# Khoj vs MLX LM

> MLX LM scores 52.2 (D) 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/khoj-vs-mlx-lm
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/khoj-vs-mlx-lm.md (~2,450 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/khoj-vs-mlx-lm.min.md (~630 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/khoj-vs-mlx-lm.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

MLX LM scores 52.2 (D) on agent readiness against Khoj's 38.5 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do local inference.

- 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
- MLX LM: grade D, 52.2/100, rank #657 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/mlx-lm.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/mlx-lm.json

## Which one, for what

### 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

### MLX LM (D)

Good for: An owner with an Apple silicon Mac who wants MLX-format models, local fine-tuning and quantisation from Python or the command line, with a simple local chat completions server.

Ahead on:
- Agent ergonomics, 54 against 46
- Maintenance & community, 61 against 19
- Transparency & trust, 66 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: `mlx_lm.server` has no API key or other credential option, and `--allowed-origins` defaults to `*`


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Khoj | MLX LM | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 65 | 66 | MLX LM +1 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 34 | 37 | MLX LM +3 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 46 | 54 | MLX LM +8 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 29 | 32 | MLX LM +3 |
| 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 | 61 | MLX LM +42 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 60 | 66 | MLX LM +6 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -7 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **38.5 · E** | **52.2 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Khoj | MLX LM |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model platform | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Khoj Inc. | Apple Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | None |
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | AGPL-3.0-or-later | MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | no |
| Last release | 2026-03-26 | 2026-10-01 |
| Terms last updated | 2024-06-05 | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | no document linked |
| 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 | 38k stars | 7.3k stars, 140k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 1/5 (2) | none |

## 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.

**MLX LM.** MIT, with no telemetry found in the source, and the tests passed on the last eight pushes to main. `mlx_lm.server` has no API key option, answers any origin by default and loads whichever model a request names, and its own docs say it is not recommended for production.

## 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

### MLX LM

1. Keep `mlx_lm.server` on 127.0.0.1 and pass `--allowed-origins` with the origins you trust. There is no API key, and the default answers every origin
2. Treat any caller as able to load any model. The `model` and `adapters` request fields accept any Hugging Face repository or local path
3. Send `max_tokens` or `max_completion_tokens` when you need more than 512 tokens, the server default
4. Read errors as `{"error": "<text>"}` with 400 for a bad field and 404 for a model that failed to load. They are not OpenAI error objects
5. Poll `GET /health` before the first request. It answers 503 with `unavailable` when the generation thread has stopped

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Khoj or MLX LM?

MLX LM scores 52.2 (D) on agent readiness against Khoj's 38.5 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.

### Can an agent call Khoj and MLX LM without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for Khoj. No hosted endpoint is listed for MLX LM.

### Are Khoj and MLX LM open source?

Yes. Khoj is open source (AGPL-3.0-or-later). MLX LM is open source (MIT).


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Khoj or MLX LM

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