Classification – Difference Between “Classifier” and “Model” in Classification

classificationmachine learningterminology

I wonder what the difference between the terms "classifier" and "model" is with relation to classification methodologies for machine learning.

Thanks in advance for your answers!

Best Answer

I'm definitely no expert in the domain so take my answer with a grain of salt but from what I have understood you have:

  • Classifier : The algorithm, the core of your machine learning process. It can be an SVM, Naive bayes or even a neural network classifier. Basically it's a big "set of rules" on how you want to classify your input.

  • Model : It is what you get once you have finished training your classifier, it's the resulting object of the training phase. You can see it as an "intelligent" black box to whom you feed and input sample and it gives you a label as an ouput.

Hope my answer is clear enough, but yeah the difference is rather subtle between the two terms.