Last updated: 2026-02-12
RAG Framework Tradeoffs Under Real Latency Budgets
How retrieval frameworks compare when p95 latency and observability matter.
Framework choice should start from deployment and privacy requirements.
Choose an approach that makes citation and source provenance first-class.
Tune chunking and reranking with real queries, not synthetic examples only.
Tradeoffs and constraints
- Managed stacks reduce setup time but constrain deep customization.
- Self-hosted stacks improve control but increase ongoing maintenance.
Sources
- Open-source docs
- Cloud reference architectures
- Latency test logs