110M — treat as provider-claimed and dated. Superseded by Arctic Embed 2.0.
Provider-reported unless a source says otherwise. Benchmarks are marketing-adjacent by nature — treat them as directional.
Use cases
Trust score — 7/10
Scored 7/10 (metrics tier). Apache 2.0, genuinely efficient (110M), with Snowflake's enterprise backing and solid adoption (387k downloads). Docked three points: (1) superseded by Arctic Embed 2.0; (2) 512-token context; (3) benchmark claims are dated provider reports. For Snowflake-centric or minimal-compute retrieval.
How the trust score is built
Full methodology →- Adoption · stars/downloads, log-scaled vs peers
- 7.7/10
- Maintenance · recency, releases, issue load
- 4.0/10
- Openness · license + docs
- 9.1/10
- Manual review · sanity read + red-flag check
- 6.0/10
- · HF downloads 387,086 (peer-normalized)
- · released 910 days ago
- · manual review: efficient 110M with Snowflake backing; superseded by Arctic Embed 2.0; license: Apache-2.0