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Nomic Embed Text v1.5 vs OpenAI text-embedding-3-small: Which AI Model Should You Choose?

Pricing, context windows, latency, capabilities, and a one-line code switch — everything you need to pick the right model.

huggingface
Embeddings
vs
OpenAI
Embeddings
Verdict

Nomic Embed Text v1.5 and OpenAI text-embedding-3-small are closely matched on pricing and context. The right choice depends on your specific workload — see the table below for the full breakdown.

Side-by-side specs

SpecNomic Embed Text v1.5OpenAI text-embedding-3-small
ProviderhuggingfaceOpenAI
CategoryEmbeddingsEmbeddings
Input cost / 1M tokensn/a$0.024
Output cost / 1M tokensn/an/a
Context window8K tokens8K tokens
Max output tokens——
Avg. latency—500ms
FeaturedYesYes
New——
Capabilities
text
text

Pricing example

A typical chat workload of 100,000 input tokens plus 50,000 output tokens.

Nomic Embed Text v1.5
n/a

100K in × n/a + 50K out × n/a

OpenAI text-embedding-3-small
$0.0024

100K in × $0.024 + 50K out × n/a

Switch in one line

Both models live behind Railwail's OpenAI-compatible endpoint. Replace the model string and you are done.

JavaScript / TypeScript
import OpenAI from "openai";

const client = new OpenAI({
  apiKey: process.env.RAILWAIL_API_KEY,
  baseURL: "https://railwail.com/v1",
});

// Before — using Nomic Embed Text v1.5
let r = await client.chat.completions.create({
  model: "nomic-ai/nomic-embed-text-v1.5",
  messages: [{ role: "user", content: "Hello" }],
});

// After — switched to OpenAI text-embedding-3-small
r = await client.chat.completions.create({
  model: "text-embedding-3-small",
  messages: [{ role: "user", content: "Hello" }],
});
Python
from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI(
    api_key=os.environ["RAILWAIL_API_KEY"],
    base_url="https://railwail.com/v1",
)

# Before — using Nomic Embed Text v1.5
r = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="nomic-ai/nomic-embed-text-v1.5",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Hello"}],
)

# After — switched to OpenAI text-embedding-3-small
r = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="text-embedding-3-small",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Hello"}],
)
cURL
# Before — using Nomic Embed Text v1.5
curl https://railwail.com/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $RAILWAIL_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "nomic-ai/nomic-embed-text-v1.5",
    "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Hello"}]
  }'

# After — switched to OpenAI text-embedding-3-small
curl https://railwail.com/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $RAILWAIL_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "text-embedding-3-small",
    "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Hello"}]
  }'

Which one wins for...

Quick verdicts derived from public specs. Always validate on your own workload.

Coding
Nomic Embed Text v1.5

Higher coding category match or larger context wins.

Writing
Nomic Embed Text v1.5

Bigger context window helps maintain long-form coherence.

Long documents
Nomic Embed Text v1.5

The larger context window is the deciding factor.

Vision
Tie

Multimodal/vision support is required for image inputs.

Real-time chat
OpenAI text-embedding-3-small

Lower average latency wins for interactive UX.

Cost-sensitive
Tie

The model with the lower input-token price wins.

Frequently asked questions

Which is cheaper, Nomic Embed Text v1.5 or OpenAI text-embedding-3-small?
Nomic Embed Text v1.5 and OpenAI text-embedding-3-small cannot be compared on per-token price: at least one of them has no per-token price listed (it is priced per run or not yet priced). See each model page for its current price.
Which has more context, Nomic Embed Text v1.5 or OpenAI text-embedding-3-small?
Nomic Embed Text v1.5 has the larger context window at 8K tokens, compared to 8K tokens for OpenAI text-embedding-3-small.
Is Nomic Embed Text v1.5 better than OpenAI text-embedding-3-small for coding?
For coding-heavy workloads we lean toward Nomic Embed Text v1.5 on this comparison — it scores higher on the relevant heuristics (category, tags, or context window). Both models are usable for code via Railwail's OpenAI-compatible endpoint, so the safest path is to A/B test on your own prompts.
Can I use both Nomic Embed Text v1.5 and OpenAI text-embedding-3-small via Railwail?
Yes. Both Nomic Embed Text v1.5 and OpenAI text-embedding-3-small are accessible through a single Railwail API key and the OpenAI-compatible /v1/chat/completions endpoint. You only change the "model" parameter to switch between them — no SDK swap, no separate billing.
How do I switch from Nomic Embed Text v1.5 to OpenAI text-embedding-3-small?
Replace the model identifier "nomic-ai/nomic-embed-text-v1.5" with "text-embedding-3-small" in your request payload. Everything else — API key, base URL, request shape — stays the same. See the code example on this page for the exact one-line change.

Try Nomic Embed Text v1.5 and OpenAI text-embedding-3-small side by side

One API key, one endpoint, both models. Start free — no credit card required.

Get Started FreeView Nomic Embed Text v1.5View OpenAI text-embedding-3-small