---
title: Inference
weight: 81
---

# Inference in Qdrant Managed Cloud

Inference is the process of creating vector embeddings from text, images, or other data types using a machine learning model.

Qdrant Managed Cloud allows you to use inference directly in the cloud, without the need to set up and maintain your own inference infrastructure.

![Cluster Cluster UI](/documentation/cloud/cloud-inference.png)

## Supported Models

You can see the list of supported models in the Inference tab of the Cluster Detail page in the Qdrant Cloud Console. The list includes models for text, both to produce dense and sparse vectors, as well as multi-modal models for images.

## Enabling/Disabling Inference

Inference is enabled by default for all new clusters, created after July, 7th 2025. You can enable it for existing clusters directly from the Inference tab of the Cluster Detail page in the Qdrant Cloud Console. Activating inference will trigger a restart of your cluster to apply the new configuration.

## Billing

Inference is billed based on the number of tokens processed by the model. The cost is calculated per 1,000,000 tokens. The price depends on the model and is displayed ont the Inference tab of the Cluster Detail page. You also can see the current usage of each model there.

## Using Inference

Inference can be easily used through the Qdrant SDKs and the REST or GRPC APIs when upserting points and when querying the database.

Instead of a vector, you can use special *Interface Objects*:

* **`Document`** object, used for text inference

```js
// Document
{
    // Text input
    text: "Your text",
    // Name of the model, to do inference with
    model: "<the-model-to-use>",
    // Extra parameters for the model, Optional
    options: {}
}
```

* **`Image`** object, used for image inference

```js
// Image
{
    // Image input
    image: "<url>", // Or base64 encoded image
    // Name of the model, to do inference with
    model: "<the-model-to-use>",
    // Extra parameters for the model, Optional
    options: {}
}
```

* **`Object`** object, reserved for other types of input, which might be implemented in the future.


The Qdrant API supports usage of these Inference Objects in all places, where regular vectors can be used.

For example:

```http
POST /collections/<your-collection>/points/query
{
  "query": {
    "nearest": [0.12, 0.34, 0.56, 0.78, ...]
  }
}
```

Can be replaced with

```http
POST /collections/<your-collection>/points/query
{
  "query": {
    "nearest": {
      "text": "My Query Text",
      "model": "<the-model-to-use>"
    }
  }
}
```

In this case, the Qdrant Cloud will use the configured embedding model to automatically create a vector from the Inference Object and then perform the search query with it. All of this happens within a low-latency network.

The input used for inference will not be saved anywhere. If you want to persist it in Qdrant, make sure to explicitly include it in the payload.


### Text Inference

Let's consider an example of using Cloud Inference with a text model producing dense vectors.

Here, we create one point and use a simple search query with a `Document` Inference Object.

{{< code-snippet path="/documentation/headless/snippets/cloud-inference/simple/" >}}

Usage examples, specific to each cluster and model, can also be found in the Inference tab of the Cluster Detail page in the Qdrant Cloud Console.

Note that each model has a context window, which is the maximum number of tokens that can be processed by the model in a single request. If the input text exceeds the context window, it will be truncated to fit within the limit. The context window size is displayed in the Inference tab of the Cluster Detail page.

For dense vector models, you also have to ensure that the vector size configured in the collection matches the output size of the model. If the vector size does not match, the upsert will fail with an error.

### Image Inference

Here is another example of using Cloud Inference with an image model. This time, we will use the `CLIP` model to encode an image and then use a text query to search for it.

Since the `CLIP` model is multimodal, we can use both image and text inputs on the same vector field.

{{< code-snippet path="/documentation/headless/snippets/cloud-inference/image/" >}}

Qdrant Cloud Inference server will download the images using the provided link. Alternatively, you can upload the image as a base64 encoded string.

Note that each model has limitations on the file size and extensions it can work with.

Please refer to the model card for details.

### Local Inference Compatibility

The Python SDK offers a unique capability: it supports both [local](/documentation/fastembed/fastembed-semantic-search/) and cloud inference through an identical interface.

You can easily switch between local and cloud inference by setting the cloud_inference flag when initializing the QdrantClient. For example:

```python
client = QdrantClient(
    url="https://your-cluster.qdrant.io",
    api_key="<your-api-key>",
    cloud_inference=True,  # Set to False to use local inference
)
```

This flexibility allows you to develop and test your applications locally or in continuous integration (CI) environments without requiring access to cloud inference resources.

* When `cloud_inference` is set to `False`, inference is performed locally usign `fastembed`.
* When set to `True`, inference requests are handled by Qdrant Cloud.