diff --git a/src/search_type/text_search.py b/src/search_type/text_search.py
index 3ac52745..a7d1b7dd 100644
--- a/src/search_type/text_search.py
+++ b/src/search_type/text_search.py
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ from src.search_filter.base_filter import BaseFilter
 from src.utils import state
 from src.utils.helpers import get_absolute_path, is_none_or_empty, resolve_absolute_path, load_model
 from src.utils.config import TextSearchModel
+from src.utils.models import BaseEncoder
 from src.utils.rawconfig import SearchResponse, TextSearchConfig, TextContentConfig, Entry
 from src.utils.jsonl import load_jsonl
 
@@ -56,7 +57,7 @@ def extract_entries(jsonl_file) -> list[Entry]:
     return list(map(Entry.from_dict, load_jsonl(jsonl_file)))
 
 
-def compute_embeddings(entries_with_ids: list[tuple[int, Entry]], bi_encoder, embeddings_file, regenerate=False):
+def compute_embeddings(entries_with_ids: list[tuple[int, Entry]], bi_encoder: BaseEncoder, embeddings_file, regenerate=False):
     "Compute (and Save) Embeddings or Load Pre-Computed Embeddings"
     new_entries = []
     # Load pre-computed embeddings from file if exists and update them if required
diff --git a/src/utils/config.py b/src/utils/config.py
index 8ca9e526..ee999ba6 100644
--- a/src/utils/config.py
+++ b/src/utils/config.py
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ import torch
 # Internal Packages
 from src.utils.rawconfig import ConversationProcessorConfig, Entry
 from src.search_filter.base_filter import BaseFilter
+from src.utils.models import BaseEncoder
 
 
 class SearchType(str, Enum):
@@ -24,7 +25,7 @@ class ProcessorType(str, Enum):
 
 
 class TextSearchModel():
-    def __init__(self, entries: list[Entry], corpus_embeddings: torch.Tensor, bi_encoder, cross_encoder, filters: list[BaseFilter], top_k):
+    def __init__(self, entries: list[Entry], corpus_embeddings: torch.Tensor, bi_encoder: BaseEncoder, cross_encoder, filters: list[BaseFilter], top_k):
         self.entries = entries
         self.corpus_embeddings = corpus_embeddings
         self.bi_encoder = bi_encoder
@@ -34,7 +35,7 @@ class TextSearchModel():
 
 
 class ImageSearchModel():
-    def __init__(self, image_names, image_embeddings, image_metadata_embeddings, image_encoder):
+    def __init__(self, image_names, image_embeddings, image_metadata_embeddings, image_encoder: BaseEncoder):
         self.image_encoder = image_encoder
         self.image_names = image_names
         self.image_embeddings = image_embeddings
diff --git a/src/utils/helpers.py b/src/utils/helpers.py
index 38181ad6..4dd6a78e 100644
--- a/src/utils/helpers.py
+++ b/src/utils/helpers.py
@@ -7,6 +7,12 @@ from collections import OrderedDict
 from typing import Optional, Union
 import logging
 
+# External Packages
+from sentence_transformers import CrossEncoder
+
+# Internal Packages
+from src.utils.models import BaseEncoder
+
 
 def is_none_or_empty(item):
     return item == None or (hasattr(item, '__iter__') and len(item) == 0) or item == ''
@@ -45,7 +51,7 @@ def merge_dicts(priority_dict: dict, default_dict: dict):
     return merged_dict
 
 
-def load_model(model_name: str, model_type, model_dir=None, device:str=None):
+def load_model(model_name: str, model_type, model_dir=None, device:str=None) -> Union[BaseEncoder, CrossEncoder]:
     "Load model from disk or huggingface"
     # Construct model path
     model_path = join(model_dir, model_name.replace("/", "_")) if model_dir is not None else None
diff --git a/src/utils/models.py b/src/utils/models.py
index 9ba204b7..43e02639 100644
--- a/src/utils/models.py
+++ b/src/utils/models.py
@@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
+# Standard Packages
+from abc import ABC, abstractmethod
+
 # External Packages
 import openai
 import torch
@@ -7,7 +10,15 @@ from tqdm import trange
 from src.utils.state import processor_config, config_file
 
 
-class OpenAI:
+class BaseEncoder(ABC):
+    @abstractmethod
+    def __init__(self, model_name: str, device: torch.device=None, **kwargs): ...
+
+    @abstractmethod
+    def encode(self, entries: list[str], device:torch.device=None, **kwargs) -> torch.Tensor: ...
+
+
+class OpenAI(BaseEncoder):
     def __init__(self, model_name, device=None):
         self.model_name = model_name
         if not processor_config or not processor_config.conversation or not processor_config.conversation.openai_api_key:
@@ -15,7 +26,7 @@ class OpenAI:
         openai.api_key = processor_config.conversation.openai_api_key
         self.embedding_dimensions = None
 
-    def encode(self, entries: list[str], device=None, **kwargs):
+    def encode(self, entries, device=None, **kwargs):
         embedding_tensors = []
 
         for index in trange(0, len(entries)):