Gemini Embedding 2
Ranked 4 of 8 embedding models by recommenders
People recommend it for embedding text, images, audio, video and PDFs in one vector space, with a generous free tier. Critics say it gets expensive at scale.
People recommend it for embedding text, images, audio, video and PDFs in one vector space, with a generous free tier. Critics say it gets expensive at scale.
12 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 9
- criticize it
- 3
- approval share
- 75%
Recommended in 3 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 9 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 3 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Embeds text, images, audio, video, PDFs
“the first model that natively embeds text, images, audio, video, and PDFs into the same vector space”
Comment from 19 Mar 2026 in “Show HN: Vemb – embed text, images, audio, video and PDFs from the terminal” “we index files (text, images, audio, video) into a shared embedding space using gemini-embedding-2”
Comment from 31 Mar 2026 in “Show HN: Multimodal file search and sharing for AI agents” “It can creates embeddings on pretty much any type of format, video, audio, documents.”
Comment from 10 Mar 2026 in “Gemini Embedding 2: natively multimodal embedding model” Generous free tier
“gemini's free tier is pretty generous”
Comment from 10 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: DecisionNode – shared structured memory for all AI coding tools via MCP” “they have a great free tier”
Comment from 11 Dec 2025 in “Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (December 2025)”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Expensive at scale
“a bit expensive right now so it's not as practical at scale”
Comment from 24 Mar 2026 in “Show HN: Gemini can now natively embed video, so I built sub-second video search” “continuous indexing would be pretty expensive now”
Comment from 24 Mar 2026 in “Show HN: Gemini can now natively embed video, so I built sub-second video search”
Other embedding models people recommend
The four most recommended other embedding models, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EmbeddingGemma | 27 | 4 | 87% | 3 | — | — |
| Ternlight | 17 | 3 | 85% | 1 | — | — |
| CLIP by OpenAI | 10 | 5 | 67% | 6 | — | Approved |
| Gemini Embedding 2This page | 9 | 3 | 75% | 3 | — | — |
| Qwen3-Embedding | 8 | 1 | 89% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
All 13 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“gemini's free tier is pretty generous”
“we index files (text, images, audio, video) into a shared embedding space using gemini-embedding-2”
“true multimodal search without text bottlenecks makes video querying feel finally native and insanely practical”
“I've found I have to be very specific to get the clip I'm searching for.”
“continuous indexing would be pretty expensive now”
“a bit expensive right now so it's not as practical at scale”
“the first model that natively embeds text, images, audio, video, and PDFs into the same vector space”
“The model is deployed in only one US region, so from Australia the turnaround time is something like 900 milliseconds.”
“it did well in zero-shot tasks in niche domains historically”
“This seems lesser form what i read, with the drawback of bei g via some api/model i dont have control over.”
“It can creates embeddings on pretty much any type of format, video, audio, documents.”
“they have a great free tier”
“The documentation says "X requests per minute" but what they really mean is "X documents per minute"”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.