Short answer: AnythingLLM itself costs nothing to run on your own machine. The Desktop app and the self-hosted Docker version are free downloads under the MIT license. The paid part is AnythingLLM Cloud: Basic is $50 a month and Pro is $99 a month, both hosted by Mintplex Labs, and Enterprise is quoted. On every option you still pay separately for the language model you plug in, unless you run a local one.
That split is why AnythingLLM pricing confuses people. The headline says free, the cloud page says $50, and the bill that actually grows every month is the API key you brought along. Below is each option with the prices from AnythingLLM's own pricing page, the costs that sit outside it, and the point where a flat-priced hosted tool works out cheaper for someone who just wants to ask questions of their own documents.
AnythingLLM pricing for every option
| Option | Price | Who runs it | What you still pay for |
|---|---|---|---|
| AnythingLLM Desktop | Free download | You, on your own computer | A model API key, or a machine strong enough for a local model |
| Self-hosted (Docker) | No license fee | You, on your own server | The server, the model API and your time on updates |
| Cloud Basic | $50 a month | AnythingLLM, as a private instance on a custom subdomain | Your own LLM API key |
| Cloud Pro | $99 a month | AnythingLLM, with a 72-hour support SLA | Your own LLM API key |
| Enterprise | Custom quote | On-premise, with SSO, RBAC and a custom SLA | Whatever the contract says |
The pricing page shows monthly prices only. It does not list a yearly discount, and it does not publish user, storage or document limits for the cloud plans. Some directories quote limits such as "under 5 users and 100 documents" for Basic. Those numbers do not appear on AnythingLLM's own page, so ask before you plan around them.
Is AnythingLLM free?
The software is free. AnythingLLM Desktop installs on Mac, Windows and Linux at no charge, and the Docker image runs on your own server without a license fee. What is not free is the intelligence behind it. Unless you run a local model through something like Ollama, every question goes to a provider such as OpenAI or Anthropic, and that provider bills you per token.
A local model removes the API bill but moves the cost into hardware. Small models run on an ordinary laptop and answer slowly and less accurately over long documents. Models that hold up on dense contracts or research PDFs want a recent GPU or a lot of unified memory. For most professionals, "free" ends up meaning "free if your time is worth nothing."
How much does AnythingLLM Cloud cost per year?
On monthly billing, Cloud Basic is $600 a year and Cloud Pro is $1,188 a year, before model usage. Because both plans ask you to bring your own LLM API key, the real yearly figure is that base price plus whatever your team spends on tokens. A light user asking a few questions a day pays little on top. A team that loads long PDFs and asks follow-ups all day can see the API line rival the subscription.
| Setup | Base cost a year | Plus |
|---|---|---|
| AnythingLLM Cloud Basic | $600 | Model API usage, billed by your provider |
| AnythingLLM Cloud Pro | $1,188 | Model API usage, billed by your provider |
| Self-hosted on a small server | Your hosting bill | Model API usage and maintenance time |
| MentalClone Starter | $288 billed yearly | Nothing, model usage is included |
| MentalClone Professional | $588 billed yearly | Nothing, model usage is included |
The costs that are not on the pricing page
Three costs decide what AnythingLLM really costs you, and none of them shows up next to the $50.
- The model bill. Every chat and every document you embed calls the provider you connected. Pricing is per token and changes by model, so the same workspace can cost very different amounts depending on which model you pick in settings.
- The server, if you self-host. AnythingLLM's documentation lists a minimum of 2 GB of RAM, a 2-core CPU with AVX2 and 5 GB of storage for the Docker version. That is a modest box, but it still needs backups, HTTPS and someone to apply updates. If you are not the person who enjoys that, a service that provisions servers and deploys with zero downtime takes most of the chore away, though it does not remove the model bill.
- Your setup time. Choosing an embedder, a vector database, chunk sizes and a model is part of the product. Power users like that control. People who wanted to upload their reports and start asking usually do not.
AnythingLLM Desktop vs Cloud, which to pick
Pick Desktop if you work alone, your documents are sensitive enough that you want them on your own disk, and you are comfortable choosing a model. It is the cheapest way to try the idea, and many people never need more.
Pick Cloud Basic if several people need the same workspaces from a browser and nobody wants to run a server. Pick Cloud Pro when your team leans on it daily and you want the support SLA. Pick self-hosted if you already run Docker for other things and want full control over where the data sits.
Skip all three if what you actually want is simple: upload the documents you wrote, ask questions, get answers that stick to those files, with one predictable bill. That is a hosted document library, and the configuration AnythingLLM exposes is overhead for that job.
When a flat-price hosted library is cheaper
MentalClone is built for the person who looked at AnythingLLM, liked the idea of chatting with their own files and did not want to manage keys, models or servers. You upload PDF, Word, Excel, CSV, Markdown, EPUB, saved emails, scans and photos, up to 100 MB a file, and ask in plain English. Answers come only from your documents, written in the first person and in your register, and when your files do not cover a question it says so instead of guessing.
Starter is $49 a month or $288 a year ($24 a month), with unlimited documents and messages and the model cost included. Professional is $99 a month or $588 a year and reads three times more of your documents per answer. Against AnythingLLM Cloud Basic at $600 a year plus API usage, Starter is cheaper before you send a single question. Our AnythingLLM alternative page compares the two side by side, and full plan details are on the pricing page.
There are honest limits. MentalClone has no local mode, so your files live in our cloud rather than on your disk. It reads a text PDF up to 120 pages and a scanned PDF up to 40 pages, and each answer draws on your 50 most recent documents. There is no model picker, no agent builder and no SSO. If those matter, AnythingLLM is the better tool, and you can try the idea with three free questions in the box at the top of this page before deciding.
If you are weighing other document tools on price as well, our breakdowns of Elephas pricing and DEVONthink pricing cover the two Mac-first options people compare most often.
AnythingLLM pricing questions
Is AnythingLLM free to use?
Yes, the Desktop app and the self-hosted Docker version are free, released under the MIT license. You still pay the provider of whatever language model you connect, such as OpenAI or Anthropic, per token. Running a local model avoids that bill but needs capable hardware to answer well over long documents.
How much is AnythingLLM Cloud?
AnythingLLM Cloud Basic costs $50 a month and Cloud Pro costs $99 a month, according to the pricing page. Both give you a private hosted instance, and Pro adds a 72-hour support SLA. Neither includes model usage, because both ask you to bring your own LLM API key. Enterprise pricing is quoted on request.
Does AnythingLLM have a yearly plan?
The pricing page lists monthly prices only and shows no yearly discount. Paying monthly, Basic comes to $600 a year and Pro to $1,188 a year before API costs. If you need annual invoicing, the Enterprise tier is the route to ask about.
Do I need an OpenAI API key for AnythingLLM?
Not necessarily. AnythingLLM works with many providers, including OpenAI, Anthropic and local models through Ollama or LM Studio. The cloud plans ask you to bring your own key. A ChatGPT Plus subscription does not include API access, so it cannot be used as that key.
What is a cheaper alternative to AnythingLLM Cloud?
For a single professional who wants answers from their own documents, a hosted library with model usage included is usually cheaper. MentalClone Starter is $288 a year with unlimited documents and messages, compared with $600 a year plus API usage for AnythingLLM Cloud Basic. AnythingLLM stays the better pick if you need local models or agents.