mlsanityData to 13 Oct 2026

Stop using the elbow criterion for k-means and how to choose the number of clusters instead

arXiv 2212.12189 ↗First posted 23 Dec 2022stat.ML cs.LGcited by 25

Not on the map. Why?

Abstract (arXiv)

A major challenge when using k-means clustering often is how to choose the parameter k, the number of clusters. In this letter, we want to point out that it is very easy to draw poor conclusions from a common heuristic, the "elbow method". Better alternatives have been known in literature for a long time, and we want to draw attention to some of these easy to use options, that often perform better. This letter is a call to stop using the elbow method altogether, because it severely lacks theoretic support, and we want to encourage educators to discuss the problems of the method -- if introducing it in class at all -- and teach alternatives instead, while researchers and reviewers should reject conclusions drawn from the elbow method.

Key facts. Cited by 25 papers in the map (data through 13 Oct 2026). Builds on 4 of its 43 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 23 Dec 2022.

Builds on

4 of 43 references.

References · 4

  1. 2018Faster k-Medoids Clustering: Improving the PAM, CLARA, and CLARANS Algorithmscited by 44
  2. 2020Fast and Eager k-Medoids Clustering: O(k) Runtime Improvement of the PAM, CLARA, and CLARANS Algorithmscited by 35
  3. 2021Accelerating Spherical k-Meanscited by 5
  4. 2022Clustering by Direct Optimization of the Medoid Silhouettecited by 4

Built on by

Cited by year (2026 to 13 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2023: 5; 2024: 6; 2025: 10; 2026: 4.

25 papers.

Sort:

  1. 2024LSEnet: Lorentz Structural Entropy Neural Network for Deep Graph Clusteringcited by 20
  2. 2023CARL-G: Clustering-Accelerated Representation Learning on Graphscited by 6
  3. 2025More of the Same: Persistent Representational Harms Under Increased Representationcited by 6
  4. 2023Medoid Silhouette clustering with automatic cluster number selectioncited by 5
  5. 2024Revisiting Silhouette Aggregationcited by 5
  6. 2024Neural empirical interpolation method for nonlinear model reductioncited by 4
  7. 2024Dying Clusters Is All You Need -- Deep Clustering With an Unknown Number of Clusterscited by 4
  8. 2025ASIL: Augmented Structural Information Learning for Deep Graph Clustering in Hyperbolic Spacecited by 4
  9. 2023Influence of various text embeddings on clustering performance in NLPcited by 3
  10. 2023A Multivariate Unimodality Test Harnessing the Dip Statistic of Mahalanobis Distances Over Random Projectionscited by 2
  11. 2023Detecting Novelties with Empty Classescited by 1
  12. 2024Accelerating k-Means Clustering with Cover Treescited by 1
13 more
  1. 2025AI-in-the-Loop: Privacy Preserving Real-Time Scam Detection and Conversational Scambaiting by Leveraging LLMs and Federated Learningcited by 1
  2. 2024Multivariate Time Series Clustering for Environmental State Characterization of Ground-Based Gravitational-Wave Detectorscited by 0
  3. 2025SurfPatch: Enabling Patch Matching for Exploratory Stream Surface Visualizationcited by 0
  4. 2025Anomalous Agreement: How to find the Ideal Number of Anomaly Classes in Correlated, Multivariate Time Series Datacited by 0
  5. 2025A Tutorial on Discriminative Clustering and Mutual Informationcited by 0
  6. 2025ADAM: Autonomous Discovery and Annotation Model using LLMs for Context-Aware Annotationscited by 0
  7. 2025TopoMap: A Feature-based Semantic Discriminator of the Topographical Regions in the Test Input Spacecited by 0
  8. 2025Parameter-Free Clustering via Self-Supervised Consensus Maximization (Extended Version)cited by 0
  9. 2025Discovering Operational Patterns Using Image-Based Convolutional Clustering and Composite Evaluation: A Case Study in Foundry Melting Processescited by 0
  10. 2026K-Means as a Radial Basis function Network: a Variational and Gradient-based Equivalencecited by 0
  11. 2026Amortized Neural Clustering of Time Series based on Statistical Featurescited by 0
  12. 2026Learning Diachronic Representations of Ancient Greek Letterformscited by 0
  13. 2026Scalable and Distributed Silhouette Approximationcited by 0