Architecture for analyzing pattern shifts in data patterns of data mining models and outputting the results. This allows comparing and describing differences between two semantically similar sets of patterns (or mining models), and for analyzing historical changes in versions of the same model or differences in patterns found by two or more different algorithms applied to the same data. The architecture can also facilitate explaining data patterns that shift over time and over different data populations, and between versions of the same model that use different algorithms. A model component is employed for storing data mining models have respective sets of data patterns obtained from a dataset, and an analysis component analyzes the sets of the data patterns for difference data therebetween. The dataset can be a subsample of a larger set of data and can be analyzed by the analysis component over a time period.