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Onyx

Open-source AI chat and enterprise search that connects to a team's documents, apps, and people.

4.2 Productivity
4.2 Very good 4.2

Bottom line: Open-source AI chat and enterprise search that connects to a team's documents, apps, and people. Free plan available.

Free, license-unrestricted self-hosted option for teams that want to avoid sending data to a vendor Self-hosting the open-source edition still requires infrastructure and maintenance effort
Reviewed by Challenging Voice Editorial · Updated Aug 2026 How we rate
PricingFrom $20/mo
Free planYes
CompanyDanswerAI Inc. (operating as Onyx)
PlatformsAPI, Web
Best forProductivity
Founded2023
Visits22
Last reviewedAug 2026
UpdatedAug 2026
Ask AI about Onyx ChatGPT Claude Perplexity

Overview

Onyx is an open-source AI platform for workplace search and chat, founded in San Francisco in 2023 by Yuhong Sun and Chris Weaver under the name Danswer before rebranding to Onyx in late 2024. The MIT-licensed core lets any organization self-host the software inside its own cloud environment rather than sending internal data to a third party.

The platform indexes 40+ workplace applications, including Slack, Google Drive, Confluence, GitHub, and Salesforce, then layers hybrid search and retrieval-augmented generation on top so employees can ask natural-language questions and get cited answers pulled from that indexed knowledge instead of a generic model response. Deployments run self-hosted inside a company's VPC or through a managed cloud version, and the platform supports MCP connections, a code interpreter, and web search alongside custom AI assistants.

Onyx suits engineering-minded organizations that want an internal knowledge assistant without proprietary lock-in, since the self-hosted edition is free and open source under an MIT license. The managed Business plan starts at $20 per user per month billed annually, and Enterprise pricing (with SSO, on-premise deployment, and white-labeling) is quote-based.

Key features

  • Hybrid search plus RAG chat over 40+ connected workplace applications
  • Self-hosted, MIT-licensed open-source core with full data control
  • MCP support for connecting external tools and agent workflows
  • Custom AI assistants configurable per team or use case
  • Deep research mode with built-in code interpreter and web search
  • Permission-aware answers that respect each connected app's access controls

Screenshots & demo

Demo video

Screenshots

Onyx screenshot 1

Pricing

Onyx has a free plan, and paid plans start at $20/mo.

  • Pricing modelFreemium
  • Starting priceFrom $20/mo
  • Free planYes
Visit Onyx

Pricing is provided as a guide. Check the official site for the latest plans.

Is Onyx expensive?

Onyx starts at $20, which is 72% above the Productivity median of $11.6 a month across the 165 priced tools we list in that category.

The cheapest paid option in Productivity starts at $0.29 and the most expensive at $165.

72% of Productivity tools in the directory offer a free tier, and this is one of them.

Compared against every priced listing in Productivity, recalculated as the catalogue changes. Method and the full market breakdown are in our AI tool pricing study.

Pros & cons

Pros

  • Free, license-unrestricted self-hosted option for teams that want to avoid sending data to a vendor
  • Broad connector library covers most common workplace tools out of the box
  • MCP support keeps the platform current with the wider agent-tooling ecosystem
  • Company reports a majority win rate against general chatbots on internal workplace questions in its own benchmark

Cons

  • Self-hosting the open-source edition still requires infrastructure and maintenance effort
  • The 2024 rebrand from Danswer to Onyx means older tutorials and integrations still reference the old name
  • Per-seat Business pricing can add up for larger teams compared with a flat-rate tool
  • Enterprise features (SSO, white-labeling) sit behind custom quotes rather than published pricing

How it compares

ToolRatingFreeFromBest known for
Onyx (this tool)4.2Yes$20/moHybrid search plus RAG chat over 40+ connected workplace applications
Glean4.3No—Enterprise search across dozens of connected internal systems
Dashworks3.9No$12/moUnified search across Slack, Jira, Dropbox, HubSpot, Trello, and other connected apps
iGPT3.6YesFreeReal-time email and attachment indexing

Alternatives to Onyx

4 tools matched to Onyx on what they do, their category and their price.

Frequently asked questions

What is Onyx?
Onyx is an open-source AI platform for workplace search and chat, founded in San Francisco in 2023 by Yuhong Sun and Chris Weaver under the name Danswer before rebranding to Onyx in late 2024.
Is Onyx free?
Yes, Onyx offers a free plan. Paid plans unlock more features and higher usage limits, starting at $20/month.
How much does Onyx cost?
Onyx starts at $20 per month. See the pricing plans above for full details.
What are the best Onyx alternatives?
The closest matches in the directory are Glean, Dashworks, and iGPT, compared side by side above.

Reviews

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