Who Khoj is for#
Researchers querying private notes
Use Khoj to ask questions across PDFs, markdown, web research, and Notion exports while keeping the deployment under your control.
Skip if:
Skip if your documents are few enough to paste into a normal AI chat.
Power users automating AI briefs
Use custom agents and scheduled notifications to turn recurring research into personal newsletters or alerts.
Skip if:
Skip if you need enterprise-wide knowledge governance and admin analytics first.
The problem it solves#
Generic AI chat loses context unless users repeatedly upload files, paste notes, or rebuild prompts. Teams and individuals also need control over which local or online models read private PDFs, markdown, Notion exports, images, and research material.
How it solves it#
Chat with docs and web
Khoj can answer from the internet and user documents, including PDFs, markdown, org-mode, Word, Notion files, and images.
Local or online LLM support
The README lists local and hosted model families, including Llama, Qwen, Gemma, Mistral, GPT, Claude, Gemini, and DeepSeek.
Custom agents and automation
Users can create agents with custom knowledge, persona, chat model, and tools, then schedule newsletters and smart notifications.
Strengths and trade-offs#
Strengths
- Private deployment pathKhoj is AGPL-3.0 licensed and self-hostable, giving users a way to run personal AI over private knowledge without defaulting to a vendor cloud.
- Works across personal toolsBrowser, Obsidian, Emacs, desktop, phone, and WhatsApp access make Khoj useful as a daily assistant rather than only a web app.
Trade-offs
- -Model quality depends on your setupSelf-hosting Khoj still requires selecting models, configuring integrations, and managing compute. Cloud AI tools may feel simpler for casual use.
Khoj vs alternatives#
What it's built on#
- Languages
- JavaScriptPythonTypeScript
- Frameworks
- Next.jsReact
- Tooling
- esbuild
FAQ#
Can Khoj be self-hosted?
Yes. The README describes Khoj as open source and self-hostable, with setup docs for running it privately.
What files can Khoj answer from?
The README lists image, PDF, markdown, org-mode, Word, Notion files, and web sources.
Does Khoj require OpenAI?
No. Khoj can work with local and online LLMs, including several open model families and hosted providers.
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