Transformer Explainer
Hacker ApprovedRanked 7 of 31 interactive visualizations by recommenders
People recommend it as a clear, interactive visualization for understanding how transformers and GPT-2 work.
People recommend it as a clear, interactive visualization for understanding how transformers and GPT-2 work.
12 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 12
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 12 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 6 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, 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
Clear, intuitive visual explanations
“This is hands down one of the best visualizations I have ever come across.”
Comment from 22 Dec 2025 in “The Illustrated Transformer” “i found this much more intuitive to follow”
Comment from 23 Dec 2025 in “The Illustrated Transformer” “putting some amazing visualizations”
Comment from 22 Dec 2025 in “The Illustrated Transformer” Thorough explanations of how transformers work
“this explanation of how transformers work is in the same class as Ciechanowski's work IMO”
Comment from 16 Jun 2026 in “Mechanical Watch” “liking the very in-depth explanations there”
Comment from 15 Aug 2026 in “Show HN: Between Tokens – an interactive piece where you are the language model” Good for explaining LLMs to others
“This looks great for explaining transformer!!”
Comment from 2 Jan 2026 in “Animated AI” “to refresh and explain llm's to friends”
Comment from 15 Aug 2026 in “Show HN: Between Tokens – an interactive piece where you are the language model”
Other interactive visualizations people recommend
The four most recommended other interactive visualizations, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ciechanow.ski | 33 | 1 | 97% | 9 | — | Approved |
| Size of Life | 30 | 4 | 88% | 2 | — | — |
| PGSimCity | 27 | 3 | 90% | 1 | — | — |
| Ithihāsas | 18 | 3 | 86% | 1 | — | — |
| Transformer ExplainerThis page | 12 | 0 | 100% | 6 | — | Approved |
What people said
9 of the 12 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“liking the very in-depth explanations there”
“to refresh and explain llm's to friends”
“this explanation of how transformers work is in the same class as Ciechanowski's work IMO”
“This looks great for explaining transformer!!”
“Now this one actually looks usable”
“i found this much more intuitive to follow”
“This is hands down one of the best visualizations I have ever come across.”
“putting some amazing visualizations”
“I now have a good intuition for GPT-2”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.