Practical overview
When it fits
Use BELT when a BERT-style classification workflow needs to handle documents beyond the standard 512-token limit and you want to work with pre-trained BERT or RoBERTa models.
Who it is for
- Developers building long-document classification workflows with Python.
- Practitioners who want to fine-tune a pre-trained BERT or RoBERTa model on longer inputs.
Documented uses
- Fine-tune a model on raw text and labels.
- Classify longer documents after fine-tuning.
- Predict scores for text inputs using a fine-tuned model.
- Apply the implementation to multilabel or regression tasks.
Requirements & limits
The repository specifies Python 3.9 or later and installation via pip as belt-nlp. PyTorch is required; the README describes GPU-compatible installation and a CPU-only option.
- The pooling-based model handles longer text; the separate truncated baseline still caps input at 512 tokens.
- The default pre-trained model is English bert-base-uncased, but a BERT or RoBERTa model can be specified by name or local directory.
- Prediction methods require a fine-tuned model.
- The README recommends a GPU for training and also describes CPU-only PyTorch.
- The repository says it has not benchmarked BELT against sparse-attention alternatives.
Check current requirements in the official documentation. Source-based guidance does not mean OpenViST has run or independently tested this project.
Install BELT NLP with CPU-only PyTorch
Prepare the package for long-text classification using the documented CPU-only PyTorch installation path.
Before you start
- Python 3.9 or later
- pip3
Steps
Install CPU-only PyTorch and its companion packages with the command below.
pip3 install torch torchvision torchaudio --index-url https://download.pytorch.org/whl/cpuInstall BELT NLP with the command below.
pip3 install belt-nlpUse the
BertClassifierWithPoolingclass for the documented extended model for longer texts.
Expected outcome
The BELT NLP package is installed with CPU-only PyTorch, and the documented long-text model class is identified for use.
Guide limitations
- The installation instructions do not document a training or prediction example in this path.
BertClassifierTruncatedtruncates longer texts to 512 tokens; it is not the extended long-text class.
Sources & review
Source record details
- Source availability
- Active
- Sources checked
- 18 October 2026
- Original website title
- mim-solutions/bert_for_longer_texts · Official homepage title · retained in its source language
Related options
BigBird — The README identifies BigBird as a sparse-attention alternative with a different model architecture.
Explore project →Longformer — The README identifies Longformer as a sparse-attention alternative with a different model architecture.

