For Obsidian users who want answers, not plugin setup
Obsidian Copilot Alternative and Copilot Plus Pricing for Your Vault
Short answer: Copilot for Obsidian is free if you bring your own API keys, and Copilot Plus costs $14.99 a month or $139.99 a year for built-in models with five-hour and weekly usage caps. If what you want is to ask your whole vault a question and get an answer in your own words, MentalClone imports the vault as one ZIP and answers only from your notes, with no keys, no indexing and no message cap on paid plans.
Paste one of your notes into the box and ask it something. Three questions, no account.
Try it on your own writing
No account neededThat is the end of the free demo. Create a free account to keep this conversation, upload your own documents and keep going.
Copilot for Obsidian pricing in plain numbers
The plugin itself is free. You connect your own OpenAI, Anthropic or Google key, or a ChatGPT or Claude subscription, and pay that provider for every question. Plus removes the key juggling by bundling hosted models, better PDF parsing, web search and YouTube capture.
The catch with Plus is the meter. Hosted usage is subject to a five-hour limit and a weekly limit, so a long research afternoon can stop halfway. The Supporter bundle at $349.99 covers two years of Plus plus lifetime self-host mode.
Source: obsidiancopilot.com pricing page. Refunds within 14 days on paid plans.
What the first year costs
Hosted usage on Plus
5-hour and weekly caps
Keys on Free
Yours, billed by the provider
Your vault goes in as one ZIP, not note by note
An Obsidian vault is just a folder of Markdown files. Zip the folder, drop it into MentalClone, and every note becomes a source, titled with its folder path so "Clients/Acme/Kickoff" stays recognizable. The app skips the .obsidian settings folder, the trash and any note you imported before.
One import takes up to 2,000 notes and 300 MB of text. Images and PDFs inside the vault are counted and listed, and you add the ones that matter through the regular upload, where scans go through OCR.
After a month of writing, zip the vault again. Notes that are already in your library are skipped, so the second import only adds what is new or changed.
▾ Clients
▾ Acme
Kickoff.md
Pricing memo.md
▸ Northwind
▾ Writing
Newsletter 41.md
Talk outline.md
▸ Daily
▸ .obsidian
▸ .trash
Illustrative example of the import summary.
Obsidian Copilot alternatives compared
US list prices from each vendor's own pricing or help page. Where a vendor does not publish a number, the table says so instead of guessing.
| Tool | Price | Where it runs | Keys or setup | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Copilot for Obsidian (Free) | $0, you pay your AI provider | Inside Obsidian | Your own API keys or a local model through Ollama | Tinkerers who want chat and edits inside the editor |
| Copilot Plus | $14.99 a month or $139.99 a year | Inside Obsidian, hosted models | License key, five-hour and weekly usage caps | Daily Obsidian writers who want agents and web search |
| Smart Connections | Core plugin free | Inside Obsidian, local embeddings | No key for related-note search, a model for chat | Finding related notes while you write |
| ChatGPT Plus | $20 a month | Browser and apps | 25 files per project, so a vault has to be merged first | General writing with a few files attached |
| Gemini Notebook (NotebookLM) | Free tier, more room with Google AI Pro at $19.99 a month | Browser | Sources capped per notebook, compute quota refreshed every five hours | Research notebooks and audio overviews |
| MentalClone | Starter 199 PLN a month (about $54) or 1,194 PLN a year (about $27 a month). Professional 399 PLN (about $108). | Browser, private library | None. Import the vault ZIP, up to 2,000 notes at a time | Asking years of notes a question and drafting in your voice |
If you are weighing Obsidian itself against other apps, the Obsidian alternative comparison covers that. If your real cost question is Sync rather than AI, see Obsidian Sync pricing for Standard and Plus. ChatGPT's project cap is explained in the ChatGPT file upload limit by plan.
How to ask your vault a question in ten minutes
You keep writing in Obsidian. MentalClone sits next to it as the place you go to ask what your notes already know.
01
Zip the vault folder
Right-click the vault folder in Finder or Explorer and compress it. No export plugin needed.
02
Import the ZIP
Up to 100 MB per archive and 2,000 notes per import. Markdown and text notes are read.
03
Add the PDFs that matter
Client PDFs, Word files, spreadsheets and scans go in through the regular upload, up to 100 MB each.
04
Ask and draft
Ask what you decided and why, then ask for the email or outline built from those notes.
Who switches from Copilot Plus
Consultants
Years of client notes answer "what did I tell them last time" without opening ten files.
Writers and creators
Drafts, outlines and published pieces become a source that writes back in your register.
Founders
Meeting notes and strategy pages answer questions about your own decision history.
Coaches and researchers
Session write-ups and reading notes answer the next client or chapter the way you would.
Where Copilot for Obsidian is still the better choice
Stay with Copilot if you need
- • AI inside the editor, with inline edits to the note you are writing
- • A free option paid only through your own API keys
- • Local models through Ollama, so nothing leaves your machine
- • Agents, web search and YouTube capture on Plus
- • Changes reflected the moment you save a note
Switch to MentalClone if you want
- ✓ Answers and drafts in your own voice, built only from your notes
- ✓ No API keys, no indexing settings, no model picker
- ✓ Unlimited messages on both paid plans, no five-hour meter
- ✓ Notes, client PDFs, Word files and scans in one library
- ✓ Access from any browser, including a work laptop without Obsidian
Two things to know first. MentalClone is not a plugin, so it does not see a note until you import it, and it does not write back into your vault. And it costs more than Copilot Plus. You pay for a private library that answers in your voice with no usage meter, not for an editor assistant.
Questions people ask about Obsidian Copilot alternatives
What is the best Obsidian Copilot alternative?
+
It depends on where you want the AI. Inside the editor, Smart Connections is the usual pick for related-note search. Outside Obsidian, MentalClone is built for asking your whole vault a question and getting an answer in your own words, with no API keys. For research notebooks with audio overviews, Gemini Notebook.
How much does Obsidian Copilot Plus cost?
+
Copilot Plus costs $14.99 a month or $139.99 a year, which works out to $11.67 a month. A one-time Supporter bundle at $349.99 includes two years of Plus and lifetime self-host mode. Hosted usage on Plus has five-hour and weekly limits, and refunds are accepted within 14 days.
Is Obsidian Copilot free?
+
The plugin is free, but the AI is not. On the free tier you bring your own API keys or an existing ChatGPT or Claude subscription, and that provider bills you for the questions you ask. A local model through Ollama avoids the bill but needs a capable computer.
Is Copilot Plus worth it?
+
If you live in Obsidian all day and want agents and inline edits, Plus is a fair price. If your main use is asking old notes a question a few times a day, you are paying for editor features you rarely touch, and the five-hour cap can still interrupt a long session.
Obsidian Copilot vs Smart Connections, which is better?
+
Smart Connections is better at surfacing related notes while you write, using local embeddings with no key. Copilot is better at chat, agents and editing. Many people run both. Neither writes in your voice from your whole archive, which is the job MentalClone does outside the editor.
Can I chat with my Obsidian vault without an API key?
+
Yes. Copilot Plus includes hosted models, and Smart Connections finds related notes with local embeddings. MentalClone needs no key at all: zip the vault, import it, and ask. Paid plans include unlimited messages, so there is no provider bill to watch.
How much does MentalClone cost?
+
Starter is 199 PLN a month (about $54) or 1,194 PLN a year, about $27 a month. Professional is 399 PLN a month (about $108) and reads three times more of your notes for each answer. Both include unlimited documents and messages. The demo at the top gives you three questions first.
Ask your vault what you already know
Paste one note into the box at the top. If the answer sounds like you, zip the vault and import it.