---
title: "LLMRanker"
id: llmranker
slug: "/llmranker"
description: "Ranks documents for a query using a Large Language Model. The LLM returns ranked document indices as JSON."
---

# LLMRanker

Ranks documents for a query using a Large Language Model (LLM). The LLM is prompted with the query and document contents and is expected to return a JSON object containing ranked document indices, from most to least relevant.

<div className="key-value-table">

|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| **Most common position in a pipeline** | In a query pipeline, after a component that returns a list of documents such as a [Retriever](../retrievers.mdx) |
| **Mandatory run variables** | `query`: A query string  <br /> <br />`documents`: A list of document objects |
| **Output variables** | `documents`: A list of documents |
| **API reference** | [Rankers](/reference/rankers-api) |
| **GitHub link** | https://github.com/deepset-ai/haystack/blob/main/haystack/components/rankers/llm_ranker.py |
| **Package name** | `haystack-ai` |

</div>

## Overview

`LLMRanker` uses an LLM to reorder documents by relevance to the query. Unlike cross-encoder rankers, it treats relevance as a semantic reasoning task, which can yield better results for complex or multi-step queries. The component sends the query and document contents to the LLM and parses the response as JSON: an array of objects with an `index` field (1-based document position). Only documents that the LLM includes in this list are returned, in the order given.

Before ranking, duplicate documents are removed. You can set `top_k` to limit how many documents are returned. If generation or parsing fails, the ranker either raises (when `raise_on_failure=True`) or returns the input documents in their original order (when `raise_on_failure=False`, the default).

You can pass any Haystack `ChatGenerator` that supports structured JSON output. If you omit `chat_generator`, a default `OpenAIChatGenerator` (e.g. `gpt-4.1-mini`) with JSON schema for the ranking response is used. You need to provide an OPENAI_API_KEY for this `ChatGenerator`. You can also provide a custom `prompt` template. It must include exactly the variables `query` and `documents` and instruct the LLM to return ranked 1-based document indices as JSON.

## Usage

### On its own

This example uses `LLMRanker` with the default `OpenAIChatGenerator` to rank two documents. The ranker returns documents in the order specified by the LLM.

```python
from haystack import Document
from haystack.components.rankers import LLMRanker

ranker = LLMRanker()

documents = [
    Document(id="paris", content="Paris is the capital of France."),
    Document(id="berlin", content="Berlin is the capital of Germany."),
]

result = ranker.run(query="capital of Germany", documents=documents)
print(result["documents"][0].id)  # "berlin"
```

### With a custom chat generator

You can pass your own chat generator configured for JSON output (e.g. with `response_format` / JSON schema so the model returns the expected `documents` array with `index` fields):

```python
from haystack import Document
from haystack.components.generators.chat import OpenAIChatGenerator
from haystack.components.rankers import LLMRanker

chat_generator = OpenAIChatGenerator(
    model="gpt-4.1-mini",
    generation_kwargs={
        "temperature": 0.0,
        "response_format": {
            "type": "json_schema",
            "json_schema": {
                "name": "document_ranking",
                "schema": {
                    "type": "object",
                    "properties": {
                        "documents": {
                            "type": "array",
                            "items": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {"index": {"type": "integer"}},
                                "required": ["index"],
                                "additionalProperties": False,
                            },
                        },
                    },
                    "required": ["documents"],
                    "additionalProperties": False,
                },
            },
        },
    },
)

ranker = LLMRanker(chat_generator=chat_generator)
documents = [
    Document(content="Paris is the capital of France."),
    Document(content="Berlin is the capital of Germany."),
]
result = ranker.run(query="capital of Germany", documents=documents, top_k=1)
```

### In a pipeline

Below is an example of a pipeline that retrieves documents with `InMemoryBM25Retriever` and then ranks them with `LLMRanker`:

```python
from haystack import Document, Pipeline
from haystack.components.retrievers.in_memory import InMemoryBM25Retriever
from haystack.components.rankers import LLMRanker
from haystack.document_stores.in_memory import InMemoryDocumentStore

docs = [
    Document(content="Paris is in France."),
    Document(content="Berlin is in Germany."),
    Document(content="Lyon is in France."),
]
document_store = InMemoryDocumentStore()
document_store.write_documents(docs)

retriever = InMemoryBM25Retriever(document_store=document_store)
ranker = LLMRanker(top_k=2)

pipeline = Pipeline()
pipeline.add_component(instance=retriever, name="retriever")
pipeline.add_component(instance=ranker, name="ranker")

pipeline.connect("retriever.documents", "ranker.documents")

query = "Cities in France"
result = pipeline.run(
    data={
        "retriever": {"query": query, "top_k": 3},
        "ranker": {"query": query, "top_k": 2},
    },
)
```

:::note[`top_k` parameter]

The Retriever's `top_k` controls how many documents are retrieved. The Ranker's `top_k` limits how many of those documents are returned after ranking. You can set the same or a smaller `top_k` for the Ranker to optimize cost and latency.
:::
