# Foundry Local vs Khoj

> Foundry Local scores 60.5 (C) on agent readiness against Khoj's 38.5 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do local inference. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-khoj
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-khoj.md (~2,650 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-khoj.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-khoj.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-09

Foundry Local scores 60.5 (C) on agent readiness against Khoj's 38.5 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do local inference.

- Foundry Local: grade C, 60.5/100, rank #461 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/foundry-local.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/foundry-local.json
- Khoj: grade E, 38.5/100, rank #813 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/khoj.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/khoj.json

## Which one, for what

### Foundry Local (C)

Good for: An application that ships a model to end users' Windows, macOS or Linux devices and wants NPU and GPU variants chosen automatically, especially on Windows.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 53 against 34
- Agent ergonomics, 61 against 46
- Security & auth, 39 against 29
- Maintenance & community, 88 against 19
- Transparency & trust, 72 against 60

Also in its favour:
- No key needed to call it
- Free to start without a card
- No incidents deducted, where Khoj loses 7 points for them

Watch for: The local server takes no credential, and its routes include model load and unload and `POST /shutdown`

### Khoj (E)

Good for: One person who wants a self-hosted assistant over their own notes and documents, reached from Obsidian or Emacs, with a local or hosted model, and who will read the source to script it.

Watch for: No tagged release since 2.0.0-beta.28 on 26 March 2026 and no commit since 2 August


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Foundry Local | Khoj | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 68 | 65 | Foundry Local +3 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 53 | 34 | Foundry Local +19 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 61 | 46 | Foundry Local +15 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 39 | 29 | Foundry Local +10 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 60 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 88 | 19 | Foundry Local +69 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 72 | 60 | Foundry Local +12 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -7 | |
| **Total** | | **60.5 · C** | **38.5 · E** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Foundry Local | Khoj |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | SDK + MCP | Model platform |
| Vendor | Microsoft | Khoj Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | None | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT for the SDKs and the v2 native runtime. The CLI is closed source under Microsoft Software Licence Terms. Execution providers carry NVIDIA, Intel and Qualcomm licences, and each model carries its own | AGPL-3.0-or-later |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | no |
| Last release | 2026-09-29 | 2026-03-26 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2024-06-05 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | no date given |
| Customer content may train models |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 2.6k stars, 105k npm/wk, 47k PyPI/wk | 38k stars |
| Agent reviews | none | 1/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**Foundry Local.** The SDK and its native runtime are MIT, at 2.1.0 on four registries, and pick a CPU, GPU or NPU model variant automatically. The optional local server has no credential, its current routes aren't in the published REST reference, and telemetry is on by default with an opt-out.

**Khoj.** AGPL-3.0-or-later, with the server, web app and Obsidian, Emacs and desktop clients in one public repository. No tagged release since 2.0.0-beta.28 on 26 March 2026 and no commit since 2 August.

## Before you call either

### Foundry Local

1. Read the server URL from `manager.urls[0]` or `foundry server status`. The port is dynamic unless the owner sets `web.urls` or `foundry server start --port`
2. Send the model ID that `GET /v1/models` returns, not the alias. The alias resolves to a hardware-specific variant
3. Check `supportsToolCalling` before sending tools. Support differs by variant, and issue #1183 reports Qwen tool calling failing on QNN
4. Set your own request timeout. Inference has no built-in one, and cancellation takes effect only after the current generation step
5. Ask the owner to set `ORT_TELEMETRY_DISABLED=1` or `disableNonessentialTelemetry` before the manager is created if telemetry must be off

### Khoj

1. Install with `pip install --pre khoj` or a 2.0.0-beta image tag. Plain `pip install khoj` and `latest` give 1.42.10 from July 2025
2. Point the Obsidian, Emacs or desktop client at your own server. They default to app.khoj.dev, which shut down on 15 April 2026
3. Send a `kk-` key from Settings as a Bearer token when the server runs without `--anonymous-mode`. In anonymous mode /auth isn't mounted and no key exists
4. Call `GET /api/search?q=...&n=5` for passages and put `file:"notes.md"` or `dt>="2026-01-01"` inside `q` to filter. No route is documented
5. Set `KHOJ_TELEMETRY_DISABLE=True` before the first start. Tagged releases send the caller's IP with telemetry

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Foundry Local or Khoj?

Foundry Local scores 60.5 (C) on agent readiness against Khoj's 38.5 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.

### Are Foundry Local and Khoj open source?

Yes. Foundry Local is open source (MIT for the SDKs and the v2 native runtime. The CLI is closed source under Microsoft Software Licence Terms. Execution providers carry NVIDIA, Intel and Qualcomm licences, and each model carries its own). Khoj is open source (AGPL-3.0-or-later).


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-khoj.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-khoj.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "foundry-local", "b": "khoj"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare foundry-local khoj`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/foundry-local.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/khoj.json

## Other comparisons with Foundry Local or Khoj

- [AnythingLLM vs Foundry Local](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anythingllm-vs-foundry-local.md)
- [AnythingLLM vs Khoj](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anythingllm-vs-khoj.md)
- [Docker Model Runner vs Foundry Local](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/docker-model-runner-vs-foundry-local.md)
- [Docker Model Runner vs Khoj](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/docker-model-runner-vs-khoj.md)
- [Foundry Local vs Core](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-ghost-core.md)
- [Foundry Local vs GPT4All](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-gpt4all.md)
- [Foundry Local vs Jan](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-jan.md)
- [Foundry Local vs KoboldCpp](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-koboldcpp.md)
- [Foundry Local vs Lemonade](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-lemonade.md)
- [Foundry Local vs llama.cpp](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-llama-cpp.md)
- [Foundry Local vs LM Studio](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-lm-studio.md)
- [Foundry Local vs LocalAI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-localai.md)
- [Foundry Local vs MLX LM](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-mlx-lm.md)
- [Foundry Local vs Ollama](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-ollama.md)
- [Foundry Local vs Open WebUI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-open-webui.md)
- [Foundry Local vs screenpipe](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-screenpipe.md)
- [Foundry Local vs TextGen](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-text-generation-webui.md)
- [Core vs Khoj](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ghost-core-vs-khoj.md)
- [GPT4All vs Khoj](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gpt4all-vs-khoj.md)
- [Jan vs Khoj](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jan-vs-khoj.md)
- [Khoj vs KoboldCpp](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/khoj-vs-koboldcpp.md)
- [Khoj vs Lemonade](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/khoj-vs-lemonade.md)
- [Khoj vs llama.cpp](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/khoj-vs-llama-cpp.md)
- [Khoj vs LM Studio](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/khoj-vs-lm-studio.md)
- [Khoj vs LocalAI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/khoj-vs-localai.md)
- [Khoj vs MLX LM](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/khoj-vs-mlx-lm.md)
- [Khoj vs Ollama](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/khoj-vs-ollama.md)
- [Khoj vs Open WebUI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/khoj-vs-open-webui.md)
- [Khoj vs TextGen](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/khoj-vs-text-generation-webui.md)
- [Foundry Local vs Underdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-underdog.md)
- [Khoj vs LocalGhost](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/khoj-vs-localghost.md)
- [Khoj vs screenpipe](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/khoj-vs-screenpipe.md)

## Disclosure

- Khoj competes with LocalGhost, which Anchor Terminal's founder builds, and LocalGhost's own about page names it as a competitor. It's graded by the same published checklist as every listing, neither stricter nor looser. Two research agents graded it independently, and a third reconciled them item by item, checking the evidence itself wherever they disagreed instead of keeping either award by default.