Fine-Tuning vs Retrieval for Domain Knowledge
When should you fine-tune a model and when should you use retrieval? Learn the trade-offs, costs, and a decision framework for injecting domain knowledge.
Two Ways to Specialize
To make an LLM expert in your domain you can:
- Fine-tune: adjust the model weights on your data
- Retrieve: fetch relevant documents at query time (RAG)
Often the best answer is a combination of both.
What Fine-Tuning Changes
Fine-tuning bakes patterns into the weights. It is excellent for teaching style, format, and behavior — for example always replying in a strict JSON shape or a brand voice.
All lessons in this course
- Domain-Specific Prompting Strategies
- Knowledge Graph Integration
- Hybrid LLM Approaches (Symbolic + Neural)
- Fine-Tuning vs Retrieval for Domain Knowledge