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PromptUtils

Temperature & Top-K Explainer

Understand LLM sampling parameters

Temperature & Top-K Explainer

Adjust the sliders to understand how temperature, top-k, and top-p affect model behavior. Lower values = more predictable. Higher values = more creative.

Balanced (default)
Moderate diversity
Adaptive diversity

Plain English Explanation

What These Parameters Do

Temperature

Controls randomness of token selection:

  • 0.0: Deterministic (always picks highest probability token)
  • 0.5-1.0: Balanced and natural
  • 1.5+: Creative but may be incoherent

Top-K

Only sample from the top K most likely tokens:

  • Low (1-10): Very focused, predictable
  • Medium (20-50): Balanced diversity
  • High (100+): More variety, less focused

Top-P (Nucleus Sampling)

Sample from smallest set of tokens with cumulative probability ≥ P:

  • 0.5: Conservative, very predictable
  • 0.9: Good balance (recommended)
  • 1.0: No filtering, all tokens considered

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