Hybrid search combines classic keyword search with meaning-based search to find both exact terms and related matches.
Example
For “invoice 2026-0815 reminder”, keyword search finds the number and semantic search finds matching reminder letters.
For pros
Results from full-text search (e.g. BM25) and vector search are merged, often with reciprocal rank fusion, and then sorted by reranking. In RAG systems this is often more robust than either method alone.
