Question 1

How much does Glean cost?

Accepted Answer

Glean doesn't publish pricing. Based on industry reports, the enterprise search license runs $40-65+/user/month, with an additional $15/user/month for advanced AI features. There's a $50-60K minimum annual contract, typically requiring 100+ seats, a mandatory support fee of roughly 10% of ARR, and reported 7-12% annual renewal increases. Paid proofs of concept can cost up to $70K. Onyx is $20/user/month with no minimums, no hidden fees, and a free 14-day trial.

Question 2

Can Glean be self-hosted or air-gapped?

Accepted Answer

Not fully. Glean offers hosted SaaS, a Cloud-Prem model (runs in your cloud but Glean manages it and retains access), and a Dell on-prem partnership announced in May 2025 that is also Glean-operated. Across all three models, Glean maintains access to your environment for operations and updates. There is no self-managed deployment and no true air-gapped option. Onyx can be deployed fully self-hosted on your own infrastructure, including completely air-gapped environments where no data ever leaves your network.

Question 3

Can I run LLMs on my own hardware with Glean?

Accepted Answer

No. Glean's Model Hub supports commercial and open-weight models (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Llama) but only through cloud-hosted providers like Amazon Bedrock, Google Vertex AI, and Azure OpenAI. All inference goes through external cloud APIs. There's no way to run models locally, use Ollama, or bring your own GPU infrastructure. If you need all data processing to stay on your hardware for compliance or cost reasons, Glean can't do that. Onyx supports local models via Ollama, self-hosted inference on your own GPUs, and any commercial API, so nothing has to leave your network.

Question 4

Can Onyx replace Glean?

Accepted Answer

For most use cases, yes. Onyx covers the core enterprise search capabilities: 40+ connectors with continuous indexing, permission syncing, AI-powered search with citations, and custom agents. Where Onyx goes further: true self-hosted and air-gapped deployment, any LLM including open-source, zero vendor access to your data, transparent pricing, and the ability to inspect and extend the open-source codebase. Glean has more out-of-the-box connectors (100+ vs 40+), but Onyx's open-source framework lets you build custom connectors for anything Glean doesn't cover either.

Question 5

Does Glean have access to my data?

Accepted Answer

Yes, across all deployment models. In hosted SaaS, your data lives in Glean's cloud. In Cloud-Prem, Glean manages your environment and retains access. In the Dell on-prem option, Glean operates the infrastructure including updates and maintenance. If your security or compliance requirements prohibit a third-party vendor from accessing your data, Glean cannot meet that requirement today. Onyx's self-hosted deployment gives you complete control: Onyx never touches your environment or your data.

Feature	Onyx	Glean
Open-source & self-hostable	Yes	No
Transparent pricing (no sales call required)	$20/user/month	$40-65+/user/month (estimated)
No minimum contract	Yes	$50K+ annual minimum (estimated)
Run models locally on your own hardware	Any LLM including local models via Ollama	Cloud-hosted models only (via Bedrock, Vertex, Azure, OpenAI)
True air-gapped deployment	Yes	No ¹
Zero vendor access to your data	Self-host: Onyx never touches your data	Glean retains access across all deployment models