# 8-bit RQ quantization is not enabled by default for 1.33.9

**URL:** <https://forum.weaviate.io/t/8-bit-rq-quantization-is-not-enabled-by-default-for-1-33-9/22183>\
**Category:** Support\
**Created:** [December 10, 2025, 12:50am UTC](https://forum.weaviate.io/t/8-bit-rq-quantization-is-not-enabled-by-default-for-1-33-9/22183 "2025-12-10T00:50:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Charlie\_Chen](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex027/user_avatar/forum.weaviate.io/charlie_chen/32/7523_2.png) [@Charlie\_Chen](https://forum.weaviate.io/u/Charlie_Chen)\
**Post date:** [December 10, 2025, 12:50am UTC](https://forum.weaviate.io/t/8-bit-rq-quantization-is-not-enabled-by-default-for-1-33-9/22183/1 "2025-12-10T00:50:32Z")

</div>

### Description

I’ve upgraded to **Weaviate v1.33.9** , and according to [the documentation](https://docs.weaviate.io/weaviate/configuration/compression/rq-compression)

> Starting with `v1.33`, Weaviate enables **8-bit [RQ quantization](https://docs.weaviate.io/weaviate/configuration/compression/rq-compression) by default** when creating new collections to ensure efficient resource utilization and faster performance. This behavior can be changed through the [`DEFAULT_QUANTIZATION`](https://docs.weaviate.io/deploy/configuration/env-vars#DEFAULT_QUANTIZATION) environment variable. Note that once enabled, quantization can’t be disabled for a collection. Default quantization only applies for the HNSW vector index type.

However, after creating a new collection using the following code:

```python
await client.collections.create(
    name = index_name,
    properties=props,
    vector_index_config= Configure.VectorIndex.hnsw(
            ef_construction=64, 
            ef=-1, 
            vector_cache_max_objects=app_settings.WEAVIATE_VECTOR_CACHE_MAX_OBJECTS 
        )
)

```

I see that **RQ is not enabled**.

```auto
{
  "class": "PtAi_rag_3a010d31_750d_5dad_5f3c_8665f3ec8ac0_knowledge_6938bd5bd6837da2e99904a9",
  "invertedIndexConfig": {
    "bm25": {
      "b": 0.75,
      "k1": 1.2
    },
    "cleanupIntervalSeconds": 60,
    "stopwords": {
      "additions": null,
      "preset": "en",
      "removals": null
    },
    "usingBlockMaxWAND": true
  },
  "multiTenancyConfig": {
    "autoTenantActivation": false,
    "autoTenantCreation": false,
    "enabled": false
  },
  "properties": [...],
  "replicationConfig": {
    "asyncEnabled": false,
    "deletionStrategy": "NoAutomatedResolution",
    "factor": 1
  },
  "shardingConfig": {
    "actualCount": 1,
    "actualVirtualCount": 128,
    "desiredCount": 1,
    "desiredVirtualCount": 128,
    "function": "murmur3",
    "key": "_id",
    "strategy": "hash",
    "virtualPerPhysical": 128
  },
  "vectorIndexConfig": {
    "bq": {
      "enabled": false
    },
    "cleanupIntervalSeconds": 300,
    "distance": "cosine",
    "dynamicEfFactor": 8,
    "dynamicEfMax": 500,
    "dynamicEfMin": 100,
    "ef": -1,
    "efConstruction": 64,
    "filterStrategy": "sweeping",
    "flatSearchCutoff": 40000,
    "maxConnections": 32,
    "multivector": {
      "aggregation": "maxSim",
      "enabled": false,
      "muvera": {
        "dprojections": 16,
        "enabled": false,
        "ksim": 4,
        "repetitions": 10
      }
    },
    "pq": {
      "bitCompression": false,
      "centroids": 256,
      "enabled": false,
      "encoder": {
        "distribution": "log-normal",
        "type": "kmeans"
      },
      "segments": 0,
      "trainingLimit": 100000
    },
    "rq": {
      "bits": 8,
      "enabled": false,
      "rescoreLimit": 20
    },
    "skip": false,
    "skipDefaultQuantization": false,
    "sq": {
      "enabled": false,
      "rescoreLimit": 20,
      "trainingLimit": 100000
    },
    "trackDefaultQuantization": false,
    "vectorCacheMaxObjects": 20000
  },
  "vectorIndexType": "hnsw",
  "vectorizer": "none"
}

```

Is this expected behavior, or could it be a bug?  
Do I need to **explicitly enable RQ** , even in v1.33.9? The docs suggest it should be on by default for new collections with 1536-dimensional vectors.

### Server Setup Information

- Weaviate Server Version: 1.33.9
- Deployment Method: k8s
- Multi Node? Number of Running Nodes: Single
- Client Language and Version: python 3.11.2, weaviate-client 4.16.7
- Multitenancy?: false

### Any additional Information

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![maryannc](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex027/user_avatar/forum.weaviate.io/maryannc/32/3408_2.png) [@maryannc](https://forum.weaviate.io/u/maryannc)\
**Post date:** [December 10, 2025, 4:06am UTC](https://forum.weaviate.io/t/8-bit-rq-quantization-is-not-enabled-by-default-for-1-33-9/22183/2 "2025-12-10T04:06:51Z")

</div>

> [@Charlie\_Chen](#):
>
> ### Description
> 
> I’ve upgraded to **Weaviate v1.33.9** , and according to [the documentation](https://docs.weaviate.io/weaviate/configuration/compression/rq-compression)
> 
> > Starting with `v1.33`, Weaviate enables **8-bit [RQ quantization](https://docs.weaviate.io/weaviate/configuration/compression/rq-compression) by default** when creating new collections to ensure efficient resource utilization and faster performance. This behavior can be changed through the [`DEFAULT_QUANTIZATION`](https://docs.weaviate.io/deploy/configuration/env-vars#DEFAULT_QUANTIZATION) environment variable. Note that once enabled, quantization can’t be disabled for a collection. Default quantization only applies for the HNSW vector index type.
> 
> However, after creating a new collection using the following code:
> 
> ```auto
> await client.collections.create(
> name = index_name,
> properties=props,
> vector_index_config= Configure.VectorIndex.hnsw(
> ef_construction=64, 
> ef=-1, 
> vector_cache_max_objects=app_settings.WEAVIATE_VECTOR_CACHE_MAX_OBJECTS 
> )
> )
> 
> ```
> 
> I see that **RQ is not enabled**.
> 
> ```auto
> {
> "class": "PtAi_rag_3a010d31_750d_5dad_5f3c_8665f3ec8ac0_knowledge_6938bd5bd6837da2e99904a9",
> "invertedIndexConfig": {
> "bm25": {
> "b": 0.75,
> "k1": 1.2
> },
> "cleanupIntervalSeconds": 60,
> "stopwords": {
> "additions": null,
> "preset": "en",
> "removals": null
> },
> "usingBlockMaxWAND": true
> },
> "multiTenancyConfig": {
> "autoTenantActivation": false,
> "autoTenantCreation": false,
> "enabled": false
> },
> "properties": [...],
> "replicationConfig": {
> "asyncEnabled": false,
> "deletionStrategy": "NoAutomatedResolution",
> "factor": 1
> },
> "shardingConfig": {
> "actualCount": 1,
> "actualVirtualCount": 128,
> "desiredCount": 1,
> "desiredVirtualCount": 128,
> "function": "murmur3",
> "key": "_id",
> "strategy": "hash",
> "virtualPerPhysical": 128
> },
> "vectorIndexConfig": {
> "bq": {
> "enabled": false
> },
> "cleanupIntervalSeconds": 300,
> "distance": "cosine",
> "dynamicEfFactor": 8,
> "dynamicEfMax": 500,
> "dynamicEfMin": 100,
> "ef": -1,
> "efConstruction": 64,
> "filterStrategy": "sweeping",
> "flatSearchCutoff": 40000,
> "maxConnections": 32,
> "multivector": {
> "aggregation": "maxSim",
> "enabled": false,
> "muvera": {
> "dprojections": 16,
> "enabled": false,
> "ksim": 4,
> "repetitions": 10
> }
> },
> "pq": {
> "bitCompression": false,
> "centroids": 256,
> "enabled": false,
> "encoder": {
> "distribution": "log-normal",
> "type": "kmeans"
> },
> "segments": 0,
> "trainingLimit": 100000
> },
> "rq": {
> "bits": 8,
> "enabled": false,
> "rescoreLimit": 20
> },
> "skip": false,
> "skipDefaultQuantization": false,
> "sq": {
> "enabled": false,
> "rescoreLimit": 20,
> "trainingLimit": 100000
> },
> "trackDefaultQuantization": false,
> "vectorCacheMaxObjects": 20000
> },
> "vectorIndexType": "hnsw",
> "vectorizer": "none"
> }
> 
> ```
> 
> Is this expected behavior, or could it be a bug?  
> Do I need to **explicitly enable RQ** , even in v1.33.9? The docs suggest it should be on by default for new collections with 1536-dimensional vectors.
> 
> ### Server Setup Information
> 
> - Weaviate Server Version: 1.33.9
> - Deployment Method: k8s
> - Multi Node? Number of Running Nodes: Single
> - Client Language and Version: python 3.11.2, weaviate-client 4.16.7
> - Multitenancy?: false

Hi @Charlie_Chen !

Good Day!

Welcome to Weaviate Community!

Could you check if DEFAULT\_QUANTIZATION is not set or disabled on your environment? If this environment variable is disabled then RQ will not be enabled. See [here](https://weaviate.io/blog/weaviate-1-33-release#compression-by-default--8-bit-rq-goes-ga)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Charlie\_Chen](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex027/user_avatar/forum.weaviate.io/charlie_chen/32/7523_2.png) [@Charlie\_Chen](https://forum.weaviate.io/u/Charlie_Chen)\
**Post date:** [December 10, 2025, 4:39am UTC](https://forum.weaviate.io/t/8-bit-rq-quantization-is-not-enabled-by-default-for-1-33-9/22183/3 "2025-12-10T04:39:26Z")

</div>

I have checked my environment variable. I didn’t set DEFAULT\_QUANTIZATION.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![DudaNogueira](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex027/user_avatar/forum.weaviate.io/dudanogueira/32/7846_2.png) [@DudaNogueira](https://forum.weaviate.io/u/DudaNogueira)\
**Post date:** [December 10, 2025, 4:56pm UTC](https://forum.weaviate.io/t/8-bit-rq-quantization-is-not-enabled-by-default-for-1-33-9/22183/4 "2025-12-10T16:56:41Z")

</div>

hi @Charlie_Chen !!

Thanks for pointing it out!! 😀

That info box is not well worded. In fact, It will only apply a default quantization when the setting `DEFAULT_QUANTIZATION` is set to one of the values mentioned. By default it will fallback to `none`

I have created a PR so we can improve that section.

Once again, thanks!