Yes. LightRAG has a free plan: Open source (MIT): free to self-host with your own LLM. We last checked github.com's pricing page on 2026-10-24.

What does the LightRAG free plan include?

Open source (MIT): free to self-host with your own LLM. Source: https://github.com/HKUDS/LightRAG (checked 2026-10-24).

Do I need an account to use LightRAG for free?

Not for the free option: the free route is to self-host LightRAG (Install with uv or pip, or launch with Docker Compose). Checked 2026-10-24.

What's the catch with LightRAG's free plan?

The server binds to all interfaces by default; set up authentication before exposing it on a network. Checked 2026-10-24.

What are free alternatives to LightRAG?

RAGFlow, Neon and Qdrant Cloud all have free plans. We checked their free offers between 2026-10-23 and 2026-10-25.

Which LLMs does LightRAG work with?

Hosted or local models. For extraction the maker suggests models such as GPT-5.6-luna, Claude Haiku or Gemini-mini, and Qwen3-30B-A3B-Instruct as a minimum for local deployment.

Can I use LightRAG commercially?

Yes. The MIT License allows you to use, copy, modify, publish, distribute and sell copies of the software.

Does LightRAG have a web interface?

Yes. The server includes a web UI for document management, knowledge-graph exploration and query debugging, plus a query-only chat view for everyday users.

LightRAG

Open-source RAG framework that builds a knowledge graph from your documents for graph-plus-vector retrieval.

Dev Infrastructure & AI APIsFreeverified 24 Oct 2026Listed on 24 Oct 2026, 5:30 PM ISTOpen source

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Is LightRAG free?

Yes, LightRAG has a free plan. What you get: Open source (MIT): free to self-host with your own LLM. To get it: install with uv or pip, or launch with Docker Compose; then add your LLM and embedding settings to .env, then run lightrag-server. Verified 24 Oct 2026 on github.com.

Free plan at a glance

Includes: Open source (MIT): free to self-host with your own LLM
MIT open source; no usage limits are stated. You run it yourself with your own LLM and embedding model.
Duration: Free forever
Commercial use: Allowed on the free plan

How to get it free

Self-host

Install with uv or pip, or launch with Docker Compose
Add your LLM and embedding settings to .env, then run lightrag-server

Good to know

The server binds to all interfaces by default; set up authentication before exposing it on a network

Get the free plan

github.com, Checked 2026-10-24Source

Overview

LightRAG is an MIT-licensed retrieval-augmented generation framework from HKUDS that indexes documents into a knowledge graph and vector embeddings. It ships a server with a web UI and REST API, and works with hosted or local LLMs.

Key features

Knowledge-graph plus vector retrieval, with five query modes (local, global, hybrid, naive and mix)
Server with a web UI for documents, graph exploration and queries, plus a REST API
Parses PDFs, Office files, images and tables through MinerU, Docling or its own engine
Storage backends including PostgreSQL, MongoDB, OpenSearch, Neo4j, Milvus and Qdrant
Citations, reranking, and document deletion with automatic graph rebuild
Docker Compose and Kubernetes deployment

Best for

Tasks: Build a chatbot
People: Developers building chatbots over their own documents, Teams that need answers across many documents, Researchers comparing graph-based RAG methods

Limitations

You supply the LLM and embedding model, hosted or local
The default in-memory storage is only for small tests; production needs a database such as PostgreSQL

FAQ

Is LightRAG free?: Yes. LightRAG has a free plan: Open source (MIT): free to self-host with your own LLM. We last checked github.com's pricing page on 2026-10-24.
What does the LightRAG free plan include?: Open source (MIT): free to self-host with your own LLM. Source: https://github.com/HKUDS/LightRAG (checked 2026-10-24).
How do I get LightRAG for free?: Steps: Install with uv or pip, or launch with Docker Compose; Add your LLM and embedding settings to .env, then run lightrag-server. Start at https://github.com/HKUDS/LightRAG (checked 2026-10-24).
Do I need an account to use LightRAG for free?: Not for the free option: the free route is to self-host LightRAG (Install with uv or pip, or launch with Docker Compose). Checked 2026-10-24.
What's the catch with LightRAG's free plan?: The server binds to all interfaces by default; set up authentication before exposing it on a network. Checked 2026-10-24.
What are free alternatives to LightRAG?: RAGFlow, Neon and Qdrant Cloud all have free plans. We checked their free offers between 2026-10-23 and 2026-10-25.
Which LLMs does LightRAG work with?: Hosted or local models. For extraction the maker suggests models such as GPT-5.6-luna, Claude Haiku or Gemini-mini, and Qwen3-30B-A3B-Instruct as a minimum for local deployment.Source: github.com/HKUDS/LightRAG
Can I use LightRAG commercially?: Yes. The MIT License allows you to use, copy, modify, publish, distribute and sell copies of the software.Source: github.com/HKUDS/LightRAG/blob/main/LICENSE
Does LightRAG have a web interface?: Yes. The server includes a web UI for document management, knowledge-graph exploration and query debugging, plus a query-only chat view for everyday users.Source: github.com/HKUDS/LightRAG

Free alternatives

Sources

Free offer: Verified 2026-10-24 on github.com/HKUDS/LightRAG/blob/main/LICENSE
…is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation…
Page content: Checked 2026-10-24 against
github.com/HKUDS/LightRAG
github.com/HKUDS/LightRAG/blob/main/LICENSE

How we check free offers

Added by our team. We check that a free option exists and record the date; signing up is between you and LightRAG, so read their privacy policy and terms first.

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