# Khoj vs LM Studio

> LM Studio has a score of 57.9 (C) against Khoj's 38.8 (E). Both do local inference. The largest gap is maintenance & community, 53 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

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- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/khoj-vs-lm-studio.md (~1,750 tokens)
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- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/khoj-vs-lm-studio.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: 2026-10-05

LM Studio has a score of 57.9 (C) against Khoj's 38.8 (E). Both do local inference. The largest gap is maintenance & community, 53 points.

- Khoj: grade E, 38.8/100, rank #426 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/khoj.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/khoj.json
- LM Studio: grade C, 57.9/100, rank #287 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/lm-studio.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/lm-studio.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Khoj for reliability (+31).

Pick LM Studio for schema & documentation (+30), agent ergonomics (+23), security & auth (+30), maintenance & community (+53).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Khoj | LM Studio | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 65 | 34 | Khoj +31 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 34 | 64 | LM Studio +30 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 46 | 69 | LM Studio +23 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 29 | 59 | LM Studio +30 |
| 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) | 19 | 72 | LM Studio +53 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 64 | 61 | Khoj +3 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -7 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **38.8 · E** | **57.9 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Khoj | LM Studio |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model platform | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Khoj Inc. | Element Labs, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | AGPL-3.0-or-later | Proprietary. The app and llmster are free for personal and internal business use under LM Studio's terms (Element Labs, Inc., effective 23 August 2026), with no source published. The `lms` CLI and the TypeScript and Python SDKs are MIT |
| Tools exposed | none | none |
| Context cost (tools/list) | n/a | n/a |
| p95 latency | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Availability (30d) | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-03-26 | 2026-09-19 |
| Popularity | 38k stars | 69k npm/wk, 15k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 1/5 (2) | 2.5/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**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.

**LM Studio.** OpenAI-compatible chat completions, responses, completions and embeddings, Anthropic-compatible /v1/messages and a native /api/v1, all on one port. Authentication is off by default, so any local process can call the server.

## Before you call either

### 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

### LM Studio

1. Send `Authorization: Bearer $LM_API_TOKEN` when the owner gives you a token. With Require Authentication on, every request needs it
2. Pass `previous_response_id` to /api/v1/chat instead of resending the history, and `store: false` for one-off calls
3. List models with `GET /api/v1/models` before naming one. A named model that's downloaded loads just in time
4. Install the Python SDK pre-release (1.6.0b1) and pass `api_token` directly. It reads `LMSTUDIO_API_TOKEN`, not the `LM_API_TOKEN` the docs name
5. Set `allowed_tools` on every MCP integration. Without it the model sees every tool on the server

## Other comparisons with Khoj or LM Studio

- [AnythingLLM vs Khoj](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anythingllm-vs-khoj.md)
- [AnythingLLM vs LM Studio](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anythingllm-vs-lm-studio.md)
- [GPT4All vs Khoj](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gpt4all-vs-khoj.md)
- [GPT4All vs LM Studio](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gpt4all-vs-lm-studio.md)
- [Jan vs Khoj](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jan-vs-khoj.md)
- [Jan vs LM Studio](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jan-vs-lm-studio.md)
- [Khoj vs llama.cpp](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/khoj-vs-llama-cpp.md)
- [Khoj vs LocalAI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/khoj-vs-localai.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)
- [llama.cpp vs LM Studio](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/llama-cpp-vs-lm-studio.md)
- [LM Studio vs LocalAI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lm-studio-vs-localai.md)
- [LM Studio vs Ollama](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lm-studio-vs-ollama.md)
- [LM Studio vs Open WebUI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lm-studio-vs-open-webui.md)
- [LM Studio vs screenpipe](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lm-studio-vs-screenpipe.md)
- [LM Studio vs Underdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lm-studio-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.