landing_page/qdrant-landing/content/documentation/migrate-to-qdrant/from-faiss.md

title, short_description, description, weight

title	short_description	description	weight
From FAISS	Move vectors from a FAISS index file into Qdrant to gain managed storage, payload filtering, and distributed search.	Migrate from FAISS to Qdrant by importing non-quantized FAISS index files into Qdrant collections for managed storage, payload filters, and distributed search.	90

Migrate from FAISS to Qdrant

What You Need from FAISS

• Index file path — path to your FAISS index file
• Distance metric — the metric used when the index was built (l2, inner product, etc.)

Important: Only non-quantized FAISS index types are supported. Quantized indexes (e.g., IndexIVFPQ) do not store the original vectors and cannot be migrated.

Supported Index Types

FAISS Index Type	Supported	Notes
IndexFlatL2	Yes	Maps to euclid distance
IndexFlatIP	Yes	Maps to dot distance
IndexHNSWFlat	Yes	Full vectors are stored
IndexIVFFlat	Yes	Full vectors are stored
IndexIVFPQ	No	Quantized — original vectors not stored
IndexPQ	No	Quantized — original vectors not stored

Concept Mapping

FAISS	Qdrant	Notes
Index	Collection	One-to-one mapping
Vector (by position)	Point	Position in index becomes point ID

Run the Migration

docker run --net=host --rm -it \
    -v /path/to/your/index:/data \
    registry.cloud.qdrant.io/library/qdrant-migration faiss \
    --faiss.index-path '/data/your-index.index' \
    --qdrant.url 'https://your-instance.cloud.qdrant.io:6334' \
    --qdrant.api-key 'your-qdrant-api-key' \
    --qdrant.collection 'your-collection' \
    --qdrant.distance-metric cosine

All FAISS-Specific Flags

Flag	Required	Description
--faiss.index-path	Yes	Path to the FAISS index file (inside the container)

Qdrant-Side Options

Flag	Default	Description
--qdrant.distance-metric	cosine	Distance metric: cosine, dot, euclid, or manhattan

Gotchas

• No metadata: FAISS indexes store only vectors. All points will have empty payloads. If you have a separate metadata store keyed by vector position, import that separately after migration.
• Point IDs: Points are assigned IDs based on their position in the FAISS index. Use this to join with any external metadata store.

Next Steps

After migration, verify your data arrived correctly with the Migration Verification Guide.