Search and RAG

E5 / multilingual-e5

Proven models for semantic search. The multilingual versions work well with Russian and are still a reliable base for RAG.

The last open version came out in Feb 2024. The family has not been updated for a long time: the model still works, but do not expect fixes or new sizes.

Developer
Microsoft, USA
First release
Dec 2022
Latest release
Feb 2024
Sizes
33M – 7B
License
Commercial use allowedMIT
Russian
Supported
Running
On your own serverAlso runs without a GPU
Industries
Software development, Customer support, Documents and accounting, Retail and marketplaces
Deploy on your server Hugging Face GitHub

What it does

  • Search across a knowledge base and documents
  • Finding answers for a chatbot (RAG)
  • Finding similar requests and duplicates

Where it is used

Customer supportLegal and document managementInternal knowledge bases

Hardware requirements

LaptopLaptop or regular PC, up to 8 GB of VRAM — smaller versions
fits
1 GPUOne GPU with 16–80 GB — mid-size versions
fits
ClusterServer with several GPUs — flagship versions
no versions

Versions

  1. multilingual-e5-large-instruct
  2. e5-mistral-7b-instruct
  3. multilingual-e5
  4. E5 v2
  5. E5

How to run it

On your own serverWeights are downloaded from Hugging Face and served with vLLM (load and API) or llama.cpp (modest hardware). The model then runs in a closed network with no per-request fees.Hugging Face
How much hardware you needCalculate the VRAM for the model size, context length and number of concurrent requests.Open the hardware calculator

I can set this up end to end: pick the model size, deploy it on your server and connect it to your systems.

Frequently asked questions

Can E5 / multilingual-e5 be used in a commercial project?

Yes. License: MIT. It allows commercial use, but it is still worth having a lawyer review the license before launch.

What hardware does E5 / multilingual-e5 need?

At minimum: Laptop or regular PC, up to 8 GB of VRAM — smaller versions. Some versions also run on an ordinary CPU, without a GPU. You can calculate the exact VRAM for your model size and context in the hardware calculator.

Does E5 / multilingual-e5 support Russian?

Yes, Russian is listed on the model card.

Where can I download E5 / multilingual-e5 and what does it cost?

The E5 / multilingual-e5 weights are open and free to download. You only pay for the hardware it runs on and for the setup. Source links are at the bottom of this page.

How I deploy it for clients

  1. SelectionI pick the model size for your task and hardware and test it on your examples.
  2. DeploymentI deploy it on your server or in a closed network and provide an API.
  3. Fine-tuningI fine-tune it on your data (LoRA) or connect a knowledge base — whichever is cheaper for the task.
  4. IntegrationI connect it to your CRM, ERP, bot, website or team chat and set up monitoring.

Comparisons

Similar models

Search and RAGBGE-M3BAAI · ChinaCommercial use allowed

A model for meaning-based search in about a hundred languages. The core of RAG: the bot finds the right part of a document before answering.

DetailsSearch and RAGGTEAlibaba · ChinaCommercial use allowed

Alibaba embeddings and rerankers for search: from tiny to 7B based on Qwen2. There is a multilingual mGTE version with long context.

DetailsSearch and RAGFRIDA / Giga-EmbeddingsSber (SberDevices) · RussiaCommercial use allowed

Sber embeddings built for Russian: according to the developers, among the best on Russian-language search benchmarks. FRIDA is compact, Giga-Embeddings is more powerful.

Details

Source: huggingface.co/intfloat/multilingual-e5-large-instruct. Data checked against the model card on 22 Sep 2026. Have a lawyer review the license before commercial launch.