Looking for an open source AI assistant you can run yourself? GAIA's full source is public under the PolyForm Noncommercial license, so you can self-host it free for personal use. It manages your email, calendar, tasks and workflows from databases on your own server.
Many open source AI assistant projects are chat interfaces for a model. GAIA is a full personal assistant you can run yourself: it manages email, calendar, tasks and workflows from databases on your own server.
GitHub
Notion
Slack
Gmail
CalendarThe entire codebase (backend, frontend and agents) is public under the PolyForm Noncommercial license. Read it, fork it and self-host it for personal and noncommercial use.
One command, `gaia up`, installs Docker if it is missing, writes the configuration and starts the whole stack. Run it on a laptop, a home server or any VPS.
Email context, calendar events, tasks, memories and conversation history are stored in databases you own. Analytics and error reporting stay off unless you add your own keys.
Pick your LLM provider, add custom MCP servers, change agent behavior or connect internal systems. You own the deployment and the code that runs it.
A proactive AI assistant that handles the repetitive work across every tool you use, so you can focus on what matters.
GmailCalendarSlackNotionGitHubAn assistant reads your email and acts in your accounts. Being able to read its code and choose where it runs changes how far you can trust it.
Hosted assistants keep your email, calendar and work context on the vendor's servers. Self-hosted GAIA keeps it in your own databases; only the prompts for each request go to the LLM provider you chose, under your own account.
Need a custom integration with your internal tools? Want to change how the agent reasons about your tasks? You have the code. Modify anything for your own noncommercial use.
Hosted assistants charge a subscription per user. For noncommercial use, self-hosted GAIA has no seat or usage fee of its own: you pay for your server and your LLM provider's usage. For-profit organizations self-host under an enterprise license.
You can read every line of code that processes your data and see exactly which external services it calls. No black boxes, no undisclosed data sharing.
The license, the data flow and the limits, stated plainly before you install anything.
Open source licenses (MIT, Apache, GPL) allow any use, including commercial. GAIA's PolyForm Noncommercial license gives you the code, the right to modify it and the right to self-host it, but commercial use needs a separate license. For a personal assistant, the practical freedoms are the same.
PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis, ChromaDB, RabbitMQ and per-user file storage all run in Docker on your machine, and memory embeddings are computed locally with no external API.
Each request's prompt goes to your LLM provider (OpenAI or Google Gemini). Connected apps such as Gmail and Google Calendar are reached through Composio with your own key. Nothing is sent to GAIA's infrastructure.
If you need an assistant that runs fully offline on local models, or you want to resell or embed it commercially without a license, look elsewhere. GAIA needs a hosted LLM and is licensed for noncommercial use.
How GAIA compares with ChatGPT, Copilot and Notion AI on ownership, hosting and control.
| Feature | GAIA | ChatGPT | Copilot | Notion AI |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Source code | Public (PolyForm Noncommercial) | Closed | Closed | Closed |
| Self-hostable | Yes, Docker via the GAIA CLI | No | No | No |
| Where your data is stored | Databases on your server | OpenAI's servers | Microsoft's servers | Notion's servers |
| Free to self-host | Yes, for noncommercial use | No | No | No |
| Bring your own LLM key | Yes, OpenAI or Google Gemini | No | No | No |
| Modify the agent's code | Yes | No | No | No |
No Kubernetes required. You need Docker, Node.js 20+ and an API key for OpenAI or Google Gemini.
GitHubInstall the GAIA CLI
Run `curl -fsSL https://heygaia.io/install.sh | sh`. It sets up Node.js if needed and installs the `gaia` command.
Run gaia up
Run `gaia up`. It installs Docker if it is missing, downloads GAIA's setup files and images, writes the configuration, and starts every service: the API, worker, databases, and message broker. No Git needed.
Finish setup in the browser
Open the address `gaia up` prints, create the admin account, and paste your AI provider key. GAIA is running on your server.
Common questions about self-hosting GAIA.
Public
source on GitHub
1 cmd
gaia up
1 click
OAuth integrations
free
to self-host
Closed AI assistants send your sensitive emails and work context to corporate servers with no visibility into how it's used.
Per-seat subscriptions make AI assistants expensive for teams and power users.
You can't audit, modify, or trust a black-box AI system with your most sensitive professional data.
Vendor lock-in means your workflows break the moment a service changes pricing, shuts down, or deprecates an API.
No way to integrate internal tools, custom data sources, or proprietary systems with closed platforms.
The entire codebase (backend, frontend and agents) is public under the PolyForm Noncommercial license. Read it, fork it and self-host it for personal and noncommercial use.
One command, `gaia up`, installs Docker if it is missing, writes the configuration and starts the whole stack. Run it on a laptop, a home server or any VPS.
Email context, calendar events, tasks, memories and conversation history are stored in databases you own. Analytics and error reporting stay off unless you add your own keys.
Pick your LLM provider, add custom MCP servers, change agent behavior or connect internal systems. You own the deployment and the code that runs it.
See how GAIA acts as your proactive AI chief of staff, managing your entire workday autonomously.
How GAIA automatically triages your Gmail and reaches inbox zero every day.
See detailed head-to-head comparisons of GAIA against other AI and productivity tools.
