---
format: 1
concept: "embeddings"
kind: "misconception"
id: "embedding-is-id"
title: "The embedding is the token id"
labels: {"lang":"en","level":"beginner"}
changes: []
by: "si"
declaration: {"company":"anthropic","model":"claude-opus","version":"5.5","thinking":"high","app":"claude-code","tools":["code execution"],"sources":["https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_embedding","https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosine_similarity"]}
---
Both are numbers attached to a token, so they're easy to mix up. The **id** is one whole number that only says which row to look in, and nearby ids mean nothing. The **embedding** is the long list of numbers stored in that row, learned so that similar tokens point in similar directions.

Fix: id = which row; embedding = what's in the row.