Open source alternatives to Claude

By GitHub stars it is LibreChat, with 47,062 stars and a commit on 13 Nov. Choose LibreChat when your team wants Claude, GPT and Gemini models in one chat app on your own server, paid per token by API. Next come Jan (45,692 stars) and Khoj (38,118 stars).

Yes. The code of all 4 is public under MIT, Apache 2.0 or AGPL 3.0, so you can use them with no licence fee. Running one yourself costs the server and your time to look after it, and some makers also sell a hosted plan.

Start from the job you use Claude for. Choose Jan when you want an assistant that runs open models on your own computer, so prompts and chats never leave the machine. Choose Khoj when you want a chat assistant on your own machine that can run local models and search your own notes.

All 4: LibreChat, Jan, Khoj and Zola. Each tool's page says what it needs to run.

2 of the 4 we track had a commit in the last 30 days, among them LibreChat and Jan. The quietest is Zola, last changed on 11 Dec 2025. A recent commit shows the project is kept up, not that it will stay that way.

Apache 2.0 (2), MIT (1), AGPL 3.0 (1). MIT, BSD and Apache let you change and reuse the code freely. GPL and AGPL ask you to share your changes under the same licence when you give the software to others, and AGPL also counts letting people use it over a network.

The hosting. Claude's maker runs the servers for you; with an open source tool the updates, backups, security fixes and support are yours, unless you take the maker's hosted plan. Features differ too, so check what each one imports and exports before you move your data.