Offline and online evals
Offline evals test an AI feature on a fixed dataset before release; online evals score real production traffic after it.
Offline evals run on a golden dataset with known answers, so they are repeatable and can block a release. Online evals sample live conversations and score them without a reference answer, using a judge model, user feedback or business signals such as escalations to a human. Offline catches regressions; online catches what the dataset never contained: new kinds of questions, new documents, a model that changed silently.
Related terms
- Evals: A repeatable test set that scores an AI feature, so changes can be measured instead of guessed.
- Golden dataset: A fixed set of real inputs with expected answers or checks, used to test an AI feature after every prompt or model change.
- LLM observability: Tracing every model call with inputs, outputs, latency, tokens, cost and the user outcome.
- Prompt regression: An answer that used to be right goes wrong after a change to the prompt or the model.
