Relevan vs Mixedbread
Mixedbread and Relevan both give AI agents search over your own data. Mixedbread parses files of many types and can run the search loop for the agent. Relevan indexes structured records and tunes the retrieval of each index.
The facts about Mixedbread come from its public pages, as of October 2026. The sources are at the end of this page.
Summary
| Mixedbread | Relevan | |
|---|---|---|
| Approach | Integrated agent retrieval | Relevance tuning for each index |
| Input | Files: PDFs, documents, images, code, video, and audio | JSON records with a mapping |
| Search modes | Grep, semantic, semantic with a reranker, and an agentic option | Keyword retrieval, with optional hybrid retrieval and a reranker for each index |
| What improves the results | The Mixedbread models and search engine, which serve all stores | The retrieval and ranking configuration of each index |
| Pricing | Usage-based: indexing, queries, and storage | Monthly plans, from a free plan |
What Mixedbread does
As of October 2026, Mixedbread describes itself as a search API for unstructured data:
- You create a store and upload files. Mixedbread parses them with its own models, in more than 100 languages.
- High Quality indexing adds OCR with the layout, descriptions of images, and transcripts of audio and video.
- A search can use exact and regex matching, semantic retrieval, or semantic retrieval with a reranker. An
agenticoption lets Mixedbread run the search loop and return evidence to the agent. - Toast 1 is a Mixedbread search model for knowledge tasks, billed per LLM token.
- Agents connect through an MCP server, a CLI, agent skills, and Python and TypeScript SDKs.
Vendor-reported figures from the Mixedbread homepage: 70% on OfficeQA Pro V2, 3.5 times fewer tokens on Harvey LAB, more than 5 billion documents indexed, and a P50 search time below 80 ms in production.
Mixedbread prices by use. Semantic search costs $4 per 1,000 queries, or $7.50 with the reranker. Indexing costs $1.50 or $3 per million content tokens, and storage costs $0.50 per million content tokens each month. The Starter plan is free with $5 of one-time credits. The Scale plan costs $20 a month, which returns as credits.
The public pages that this comparison read do not describe a model or a configuration that changes for one store from its own traffic.
What Relevan does
Relevan is a managed search engine for your own records, such as products, profiles, and documents. You send JSON records and a mapping. Relevan runs the OpenSearch index, and agents search it through an HTTP API.
- Each search response tells the agent why each result matched, and suggests what to try next.
- Relevan tunes retrieval and ranking for each index. Compare Relevan with other search tools explains what Relevan tunes, and when.
- The feedback endpoint records clicks, LLM judgments, and conversions for each search.
- Relevan prices by plan, from a free plan. See pricing.
The main difference
Mixedbread improves search with better models and a managed search loop, and these serve every store. Relevan changes the configuration of each index. The configuration holds the field weights, the BM25 parameters, and hybrid retrieval. It can also hold a reranking model trained on the judged queries of that index.
Mixedbread reduces the work of the agent when it runs the search loop for the agent. Relevan reduces the work of the agent when its first results are better, and when its response explains the next search.
When to choose Mixedbread
- Your data is in files, such as PDFs, slide decks, scanned pages, video, or audio, and you do not want to parse them.
- You want the search service to run the search loop and return evidence to your agent.
- Your content is in many languages.
- You want to pay only for use, with no monthly plan.
When to choose Relevan
- Your data is structured records with fields, such as a product catalog, profiles, or support articles.
- Your agents need an explanation of each match and a suggestion for the next search.
- You want the retrieval of each index tuned to its own documents and queries.
- You want a monthly plan with a fixed search quota.
Sources
Read on October 29, 2026:
- Mixedbread homepage: https://www.mixedbread.com
- Mixedbread pricing: https://www.mixedbread.com/pricing
- Mixedbread documentation overview: https://www.mixedbread.com/docs
- Mixedbread store search: https://www.mixedbread.com/docs/stores/search