The open-source ChatGPT Enterprise alternative with built-in search

Onyx searches across 40+ tools your team already uses, respects permissions out of the box, and runs anywhere: cloud, self-hosted, or air-gapped. No model lock-in, no cloud-only limitations.

Feature

Onyx

ChatGPT

Open-source & self-hostable

Yes

No

Integrated Company Knowledge

+33 more

40+ indexed enterprise connectors

~5 indexed, rest MCP

1

Model-agnostic (100+ LLMs)

Yes

No

Air-gapped deployment

Yes

Can only be deployed on OpenAI infrastructure

Advanced RAG with knowledge graphs

Yes

Basic RAG

1MCP connectors fetch data live at query time: slow, incomplete, and limited to what a single API call returns. Indexed connectors continuously sync your data in the background, enabling instant, comprehensive, permission-aware answers.

Head-to-Head Benchmark Results

Independent evaluation across 99 real-world workplace questions using 220K internal documents from Slack, Google Drive, GitHub, Gmail, and more.

Overall Win Rate

Onyx

64%

ChatGPT

36%

Fact Lookup

Onyx

78.5%

ChatGPT

21.5%

Based on 99 real-world workplace questions across 220K internal documents. Judged by GPT-5.2 and Claude Opus 4.5. Read the full benchmark

Pricing Comparison

Onyx

$20/user/month

ChatGPT Enterprise

~$60/user/month (Enterprise), $25/user/month (Business)

14-day free trial. No credit card required. No minimum seats. No minimum contract.

~150-seat minimum. Credits-based billing for advanced features. Annual commitment required.

Total Cost of Ownership

Estimated annual cost comparison based on per-user pricing.

Team size

100 users

10

1,000

Onyx

$24,000

$20/user/month

ChatGPT

$72,000

~$60/user/month

Annual Savings

$48,000

67% less with Onyx

Detailed Comparison

Click each section to expand the full comparison.

Onyx

Onyx was built from day one as an enterprise search platform. 40+ native connectors continuously crawl and index your data from Slack, Google Drive, Confluence, Jira, GitHub, Salesforce, and more. Permission syncing ensures users only see what they have access to in the source system. Hybrid search combines semantic and keyword retrieval with LLM-based knowledge graphs for best-in-class answer quality.

ChatGPT Enterprise

ChatGPT Enterprise launched "Company Knowledge" in October 2025. It supports ~15 apps including Google Drive, SharePoint, Slack, Notion, and GitHub. "Synced connectors" pre-index content while "chat connectors" query on-demand. Permission-aware retrieval is available but inherits oversharing risks from source systems; if your Google Drive permissions are too broad, ChatGPT will surface that data to anyone.

Which is Right for You?

Onyx is best for

  • Teams that need AI answers grounded in company data across 40+ tools

  • Organizations requiring self-hosted, on-premise, or air-gapped deployment

  • Companies wanting model flexibility. Use any LLM, switch freely

  • Security-conscious teams that want open-source code transparency

  • Cost-conscious organizations. Onyx is $20/user/month for cloud or available self-hosted with a paid license

ChatGPT Enterprise is best for

  • Organizations wanting best-in-class GPT model quality for general-purpose AI tasks

  • Teams that primarily need AI for writing, coding assistance, and data analysis. They don't need a best in class enterprise search solution.

  • Companies comfortable with cloud-only deployment and OpenAI model lock-in

  • Non-technical users who value ChatGPT's familiar, intuitive interface

Frequently Asked Questions

Get Started

Today

Start your 14-day free trial of Onyx (no credit card required)

Try Onyx Cloud

Secure

Enterprise-grade security and compliance. Flexible and secure deployment options.

Open-Source

Deep customizability optimized for your use case, supported by a large Open-Source community.

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