---
title: "What is video RAG?"
description: "Video RAG retrieves a moment — a frame, a timestamp, and maybe a transcript line — and gives that evidence to the model."
url: "https://pixeltable.com/learn/what-is-video-rag"
updated: "2026-09-29"
vertical: "Video"
doc: "https://docs.pixeltable.com/howto/cookbooks/video/video-extract-frames"
---

# What is video RAG?

Video RAG retrieves a moment — a frame, a timestamp, and maybe a transcript line — and gives that evidence to the model.

Updated: 2026-09-29
Part of [What is RAG?](https://pixeltable.com/learn/what-is-rag).

## On this page

- [How it works](https://pixeltable.com/learn/what-is-video-rag#how-it-works)
- [What it is not](https://pixeltable.com/learn/what-is-video-rag#what-it-is-not)
- [Comparison](https://pixeltable.com/learn/what-is-video-rag#comparison)
- [Where Pixeltable fits](https://pixeltable.com/learn/what-is-video-rag#where-pixeltable-fits)
- [Questions](https://pixeltable.com/learn/what-is-video-rag#questions)

## How it works {#how-it-works}


- Sample frames, and optionally transcribe the soundtrack.
- Embed the frames or the transcript windows.
- The retrieved hit names the clip and the time, then the model answers from that.

## What it is not {#what-it-is-not}

It is not a vector database of clip titles, and it is not captioning one video inside a chat window.

## video RAG: this, and the thing it is confused with {#comparison}

|  | This | Not this |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Evidence | A moment | A filename |
| Index | Frames and/or transcript windows | Titles only |
| Model input | The hit, not the whole library | The entire file on every question |

## Where Pixeltable fits {#where-pixeltable-fits}

Pixeltable builds the frame view and the index on the video table, then a query returns the moment a generator can read.

## Questions {#questions}

### How does video RAG work? {#faq-1}

Sample frames, and optionally transcribe the soundtrack. Embed the frames or the transcript windows. The retrieved hit names the clip and the time, then the model answers from that.

### What is video RAG often confused with? {#faq-2}

It is not a vector database of clip titles, and it is not captioning one video inside a chat window.

## In the blog

- [Kubrick Video Agent Course: Building Multimodal Agents with Pixeltable](https://pixeltable.com/blog/kubrick-video-agent-course)
- [VideoRAG: Where Pixeltable Stores Frames and Indexes](https://pixeltable.com/blog/videorag-where-pixeltable-stores-indexes)

## Related

- [Documentation](https://docs.pixeltable.com/howto/cookbooks/video/video-extract-frames)
- [VideoRAG: Where Pixeltable Stores Frames and Indexes](https://pixeltable.com/blog/videorag-where-pixeltable-stores-indexes)
- [Kubrick Video Agent Course: Building Multimodal Agents with Pixeltable](https://pixeltable.com/blog/kubrick-video-agent-course)
- [Video intelligence pipeline](https://pixeltable.com/use-cases/video-content-analysis)