---
title: "What is YOLO?"
description: "YOLO is a family of real-time object detectors, including YOLOX, that predict boxes and classes on stills or video frames."
url: "https://pixeltable.com/learn/what-is-yolo"
updated: "2026-09-29"
vertical: "Vision"
doc: "https://docs.pixeltable.com/howto/cookbooks/video/video-extract-frames"
---

# What is YOLO?

YOLO is a family of real-time object detectors, including YOLOX, that predict boxes and classes on stills or video frames.

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

## On this page

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

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


- Run it on an image or a frame row.
- Read boxes, classes, and scores.
- Filter frames by the classes you care about.

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

It is not CLIP retrieval, and it is not a segmentation mask model.

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

|  | This | Not this |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Speed | Built for real time | A two-stage detector’s default |
| Output | Boxes | A mask or a caption |
| On video | Once per sampled frame | Once on the whole file |

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

Pixeltable calls YOLOX as a function on the frame column, for example yolox(frame, model_id=...).

## Questions {#questions}

### How does YOLO work? {#faq-1}

Run it on an image or a frame row. Read boxes, classes, and scores. Filter frames by the classes you care about.

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

It is not CLIP retrieval, and it is not a segmentation mask model.

## In the blog

- [Pixeltable Supports the CV Community with a Maintained YOLOX Fork](https://pixeltable.com/blog/pixeltable-yolox-fork)
- [From Data Chaos to Dataset Mastery: How ML Engineers Are Transforming Autonomous Vehicle Workflows](https://pixeltable.com/blog/ml-engineer-dataset-chaos-autonomous-vehicle-workflows)
- [YOLOX Object Detection for Video Analysis: Complete Guide with Pixeltable](https://pixeltable.com/blog/object-detection-videos-yolox)

## Related

- [Documentation](https://docs.pixeltable.com/howto/cookbooks/video/video-extract-frames)
- [YOLOX Object Detection for Video Analysis: Complete Guide with Pixeltable](https://pixeltable.com/blog/object-detection-videos-yolox)
- [Pixeltable Supports the CV Community with a Maintained YOLOX Fork](https://pixeltable.com/blog/pixeltable-yolox-fork)
- [Computer vision pipeline](https://pixeltable.com/use-cases/computer-vision-pipeline-optimization)