YOLO-World v2 Small (YOLO-World-S-v2) is the smallest variant of Tencent AI Lab’s YOLO-World v2 family, released around February 2024 under GPL-v3. With ~13 million parameters, it adopts a prompt-then-detect paradigm using offline vocabularies and is pretrained on large-scale datasets such as Objects365 and GoldG. The model processes image inputs at 640×640 or 1280×1280 resolutions and supports zero-shot open-vocabulary object detection, enabling recognition of novel categories from text prompts without retraining.
Evaluations show competitive results across benchmarks like LVIS and COCO, while maintaining real-time efficiency. On an NVIDIA V100, the small variant reaches ~74 FPS at standard resolutions. Together with larger YOLO-World v2 models, it provides a scalable framework for efficient, open-vocabulary detection across diverse deployment settings.
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YOLO World has not yet been evaluated on the current benchmark. The results below are from the legacy version of Vision Evals, our previous benchmark. See the current Vision Evals
| Dataset | Score |
|---|---|
| COCO-100 | 44.9% |
| SaCo-Gold | 7.2% |
Scores based on a single evaluation run · Methodology
View all legacy Vision Evals results →Other models worth comparing for similar use cases.
YOLO World runs as a hosted REST endpoint through Roboflow Workflows. Pick a task, then hand the prompt to your coding agent or copy the code. Deploying the workflow into a free Roboflow workspace replaces the your-workspace and YOUR_API_KEY placeholders with your own.
Add the Roboflow MCP server
claude mcp add --transport http roboflow https://mcp.roboflow.com/mcp
Run /mcp and authorize Roboflow in your browser when the OAuth flow opens.
Start a new Claude Code session so the MCP loads, then paste the prompt below (it works the same in any agent).
Deploy this workflow to your Roboflow workspace to use it.
Integrate the Roboflow "YOLO World" workflow into my app.
- Endpoint: POST https://serverless.roboflow.com/<your-workspace>/workflows/yolo-world-object-detection
- Auth: send my Roboflow API key as `api_key` in the request body, read from the ROBOFLOW_API_KEY env var (never hardcode).
- Body: { "api_key": ..., "inputs": { `image`: { type: "url" | "base64", value }, `classes`: string array } }.
With the Roboflow MCP connected, call `workflows_get` on "yolo-world-object-detection" to read the exact input schema (the source of truth), then `workflows_run` on a sample image to confirm the output shape before writing code (the MCP is authenticated, so this needs no key). Without the MCP, use the contract above.
Before running the app, set up these keys so it does not error at runtime:
- `ROBOFLOW_API_KEY` (sent as `api_key`) from https://app.roboflow.com/settings/api
Create a .gitignore'd .env with these variables, using placeholder values for any I haven't given you. Then pause and tell me directly, in your reply: the full path to the .env file, exactly which keys I need to paste in, and the link to get each one. Wait for me to confirm I've added them before you run anything. Do not run the app until I confirm.
Then add the integration to my codebase: match my project's language, framework, and conventions; read every key from environment variables (never hardcode); add basic error handling; and include a small runnable example. If you can't tell what language my project uses, ask me.pip install inference-sdkDeploy this workflow to your Roboflow workspace to use it.
# 1. Import the library
from inference_sdk import InferenceHTTPClient
# 2. Connect to your workflow
client = InferenceHTTPClient(
api_url="https://serverless.roboflow.com",
api_key="YOUR_API_KEY"
)
# 3. Run your workflow on an image
result = client.run_workflow(
workspace_name="your-workspace",
workflow_id="yolo-world-object-detection",
images={
"image": "YOUR_IMAGE.jpg" # Path to your image file
},
parameters={
"classes": ["class1", "class2", "class3"]
},
use_cache=True # cache workflow definition for 15 minutes
)
# 4. Get your results
print(result)Deploy this workflow to your Roboflow workspace to use it.
const response = await fetch('https://serverless.roboflow.com/your-workspace/workflows/yolo-world-object-detection', {
method: 'POST',
headers: {
'Content-Type': 'application/json'
},
body: JSON.stringify({
api_key: 'YOUR_API_KEY',
inputs: {
"image": {"type": "url", "value": "IMAGE_URL"},
"classes": ["class1", "class2", "class3"]
}
})
});
const result = await response.json();
console.log(result);Deploy this workflow to your Roboflow workspace to use it.
curl --location 'https://serverless.roboflow.com/your-workspace/workflows/yolo-world-object-detection' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data '{
"api_key": "YOUR_API_KEY",
"inputs": {
"image": {"type": "url", "value": "IMAGE_URL"},
"classes": ["class1", "class2", "class3"]
}
}'YOLO World is released under GPL-3.0, a restrictive license. The YOLO World license permits commercial use, but it requires you to open-source any code changes you make, so businesses that cannot release related code need a separate commercial license.
Uncertainty around licensing can delay or stop a project. If you are commercially unwilling or legally unable to open-source related code, settle the YOLO World licensing question before you build on it, not after.
Read the full GPL-3.0 license ↗A commercial license is a separate license which gives you the right to use YOLO World without an obligation to open-source related code changes. Roboflow plans include commercial licenses for the supported models listed on the licensing page, scoped by deployment method: Roboflow Managed Cloud on Public plans, a Self-Hosted Inference Server on Core, and deployment outside the Roboflow ecosystem on Enterprise.
Do not hesitate to reach out with questions for your commercial project — our team will help you start solving business problems on the first call. See Roboflow commercial licensing for the models included in each plan.
Talk to salesYOLO-World is licensed under a GPL-3.0 license.
Roboflow supports deploying these models with Inference, though they require a commercial license to use without GPL restrictions.
Roboflow provides a commercial license to YOLO-World to customers with active paid subscriptions. This license applies to training and deployment through the Roboflow ecosystem (like self-hosting Inference); usage of these models outside of Roboflow is not covered.
To use YOLO-World in a commercial project without the GPL-3.0 conditions, you need a license. As a paid Roboflow customer, you automatically get access to use any YOLO-World models uploaded to our platform for commercial use. This is secured under Roboflow's sub-license agreement with the creators of YOLO-World.
If you are a free Roboflow customer, you can use YOLO-World in any way if using our serverless hosted API and can use YOLO-World models commercially self-hosted with a paid plan.
To learn more about model licensing with Roboflow, refer to our Licensing guide.
GPL-3.0 is a "copyleft" license: distributing a product that includes this model typically requires you to release your full source code under GPL-3.0.
License information is provided as a guide and is not legal advice.
YOLO World has not yet been evaluated on Roboflow's current Vision Evals. The results on this page are from the previous benchmark.
Yes. The demo on this page runs YOLO World in the free Roboflow Playground: upload an image and see results in seconds. A free account unlocks unlimited runs.