These are the correct selections for a hybrid query that uses semantic ranking in Azure AI Search.

Use k = 50 because Microsoft explicitly recommends that when you combine semantic ranking with vector queries , you should set k to 50 so the semantic ranker has enough candidates to rerank. If you use a smaller value such as 10, semantic ranking can receive too few inputs, which is exactly why some queries return fewer results than expected.

Use queryType = " semantic " because captions and answers are only available on semantic queries. Microsoft documents that captions is valid only when the query type is semantic, and semantic answers are returned only for semantic queries.

Use captions = " extractive " because semantic captions are extractive passages pulled from the top-ranked documents. Microsoft’s REST documentation states that the valid captions option here is extractive and that it defaults to none if not specified.

Use answers = " extractive " because semantic answers in Azure AI Search are extractive, not generated. Microsoft documents that semantic answers are verbatim passages recognized as answers and the REST API lists extractive as the answer-return option.