What is semantic chunking? How does it differ from fixed-size?medium

Type
conceptual
Topic
is-semantic-chunking-how-does-it-differ-from-fixed-size
Frequency
common
Tags
rag, what, semantic, chunking, how, does
Answer

Fixed-size splits at a set token count — simple but can cut mid-concept.

Explanation

Fixed-size splits at a set token count — simple but can cut mid-concept. Semantic chunking splits at natural boundaries: sentences, paragraphs, or detected topic shifts (embedding similarity drops). Each chunk is a coherent unit. Used in a document extraction pipeline because contract clauses are variable-length and splitting mid-clause destroys extraction context.

Follow-upWhen would you choose one approach over the other?