Khoj, The Jouster's Review

The Essentials in 20 Seconds

• Personal AI assistant that indexes your Obsidian, Notion notes, PDFs, and local files
• Semantic search and conversations with your own documents
• Open source, self-hostable to keep your data private
• Pricing: cloud from $10/month, free when self-hosted

Verdict: Khoj does exactly what other AI assistants don't: talk to your own data privately. If you have a dense Obsidian or Notion note base, Khoj is a valuable AI layer on top of it.

What is Khoj?

Khoj is an open source AI assistant founded in 2021 that connects to your personal data sources: Obsidian notes, Notion, PDFs, local files, web history. It indexes this data and lets you search it in natural language or have contextualized conversations.

The self-hosted version lets you keep everything on your machine, without sending your data to third-party servers.

Strengths

Native Obsidian integration

The Khoj plugin for Obsidian is one of the most appreciated in the ecosystem. You can ask questions about your notes directly from Obsidian, get connections between notes, and generate new content based on your knowledge base.

Self-hostability and privacy

Khoj can run entirely on your machine (local Python, optional GPU). Your personal notes, your confidential PDFs never leave your computer. For professionals with sensitive data, that's a strong argument.

Semantic search on your documents

Find information in your notes even if you don't remember the exact words used. Khoj understands meaning, not just keywords.

Limitations

Technical setup in self-hosted mode

Local installation requires Python and some configuration steps. Not inaccessible for an agentic engineer, but not as simple as installing an app.

Cloud interface less polished than Notion AI

Compared to Notion AI or ChatGPT, Khoj cloud's interface is more raw. It's a tool for users who prioritize functionality over design.

Pricing

• Free cloud: limited features
• Cloud Pro: $10/month
• Self-hosted: free (open source MIT)

Alternatives

• Notion AI for native AI in Notion
• Mem for connected AI note-taking
• Obsidian Copilot for AI in Obsidian without Khoj

Verdict

Khoj is my choice for Obsidian power users who want an AI that truly knows their knowledge base. The self-hosted version is particularly interesting for professionals with sensitive data.

FAQ

Does Khoj support English?

Yes. Khoj uses LLMs that support English and many other languages. Semantic search quality is also good in English.

How many notes can Khoj index?

Self-hosted on a decent machine, several thousand notes. The cloud has lower limits based on the plan.

Can you connect Khoj to GitHub or other sources?

Yes. Khoj supports indexing GitHub repos, bookmarked web pages, and other sources based on the version.

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