Khoj vs Open Notebook
Short answer
Khoj: Personal and team AI "second brain" for your documents and the web. Open Notebook: Private, self-hosted alternative to Google NotebookLM with your choice of AI models. They sit in different categories (AI search & research assistants and Knowledge base & RAG) but overlap: All of them index your own documents or workplace apps and answer questions about them in a chat interface.
Choose Open Notebook if you want: fewer license conditions (Permissive vs Network copyleft (AGPL)).
Khoj publishes no official RAM figure, so we cannot compare hosting cost directly.
Last updated · computed from each project's official docs and live GitHub data · sources
Khoj vs Open Notebook side by side
| Khoj | Open Notebook | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | AI search & research assistants | Knowledge base & RAG |
| What it is | Personal and team AI "second brain" for your documents and the web. | Private, self-hosted alternative to Google NotebookLM with your choice of AI models. |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| License type | Network copyleft (AGPL) | Permissive |
| License conditions | Free for internal and commercial use. If you modify Khoj and let users interact with it over a network, you must offer them the modified source code under AGPL-3.0. | Permissive. Internal and commercial use allowed; keep the license notice. |
| Status | Active | Active |
| GitHub stars | 37.8k | 40.5k |
| Last commit | Aug 2, 2026 | Oct 5, 2026 |
| Latest release | 2.0.0-beta.28 | v1.15.0 |
| Minimum hardware | Not published | 4 GB RAM |
| Recommended hardware | Not published | Not published |
| RAM measured by us | Not tested yet | Not tested yet |
| GPU | Only for offline chat with local models. 16 GB VRAM recommended; an NVIDIA/AMD GPU or an Apple M1+ machine speeds up responses significantly. | Not required / not stated |
| Est. server cost | Not estimated | from €19.99/mo |
| Deploy method | Docker Compose | Docker Compose |
| Known gotchas | 2 listed | 4 listed |
| Telemetry | On by default | Not documented |
| Calls home by default | Not documented | Not documented |
| SSO (OIDC / SAML / LDAP) | Not documented | Not supported (OIDC not supported · SAML not supported · LDAP not supported) |
| Audit log | Not documented | No |
| RBAC | Not documented | No |
| Details | Full Khoj guide → | Full Open Notebook guide → |
Key differences
- Category: Khoj: AI search & research assistants. Open Notebook: Knowledge base & RAG.
- License: Khoj: AGPL-3.0 (Network copyleft (AGPL)). Open Notebook: MIT (Permissive).
- Official hardware: Khoj: not published. Open Notebook: minimum 4 GB RAM.
- GPU: Khoj: optional / see notes. Open Notebook: not required or not stated.
- Est. server cost: Khoj: not estimated (no official RAM figure). Open Notebook: from €19.99/mo.
- GitHub stars: Khoj: 37.8k. Open Notebook: 40.5k.
- Last commit: Khoj: Aug 2, 2026. Open Notebook: Oct 5, 2026.
- Latest release: Khoj: 2.0.0-beta.28 (Mar 26, 2026). Open Notebook: v1.15.0 (Oct 4, 2026).
Same for both: Deploy: Docker Compose · multi-container stack; Status: Active.
Khoj vs Open Notebook: FAQ
Khoj or Open Notebook: which should a small business choose?
Choose Open Notebook if you want: fewer license conditions (Permissive vs Network copyleft (AGPL)). Khoj publishes no official RAM figure, so we cannot compare hosting cost directly.
Which is cheaper to self-host, Khoj or Open Notebook?
Khoj: not estimated (no official RAM figure). Open Notebook: from €19.99/mo. Our estimate is the cheapest Hetzner Cloud plan that meets each project's official RAM and vCPU figure; it covers the server only.
How much hardware do Khoj and Open Notebook need?
Khoj: not published. Open Notebook: minimum 4 GB RAM.
What is the license difference between Khoj and Open Notebook?
Khoj: AGPL-3.0 (Network copyleft (AGPL)). Free for internal and commercial use. If you modify Khoj and let users interact with it over a network, you must offer them the modified source code under AGPL-3.0. Open Notebook: MIT (Permissive). Permissive. Internal and commercial use allowed; keep the license notice. This is a summary, not legal advice.
Is Khoj or Open Notebook more actively maintained?
Khoj: Active, last commit Aug 2, 2026. Open Notebook: Active, last commit Oct 5, 2026. GitHub data refreshed Oct 22, 2026.
Which is easier to deploy, Khoj or Open Notebook?
Khoj installs via Docker Compose (multi-container stack); Open Notebook via Docker Compose (multi-container stack). Khoj lists 2 known gotchas and Open Notebook lists 4; see each app page.
Related
- Khoj self-hosting guide · Open Notebook self-hosting guide
- All Khoj alternatives, ranked
- All Open Notebook alternatives, ranked
- AnythingLLM vs Open Notebook
- FastGPT vs Open Notebook
- Khoj vs Onyx (formerly Danswer)
- Khoj vs Vane (formerly Perplexica)
- MaxKB vs Open Notebook
- Onyx (formerly Danswer) vs Open Notebook
- Open Notebook vs PrivateGPT
- Open Notebook vs RAGFlow
- Add a third app in the interactive comparison
Sources
- Khoj GitHub repository: github.com/khoj-ai/khoj
- Khoj documentation, Khoj hardware requirements, Khoj deploy instructions: docs.khoj.dev/get-started/setup/
- Khoj license: github.com/khoj-ai/khoj/blob/master/LICENSE
- Open Notebook GitHub repository: github.com/lfnovo/open-notebook
- Open Notebook documentation, Open Notebook hardware requirements: github.com/lfnovo/open-notebook/blob/main/docs/1-INSTALLATION/docker-compose.md
- Open Notebook license: github.com/lfnovo/open-notebook/blob/main/LICENSE
- Open Notebook deploy instructions: github.com/lfnovo/open-notebook#step-1-download-docker-composeyml
- Hetzner Cloud pricing used for cost estimates (read 2026-10-22): www.hetzner.com/cloud/regular-performance
- GitHub REST API (stars, commits, releases): docs.github.com/en/rest
Every value is generated from the same verified data as the app pages. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.