2.5M+ pages · 6 languages
Multilingual EU-law research over 2.5M+ pages, answers in 6 EU languages with full source citations, 100–200 ms retrieval.
Source: LexEU
Glean alternative that runs on your own infrastructure — open source
Glean is a cloud-only enterprise search and assistant product sold per seat with contract minimums; it suits large organisations that accept SaaS processing of their content. DocsGPT is an MIT-licensed alternative that can run in the cloud, on your own servers or fully air-gapped, with your choice of model and no per-seat licence on self-hosted deployments.
Last updated: · Facts checked on
Glean and DocsGPT at a glance
Licence, hosting, models, price, contract and data access, side by side.
Glean is a proprietary, cloud-only product with no true on-premises option, a vendor-operated model hub, unpublished pricing reported at ~$50–75 per user per month and contract minimums of about 100 seats. DocsGPT is MIT-licensed, runs in four postures including air-gapped, supports any model including local engines, publishes its Cloud price and has no seat minimum.
| Glean | DocsGPT | |
|---|---|---|
| Open-source licence | Proprietary1 | MIT (platform and CLI)2 |
| Self-host and air-gap | No true on-premises; no air-gapped mode1 | Yes — Self-hosted (community), On-premises and Air-gapped (zero external egress), from one seat2 |
| Model choice / BYOM | Model hub, vendor-operated1 | Any cloud provider or local engine (Ollama, vLLM, llama.cpp and others); BYOM2 |
| Transparent pricing | Not published; ~$50–75/user/month reported1 | Yes, per posture: Cloud $20/seat/month; Managed from $2,000/month, flat; On-premises and Air-gapped from $10,000, one-time or recurring2 |
| Seat minimum / contract | ~100 seats reported1 | None; self-hosting has no licence fee2 |
| Vendor access to data | Yes — Glean's service indexes and processes content1 | Yes on Cloud and Managed — Arc53 operates both, Managed as a dedicated instance in your region; No on On-premises and Air-gapped, which you operate2 |
¹ Glean facts checked on . ·² Sources: docs.docsgpt.cloud and the public repository.
Where Glean is the better fit
- A large, SaaS-first estate with many managed connectors to keep in sync.
- You want a single vendor to run indexing, models and the application.
- There is no on-premises or data-residency requirement.
- Headcount is well above the contract minimum and per-seat budgeting is established.
Where DocsGPT is the better fit
- Content cannot leave the network: On-premises or Air-gapped posture.
- Models are your own — a cloud provider key or local engines such as Ollama and vLLM.
- The team is under 100 seats, or grows without a per-seat licence step.
- The work goes beyond search: agent workflows, document classification and OCR over scanned PDFs.
- Cost should be flat infrastructure plus support rather than scaling with headcount.
docsgpt — chat
5,000+ documents · flat monthly fee
Dedicated managed instance for a specialist consultancy: 5,000+ documents, SSO, one flat monthly fee with no per-seat licence.
Source: No Deviation
Cost at 100 and 1,000 seats
The band uses the reported $50–75 per user per month. DocsGPT Cloud is per seat; Managed and On-premises are flat per deployment, from the published starting prices.
| Glean | DocsGPT | |
|---|---|---|
| 100 seats, per year | $60,000–90,000/yr | Cloud $24,000/yr · Managed from $24,000/yr · On-premises from $10,000, one-time or recurring |
| 1,000 seats, per year | $600,000–900,000/yr | Cloud $240,000/yr · Managed from $24,000/yr · On-premises from $10,000, one-time or recurring |
| Basis | reported $50–75/user/month × seats × 12 | Cloud $20/seat/month × seats × 12 · Managed from $2,000/month, flat · On-premises and Air-gapped from $10,000, one-time or recurring, plus your infrastructure |
Before negotiation; add-ons excluded; checked on 2026-09-06.
Annual cost vs seatsreported prices · 2026-09-06
Text version
At 100 seats Glean costs $60,000–90,000 per year at the reported $50–75 per user per month; at 1,000 seats, $600,000–900,000. DocsGPT Cloud at $20 per seat per month costs $24,000 per year at 100 seats and $240,000 at 1,000; a Managed instance is flat from $24,000 per year at any seat count; On-premises and Air-gapped start from $10,000, one-time or recurring, plus your own infrastructure. Facts checked on 2026-09-06.
Frequently asked questions
Who is Glean's biggest competitor?
- The products most often compared with Glean are Microsoft 365 Copilot and ChatGPT Enterprise among hosted assistants, and open-source platforms such as Onyx and DocsGPT among self-hostable ones. Which is the closest fit depends on the estate, the deployment posture and the pricing model rather than a ranking.
Is there a free version of Glean?
- Glean has no free tier (checked 2026-09-06); it is sold per seat with contract minimums. DocsGPT is free to self-host under the MIT licence, and the Cloud plan is $20/seat/month.
Does Glean offer on-premise deployment?
- Glean has no true on-premises deployment (checked 2026-09-06); it runs as a cloud service. DocsGPT runs on-premises and air-gapped from one seat.
Is Glean like Copilot?
- Both are hosted, per-seat assistants that index company content and are operated by the vendor. Glean spans many SaaS sources and is sold with contract minimums; Copilot is tied to Microsoft 365 and priced at $30/user/month list. Neither has an on-premises or air-gapped mode (checked 2026-09-06). See DocsGPT vs Microsoft 365 Copilot and DocsGPT vs Glean.
How much does Glean cost per user?
- Glean does not publish pricing. Public reporting puts it at about $50–75 per user per month with minimums of roughly 100 seats (checked 2026-09-06). At 100 seats that is $60,000–90,000 a year before negotiation.
Alex Tushynski
Co-Founder, Arc53
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