# We built a vector search engine that lets you choose precision at query time

DevFeed: [We built a vector search engine that lets you choose precision at query time](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/we-built-a-vector-search-engine-that-lets-you-choose-precision-at-query-time-5534.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://clickhouse.com/blog/qbit-vector-search>)

Author: Raufs Dunamalijevs

Published: 2025-10-28T00:00:00Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [ClickHouse Blog](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/clickhouse-blog.md>)

Topics: [AI search](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/ai-search.md>), [Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG)](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/retrieval-augmented-generation-rag.md>), [Language models](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/language-models.md>)

Tags: [ann](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ann.md>), [clickhouse](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/clickhouse.md>), [databases](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/databases.md>), [embedding](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/embedding.md>), [embeddings](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/embeddings.md>), [performance](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/performance.md>), [rag](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/rag.md>), [retrieval](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/retrieval.md>), [search](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/search.md>), [speed](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/speed.md>), [vector](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/vector.md>)

## AI overview

ClickHouse introduces QBit, a bit-plane float column type for vector search. It allows query-time adjustment of read precision to balance recall and performance without changing stored data.

## Source excerpt

We added QBit to ClickHouse, a column type that stores floats as bit planes. It lets you choose how many bits to read during vector search, tuning recall and performance without changing the data.