---
comments: true
description: Learn how to use YOLOv5 model ensembling during testing and inference to enhance mAP and Recall for more accurate predictions.
keywords: YOLOv5, model ensembling, testing, inference, mAP, Recall, Ultralytics, object detection, PyTorch
---

# YOLOv5 Model Ensembling

📚 This guide explains how to use Ultralytics YOLOv5 🚀 **model ensembling** during testing and inference for improved mAP and [Recall](https://www.ultralytics.com/glossary/recall).

From [ensemble learning](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ensemble_learning):

> Ensemble modeling is a process where multiple diverse models are created to predict an outcome, either by using many different modeling algorithms or using different [training data](https://www.ultralytics.com/glossary/training-data) sets. The ensemble model then aggregates the prediction of each base model and results in one final prediction for the unseen data. The motivation for using ensemble models is to reduce the generalization error of the prediction. As long as the base models are diverse and independent, the prediction error of the model decreases when the ensemble approach is used. The approach seeks the wisdom of crowds in making a prediction. Even though the ensemble model has multiple base models within the model, it acts and performs as a single model.

## Before You Start

Clone repo and install [requirements.txt](https://github.com/ultralytics/yolov5/blob/master/requirements.txt) in a [**Python>=3.8.0**](https://www.python.org/) environment, including [**PyTorch>=1.8**](https://pytorch.org/get-started/locally/). [Models](https://github.com/ultralytics/yolov5/tree/master/models) and [datasets](https://github.com/ultralytics/yolov5/tree/master/data) download automatically from the latest YOLOv5 [release](https://github.com/ultralytics/yolov5/releases).

```bash
git clone https://github.com/ultralytics/yolov5 # clone
cd yolov5
pip install -r requirements.txt # install
```

## Test Normally

Before ensembling, establish the baseline performance of a single model. This command tests YOLOv5x on COCO val2017 at image size 640 pixels. `yolov5x.pt` is the largest and most accurate model available. Other options are `yolov5s.pt`, `yolov5m.pt` and `yolov5l.pt`, or your own checkpoint from training a custom dataset `./weights/best.pt`. For details on all available models, see the [pretrained checkpoints table](https://docs.ultralytics.com/models/yolov5/).

```bash
python val.py --weights yolov5x.pt --data coco.yaml --img 640 --half
```

Output:

```
val: data=./data/coco.yaml, weights=['yolov5x.pt'], batch_size=32, imgsz=640, conf_thres=0.001, iou_thres=0.65, task=val, device=, single_cls=False, augment=False, verbose=False, save_txt=False, save_conf=False, save_json=True, project=runs/val, name=exp, exist_ok=False, half=True
YOLOv5 🚀 v5.0-267-g6a3ee7c torch 1.9.0+cu102 CUDA:0 (Tesla P100-PCIE-16GB, 16280.875MB)

Fusing layers...
Model Summary: 476 layers, 87730285 parameters, 0 gradients

val: Scanning '../datasets/coco/val2017' images and labels...4952 found, 48 missing, 0 empty, 0 corrupted: 100% 5000/5000 [00:01<00:00, 2846.03it/s]
val: New cache created: ../datasets/coco/val2017.cache
               Class     Images     Labels          P          R     mAP@.5 mAP@.5:.95: 100% 157/157 [02:30<00:00,  1.05it/s]
                 all       5000      36335      0.746      0.626       0.68       0.49
Speed: 0.1ms pre-process, 22.4ms inference, 1.4ms NMS per image at shape (32, 3, 640, 640)  # <--- baseline speed

Evaluating pycocotools mAP... saving runs/val/exp/yolov5x_predictions.json...
...
 Average Precision  (AP) @[ IoU=0.50:0.95 | area=   all | maxDets=100 ] = 0.504  # <--- baseline mAP
 Average Precision  (AP) @[ IoU=0.50      | area=   all | maxDets=100 ] = 0.688
 Average Precision  (AP) @[ IoU=0.75      | area=   all | maxDets=100 ] = 0.546
 Average Precision  (AP) @[ IoU=0.50:0.95 | area= small | maxDets=100 ] = 0.351
 Average Precision  (AP) @[ IoU=0.50:0.95 | area=medium | maxDets=100 ] = 0.551
 Average Precision  (AP) @[ IoU=0.50:0.95 | area= large | maxDets=100 ] = 0.644
 Average Recall     (AR) @[ IoU=0.50:0.95 | area=   all | maxDets=  1 ] = 0.382
 Average Recall     (AR) @[ IoU=0.50:0.95 | area=   all | maxDets= 10 ] = 0.628
 Average Recall     (AR) @[ IoU=0.50:0.95 | area=   all | maxDets=100 ] = 0.681  # <--- baseline mAR
 Average Recall     (AR) @[ IoU=0.50:0.95 | area= small | maxDets=100 ] = 0.524
 Average Recall     (AR) @[ IoU=0.50:0.95 | area=medium | maxDets=100 ] = 0.735
 Average Recall     (AR) @[ IoU=0.50:0.95 | area= large | maxDets=100 ] = 0.826
```

## Ensemble Test

Multiple pretrained models can be ensembled together at test and inference time by simply appending extra models to the `--weights` argument in any existing val.py or detect.py command. This example tests an ensemble of 2 models together:

- YOLOv5x
- YOLOv5l6

```bash
python val.py --weights yolov5x.pt yolov5l6.pt --data coco.yaml --img 640 --half
```

You can list as many checkpoints as you would like, including custom weights such as `runs/train/exp-5/weights/best.pt`. YOLOv5 will automatically run each model, align the predictions on a per-image basis, and average the outputs before performing NMS.

Output:

```
val: data=./data/coco.yaml, weights=['yolov5x.pt', 'yolov5l6.pt'], batch_size=32, imgsz=640, conf_thres=0.001, iou_thres=0.6, task=val, device=, single_cls=False, augment=False, verbose=False, save_txt=False, save_conf=False, save_json=True, project=runs/val, name=exp, exist_ok=False, half=True
YOLOv5 🚀 v5.0-267-g6a3ee7c torch 1.9.0+cu102 CUDA:0 (Tesla P100-PCIE-16GB, 16280.875MB)

Fusing layers...
Model Summary: 476 layers, 87730285 parameters, 0 gradients  # Model 1
Fusing layers...
Model Summary: 501 layers, 77218620 parameters, 0 gradients  # Model 2
Ensemble created with ['yolov5x.pt', 'yolov5l6.pt']  # Ensemble notice

val: Scanning '../datasets/coco/val2017.cache' images and labels... 4952 found, 48 missing, 0 empty, 0 corrupted: 100% 5000/5000 [00:00<00:00, 49695545.02it/s]
               Class     Images     Labels          P          R     mAP@.5 mAP@.5:.95: 100% 157/157 [03:58<00:00,  1.52s/it]
                 all       5000      36335      0.747      0.637      0.692      0.502
Speed: 0.1ms pre-process, 39.5ms inference, 2.0ms NMS per image at shape (32, 3, 640, 640)  # <--- ensemble speed

Evaluating pycocotools mAP... saving runs/val/exp-3/yolov5x_predictions.json...
...
 Average Precision  (AP) @[ IoU=0.50:0.95 | area=   all | maxDets=100 ] = 0.515  # <--- ensemble mAP
 Average Precision  (AP) @[ IoU=0.50      | area=   all | maxDets=100 ] = 0.699
 Average Precision  (AP) @[ IoU=0.75      | area=   all | maxDets=100 ] = 0.557
 Average Precision  (AP) @[ IoU=0.50:0.95 | area= small | maxDets=100 ] = 0.356
 Average Precision  (AP) @[ IoU=0.50:0.95 | area=medium | maxDets=100 ] = 0.563
 Average Precision  (AP) @[ IoU=0.50:0.95 | area= large | maxDets=100 ] = 0.668
 Average Recall     (AR) @[ IoU=0.50:0.95 | area=   all | maxDets=  1 ] = 0.387
 Average Recall     (AR) @[ IoU=0.50:0.95 | area=   all | maxDets= 10 ] = 0.638
 Average Recall     (AR) @[ IoU=0.50:0.95 | area=   all | maxDets=100 ] = 0.689  # <--- ensemble mAR
 Average Recall     (AR) @[ IoU=0.50:0.95 | area= small | maxDets=100 ] = 0.526
 Average Recall     (AR) @[ IoU=0.50:0.95 | area=medium | maxDets=100 ] = 0.743
 Average Recall     (AR) @[ IoU=0.50:0.95 | area= large | maxDets=100 ] = 0.844
```

## Ensemble Inference

Append extra models to the `--weights` argument to run ensemble inference:

```bash
python detect.py --weights yolov5x.pt yolov5l6.pt --img 640 --source data/images
```

Output:

```
YOLOv5 🚀 v5.0-267-g6a3ee7c torch 1.9.0+cu102 CUDA:0 (Tesla P100-PCIE-16GB, 16280.875MB)

Fusing layers...
Model Summary: 476 layers, 87730285 parameters, 0 gradients
Fusing layers...
Model Summary: 501 layers, 77218620 parameters, 0 gradients
Ensemble created with ['yolov5x.pt', 'yolov5l6.pt']

image 1/2 /content/yolov5/data/images/bus.jpg: 640x512 4 persons, 1 bus, 1 tie, Done. (0.063s)
image 2/2 /content/yolov5/data/images/zidane.jpg: 384x640 3 persons, 2 ties, Done. (0.056s)
Results saved to runs/detect/exp-2
Done. (0.223s)
```

<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/ultralytics/assets@main/docs/yolo-inference-result.avif" width="500" alt="YOLO inference result">

## Benefits of Model Ensembling

Model ensembling with YOLOv5 offers several advantages:

1. **Improved Accuracy**: As demonstrated in the examples above, ensembling multiple models increases mAP from 0.504 to 0.515 and mAR from 0.681 to 0.689.
2. **Better Generalization**: Combining diverse models helps reduce overfitting and improves performance on varied data.
3. **Enhanced Robustness**: Ensembles are typically more robust to noise and outliers in the data.
4. **Complementary Strengths**: Different models may excel at detecting different types of objects or in different environmental conditions.

The primary trade-off is increased inference time, as shown in the speed metrics (22.4ms for single model vs. 39.5ms for ensemble).

## When to Use Model Ensembling

Consider using model ensembling in these scenarios:

- When accuracy is more important than inference speed
- For critical applications where false negatives must be minimized
- When processing challenging images with varied lighting, occlusion, or scale
- During competitions or benchmarking where maximum performance is required

For real-time applications with strict latency requirements, single model inference may be more appropriate.

## Supported Environments

Ultralytics provides a range of ready-to-use environments, each pre-installed with essential dependencies such as [CUDA](https://developer.nvidia.com/cuda), [CUDNN](https://developer.nvidia.com/cudnn), [Python](https://www.python.org/), and [PyTorch](https://pytorch.org/), to kickstart your projects.

- **Free GPU Notebooks**: <a href="https://bit.ly/yolov5-paperspace-notebook"><img src="https://assets.paperspace.io/img/gradient-badge.svg" alt="Run on Gradient"></a> <a href="https://colab.research.google.com/github/ultralytics/yolov5/blob/master/tutorial.ipynb"><img src="https://colab.research.google.com/assets/colab-badge.svg" alt="Open In Colab"></a> <a href="https://www.kaggle.com/models/ultralytics/yolov5"><img src="https://kaggle.com/static/images/open-in-kaggle.svg" alt="Open In Kaggle"></a>
- **Google Cloud**: [GCP Quickstart Guide](../environments/google_cloud_quickstart_tutorial.md)
- **Amazon**: [AWS Quickstart Guide](../environments/aws_quickstart_tutorial.md)
- **Azure**: [AzureML Quickstart Guide](../environments/azureml_quickstart_tutorial.md)
- **Docker**: [Docker Quickstart Guide](../environments/docker_image_quickstart_tutorial.md) <a href="https://hub.docker.com/r/ultralytics/yolov5"><img src="https://img.shields.io/docker/pulls/ultralytics/yolov5?logo=docker" alt="Docker Pulls"></a>

## Project Status

<a href="https://github.com/ultralytics/yolov5/actions/workflows/ci-testing.yml"><img src="https://github.com/ultralytics/yolov5/actions/workflows/ci-testing.yml/badge.svg" alt="YOLOv5 CI"></a>

This badge indicates that all [YOLOv5 GitHub Actions](https://github.com/ultralytics/yolov5/actions) Continuous Integration (CI) tests are successfully passing. These CI tests rigorously check the functionality and performance of YOLOv5 across various key aspects: [training](https://github.com/ultralytics/yolov5/blob/master/train.py), [validation](https://github.com/ultralytics/yolov5/blob/master/val.py), [inference](https://github.com/ultralytics/yolov5/blob/master/detect.py), [export](https://github.com/ultralytics/yolov5/blob/master/export.py), and [benchmarks](https://github.com/ultralytics/yolov5/blob/master/benchmarks.py). They ensure consistent and reliable operation on macOS, Windows, and Ubuntu, with tests conducted every 24 hours and upon each new commit.
