OpenAI Embeddings API: How to change the embedding output dimension?

Question

In the official OpenAI node library Create embeddings if for example using the model text-embedding-ada-002 the embeddings returned is an array of around 1536.

import {Configuration, OpenAIApi} from 'openai'

openai = new OpenAIApi(this.configuration)
const parameters= {
      model: 'text-embedding-ada-002',
      input: text,
    }
// Make the embedding request and return the result
const resp = await openai.createEmbedding(parameters)
const embeddings = embedding?.data.data[0].embedding

I would like to be able to limit the length of the list of embeddings returned.

Answer 1

You can't change the embedding output dimension. The OpenAI Embeddings API doesn't have a parameter to control this. If you use the text-embedding-ada-002 model, you'll always get a 1536-dimensional embedding vector (i.e., there are 1536 numbers inside).

It's pre-defined, as stated in the official OpenAI documentation:

Note: You don't get 1536 embeddings from the OpenAI Embeddings API. You get one(!) 1536-dimensional embedding. What you can try to do is translate the embedding you get from the OpenAI Embeddings API to a lower-dimensional space. You'll have to do it manually.