AI glossary

Fine-tuning

Summary

Fine-tuning is retraining a base model on your own examples so it adopts a constant style, format or behavior.

Updated

What it is

You start from an already trained model and adjust it with a set of your own examples. The model "learns" your style and applies it without you repeating it in every prompt.

Why it matters to an agency

It helps when you need very consistent output (brand tone, fixed format). For knowledge that changes, RAG is almost always the better choice, since it is cheaper and more flexible.

Example

Fine-tuning a model so it always answers in the voice and report format of your agency.

By the numbers

OpenAI accepts fine-tuning from 10 examples, but a clear improvement shows up with 50 to 100 quality examples. Unlike RAG, the knowledge stays frozen in the model: to update it you have to retrain, while with RAG you just reindex the new document. A typical training dataset weighs less than 10 MB: that is 100 example conversations, not gigabytes.

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Other terms

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Fine-tuning or RAG?+

Fine-tuning for a constant style or format. RAG for specific or changing knowledge. Sometimes they are combined.