Glean Alternatives 2026: 5 Free Options
Glean alternatives: Onyx, AnythingLLM, Open Notebook, NotebookLM and 2 more. Prices and licenses checked October 23, 2026.
•3 min read•Notes & Knowledge
Verdict:Glean is enterprise AI search: it connects to 275+ work apps, but the pricing page shows no prices and only a Get a demo button, and third-party estimates of $50 or more per user a month and large minimum contracts are unconfirmed. That makes it hard to compare without a sales call. If you want the same idea at lower cost and can run software, Onyx is the closest option: the Community Edition is MIT-licensed, self-hosted, indexes 50+ apps, and has a free cloud trial. Expect fewer connectors and more upkeep than Glean. AnythingLLM and Open Notebook are lighter and free, but they work on documents you feed them, not on an organisation-wide permission-aware index. NotebookLM's free Standard plan is good for summarizing a set of files and nothing more. Microsoft Copilot fits teams already on Microsoft because the free tier costs nothing, but it searches within that ecosystem. Guru, like Glean, uses custom pricing, so it only helps if you want curated answers rather than cheaper ones. The trade-off is breadth against control: Glean connects almost everything, while the free tools need someone to run them. Leave Glean if your team is small or has engineers; stay if search across many apps with permissions is the whole point.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Price | Platforms | Best for | Tested |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Onyx | Free (Community Edition is free to self-host; Onyx Cloud offers a free trial) | Self-hosted (Docker, Kubernetes), Onyx Cloud | Self-hosted team search | Docs only |
| AnythingLLM | Free (Desktop app free; self-hosting with Docker free; no limits stated); paid from $50 per month, Basic hosted plan billed monthly (Pro is $99 per month; Enterprise custom) | Desktop, Self-hosted via Docker | Document chat on your own machine | Docs only |
| Open Notebook | Free (Free and self-hosted; you pay your chosen model providers unless you run local models) | Self-hosted | Research workspace you host | Docs only |
| NotebookLM | Free (Standard (free) plan: 100 notebooks per user and 50 sources per notebook, limits subject to change) | Web | Summarizing selected documents | Docs only |
| Microsoft Copilot | Free (free tier with lower usage than the paid plans); paid from $9.99 per month (Microsoft 365 Personal, includes higher Copilot usage) | Web, Windows, iOS, Android | Teams already on Microsoft | Docs only |
| Guru | See pricing page | Web browser | Curated company knowledge | Docs only |
| Notion AI | Paid from $20 per member/month (Business plan, which includes Notion Agent and AI Meeting Notes; check the pricing page for the billing term) | Web | AI workspace assistant | Docs only |
Independent comparison. Paid placements are labelled separately; editorial links earn no affiliate commissions. Learn more.
Good fit if
- You want to self-host team search and own the data (Onyx is the pick)
- You want to chat with a folder of documents (AnythingLLM is the pick)
- Your company runs on Microsoft tools (Microsoft Copilot is the pick)
- You want to summarize a set of uploaded sources for free (NotebookLM is the pick)
Not ideal if
- You rely on Glean features or integrations that these tools do not replicate
Glean today: See pricing page (Glean pricing, checked 2026-10-23).
Why people look for Glean alternatives
Glean's pricing page publishes no prices, plans, free tier or trial. The only call to action is a demo request, so a team cannot compare cost against other tools before talking to sales. No trial or free tier is listed either, so cost and fit only become clear after a sales conversation.
Onyx
Compared with Glean: MIT-licensed Community Edition you can self-host, with a free cloud trial. Indexes 50+ applications per the repository, fewer than Glean's 275+, but no sales call and you control the data.
Price: Free (Community Edition is free to self-host; Onyx Cloud offers a free trial) (Onyx pricing, checked 2026-10-23).
Platforms and license: Self-hosted (Docker, Kubernetes), Onyx Cloud. MIT (Community Edition); Enterprise Edition adds paid features (open source).
Project activity: 33k GitHub stars · latest release v5.0.1 (Oct 26, 2026) · last commit Oct 28, 2026
Best for: Self-hosted team search.
AnythingLLM
Compared with Glean: MIT-licensed desktop app and Docker image, free to self-host. Chats with your documents rather than crawling dozens of work apps, so it is lighter than Glean and needs manual setup.
Price: Free (Desktop app free; self-hosting with Docker free; no limits stated); paid from $50 per month, Basic hosted plan billed monthly (Pro is $99 per month; Enterprise custom) (AnythingLLM pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Desktop, Self-hosted via Docker. MIT (open source).
Project activity: 67.7k GitHub stars · latest release v1.19.0 (Oct 26, 2026) · last commit Oct 27, 2026
Best for: Document chat on your own machine.
Open Notebook
Compared with Glean: MIT-licensed, self-hosted research assistant; you pay only your model provider. It handles notebooks of sources, not permission-aware search across company apps like Glean.
Price: Free (Free and self-hosted; you pay your chosen model providers unless you run local models) (Open Notebook pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Self-hosted. MIT (open source).
Project activity: 40.6k GitHub stars · latest release v1.15.0 (Oct 4, 2026) · last commit Oct 25, 2026
Best for: Research workspace you host.
NotebookLM
Compared with Glean: Standard plan is free with 100 notebooks and 50 sources each. It will not search across your company apps, but it summarizes documents you upload without any contract.
Price: Free (Standard (free) plan: 100 notebooks per user and 50 sources per notebook, limits subject to change) (NotebookLM pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web. Proprietary.
Best for: Summarizing selected documents.
Microsoft Copilot
Compared with Glean: Free tier with lower usage than the paid plans. It is tied to Microsoft and web data rather than a broad connector set, but costs far less than Glean-style contracts.
Price: Free (free tier with lower usage than the paid plans); paid from $9.99 per month (Microsoft 365 Personal, includes higher Copilot usage) (Microsoft Copilot pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web, Windows, iOS, Android. Proprietary.
Best for: Teams already on Microsoft.
Guru
Compared with Glean: Knowledge base with AI answers. Pricing is custom and no per-seat number is shown, similar to Glean, but it centres on curated company answers instead of crawling every tool.
Price: See pricing page (Guru pricing, checked 2026-10-23).
Platforms and license: Web browser. Proprietary SaaS.
Best for: Curated company knowledge.
Other popular options (paid)
Notion AI
Compared with Glean: Business is listed from $20 per member per month and includes Notion Agent and AI Meeting Notes; Free and Plus carry only a limited trial. It works inside Notion, not across every connected work app.
Price: Paid from $20 per member/month (Business plan, which includes Notion Agent and AI Meeting Notes; check the pricing page for the billing term) (Notion AI pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Which one to pick
- You want to self-host team search and own the data: Onyx
- You want to chat with a folder of documents: AnythingLLM
- Your company runs on Microsoft tools: Microsoft Copilot
- You want to summarize a set of uploaded sources for free: NotebookLM
Limits of this review
Docs-only for Onyx, AnythingLLM, Open Notebook, NotebookLM, Microsoft Copilot, Guru: we did not install or run them, so feature claims come from vendor pages and we did not test import from Glean. Vendor prices and free limits change; confirm on the linked pricing page before you buy or migrate.
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Kevin Fan
Kevin Fan is a SaaS founder. He runs Free Instead Of, which tracks free and open-source alternatives to paid software and checks each price and free-plan limit against the vendor's own pages.
Methodology
Based on official pricing and product pages checked between 2026-10-22 and 2026-10-23: Glean, Onyx, AnythingLLM, Open Notebook, NotebookLM, Microsoft Copilot, Guru, Notion AI. Prices, free limits and licenses are the figures shown on those pages on those dates. No tool on this page was installed or run. No accounts were created.