---
title: "What is visual search?"
description: "Visual search finds similar images or frames from a picture or a text description, using visual embeddings."
url: "https://pixeltable.com/learn/what-is-visual-search"
updated: "2026-09-29"
vertical: "Vision"
doc: "https://docs.pixeltable.com/datastore/embedding-index"
---

# What is visual search?

Visual search finds similar images or frames from a picture or a text description, using visual embeddings.

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

## On this page

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

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


- Embed the catalog of images or frames.
- Embed the query picture or phrase.
- Return the nearest catalog rows.

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

It is not a web crawler that looks up an image online, and it is not filename search.

## visual search: this, and the thing it is confused with {#comparison}

|  | This | Not this |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Catalog | Your images | The public web |
| Query | A picture or a phrase | A filename |
| Hit | A similar row you stored | An internet result |

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

Pixeltable indexes the image or frame column and answers with similarity on that column.

## Questions {#questions}

### How does visual search work? {#faq-1}

Embed the catalog of images or frames. Embed the query picture or phrase. Return the nearest catalog rows.

### What is visual search often confused with? {#faq-2}

It is not a web crawler that looks up an image online, and it is not filename search.

## In the blog

- [AdRadar: Creative Fatigue and Copycat Search Without a Tagging Farm](https://pixeltable.com/blog/adradar-creative-fatigue-visual-search)
- [SnapCatalog: Shop-the-Look Search Without a Tagging Farm](https://pixeltable.com/blog/snapcatalog-product-visual-search)
- [SafeStream: UGC Video Moderation as One Row, Two Signals](https://pixeltable.com/blog/safestream-ugc-video-moderation)
- [Build Your Own Multimodal Search Engine with Pixeltable](https://pixeltable.com/blog/pixelsearch-multimodal-search-engine)

## Related

- [Documentation](https://docs.pixeltable.com/datastore/embedding-index)
- [SnapCatalog: Shop-the-Look Search Without a Tagging Farm](https://pixeltable.com/blog/snapcatalog-product-visual-search)
- [AdRadar: Creative Fatigue and Copycat Search Without a Tagging Farm](https://pixeltable.com/blog/adradar-creative-fatigue-visual-search)
- [Computer vision pipeline](https://pixeltable.com/use-cases/computer-vision-pipeline-optimization)
- [image-lab](https://pixeltable.com/tools/image-lab)