Khoj
Self-hostable personal AI that chats over your documents and the web with agents and automations.
About
Khoj positions itself as a personal AI second brain: it indexes PDFs, Markdown, org-mode, Word, and Notion content, then answers questions over that corpus and the web through semantic search and chat. Users build custom agents with their own knowledge bases, tools, and personas, schedule automations such as newsletters and smart notifications, run multi-step research sessions, and generate images or hear responses through text to speech. Models are pluggable: local ones through Ollama including llama3, qwen, gemma, and mistral, or hosted ones like GPT, Claude, Gemini, and DeepSeek. Clients span the browser, a desktop app, an Obsidian plugin, an Emacs package, phones, and WhatsApp. Self-hosting works via Docker or pip with no GPU required unless running local models, and a managed cloud at app.khoj.dev is free to use, with enterprise on-premises and hybrid deployments sold through khoj.dev/teams. The code is AGPL-3.0 and the repository holds 36.1k stars; the YC-backed project is popular with note-takers who want private, searchable memory across their files.
Should you use Khoj?
Pick it when
Pick Khoj when the goal is asking questions across your own notes and files, especially Obsidian, Emacs org-mode, Markdown, or Notion, from many clients including WhatsApp, with scheduled automations and the option of local Ollama models.
Look elsewhere when
Skip it if you want a general multi-provider chat app for a team, where LibreChat or Open WebUI fit better, or quick cited web answers, where Vane is more focused. AGPL-3.0 applies if you modify it and offer it as a network service.
Alternatives to Khoj
- Open WebUI
General self-hosted chat with RAG over uploaded files and multi-user roles, better for a team, but without Khoj's note-app clients like Obsidian and Emacs.
- Vane
MIT licensed and focused on cited web answers through SearxNG, better for search, but not built around indexing a personal notes corpus.
- Lobe Chat
Knowledge bases plus an agent marketplace and team workspaces in a polished UI, but aimed at general chat and agents rather than personal note search.
- AnythingLLM
MIT licensed rather than AGPL, with document workspaces and multi-user access controls, a simpler fit for a shared file collection than notes queried from Obsidian or Emacs.
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Details
- Category
- UI & Chat Interfaces
- Price
- Freemium
- Platform
- Hybrid
- Difficulty
- Easy (2/5)
- License
- AGPL-3.0
- Added
- Jul 29, 2026