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Azure OpenAI Embeddings with Weaviate

New Documentation

The model provider integration pages are new and still undergoing improvements. We appreciate any feedback on this forum thread.

Weaviate's integration with Azure OpenAI's APIs allows you to access their models' capabilities directly from Weaviate.

Configure a Weaviate vector index to use an Azure OpenAI embedding model, and Weaviate will generate embeddings for various operations using the specified model and your Azure OpenAI API key. This feature is called the vectorizer.

At import time, Weaviate generates text object embeddings and saves them into the index. For vector and hybrid search operations, Weaviate converts text queries into embeddings.

Embedding integration illustration

Requirements

Weaviate configuration

Your Weaviate instance must be configured with the Azure OpenAI vectorizer integration (text2vec-openai) module.

For Weaviate Cloud (WCD) users

This integration is enabled by default on Weaviate Cloud (WCD) serverless instances.

For self-hosted users

API credentials

You must provide a valid Azure OpenAI API key to Weaviate for this integration. Go to Azure OpenAI to sign up and obtain an API key.

Provide the API key to Weaviate using one of the following methods:

  • Set the AZURE_APIKEY environment variable that is available to Weaviate.
  • Provide the API key at runtime, as shown in the examples below.
import weaviate
from weaviate.auth import AuthApiKey
import os

# Recommended: save sensitive data as environment variables
azure_key = os.getenv("AZURE_APIKEY")
headers = {
"X-Azure-Api-Key": azure_key,
}

client = weaviate.connect_to_wcs(
cluster_url=weaviate_url, # `weaviate_url`: your Weaviate URL
auth_credentials=AuthApiKey(weaviate_key), # `weaviate_key`: your Weaviate API key
headers=headers
)

# Work with Weaviate

client.close()

Configure the vectorizer

Configure a Weaviate index to use an Azure OpenAI embedding model by setting the vectorizer as follows:

Select the model to be used by specifying the Azure resource name.

from weaviate.classes.config import Configure

client.collections.create(
"DemoCollection",
vectorizer_config=[
Configure.NamedVectors.text2vec_azure_openai(
name="title_vector",
source_properties=["title"],
resource_name="<azure-resource-name>",
deployment_id="<azure-deployment-id>"
)
],
# Additional parameters not shown
)

Data import

After configuring the vectorizer, import data into Weaviate. Weaviate generates embeddings for text objects using the specified model.

collection = client.collections.get("DemoCollection")

with collection.batch.dynamic() as batch:
for src_obj in source_objects:
weaviate_obj = {
"title": src_obj["title"],
"description": src_obj["description"],
}

# The model provider integration will automatically vectorize the object
batch.add_object(
properties=weaviate_obj,
# vector=vector # Optionally provide a pre-obtained vector
)
Re-use existing vectors

If you already have a compatible model vector available, you can provide it directly to Weaviate. This can be useful if you have already generated embeddings using the same model and want to use them in Weaviate, such as when migrating data from another system.

Searches

Once the vectorizer is configured, Weaviate will perform vector and hybrid search operations using the specified Azure OpenAI model.

Embedding integration at search illustration

When you perform a vector search, Weaviate converts the text query into an embedding using the specified model and returns the most similar objects from the database.

The query below returns the n most similar objects from the database, set by limit.

collection = client.collections.get("DemoCollection")

response = collection.query.near_text(
query="A holiday film", # The model provider integration will automatically vectorize the query
limit=2
)

for obj in response.objects:
print(obj.properties["title"])
What is a hybrid search?

A hybrid search performs a vector search and a keyword (BM25) search, before combining the results to return the best matching objects from the database.

When you perform a hybrid search, Weaviate converts the text query into an embedding using the specified model and returns the best scoring objects from the database.

The query below returns the n best scoring objects from the database, set by limit.

collection = client.collections.get("DemoCollection")

response = collection.query.hybrid(
query="A holiday film", # The model provider integration will automatically vectorize the query
limit=2
)

for obj in response.objects:
print(obj.properties["title"])

References

Vectorizer parameters

The following examples show how to configure Azure OpenAI-specific options.

  • resource_name (Required): The name of the Azure OpenAI resource to use.
  • deployment_id (Required): The deployment ID of the Azure OpenAI resource.
  • base_url (Optional): The base URL of the Azure OpenAI API.
from weaviate.classes.config import Configure

client.collections.create(
"DemoCollection",
vectorizer_config=[
Configure.NamedVectors.text2vec_azure_openai(
name="title_vector",
source_properties=["title"],
resource_name="<azure-resource-name>",
deployment_id="<azure-deployment-id>",
# # Further options
# base_url="<custom_azure_url>",
)
],
# Additional parameters not shown
)

For further details on these parameters, see consult the Azure OpenAI API documentation.

Available models

See the Azure OpenAI documentation for a list of available models and their regional availability.

Further resources

Other integrations

Code examples

Once the integrations are configured at the collection, the data management and search operations in Weaviate work identically to any other collection. See the following model-agnostic examples:

  • The how-to: manage data guides show how to perform data operations (i.e. create, update, delete).
  • The how-to: search guides show how to perform search operations (i.e. vector, keyword, hybrid) as well as retrieval augmented generation.

External resources

If you have any questions or feedback, let us know in the user forum.