# QAnything

Product · https://godooo.ai/en/product/qanything

> QAnything is an open-source AI app, launched in 2024, made for developers and businesses.

A local knowledge-base Q&A system from NetEase Youdao that reads many file formats.

Main jobs: Ask your documents, Knowledge base (RAG). It is open source and free to use. You can use it on your own server, offline on your own machine and through an API.

## At a glance

- **Type:** [Product](https://godooo.ai/en/browse#product)
- **Launched:** 2024
- **Galaxy:** [Agents & Automation](https://godooo.ai/en/galaxy/agents)
- **Pricing:** Open source, free
- **Open source:** Yes · AGPL-3.0
- **Source code:** [github.com/netease-youdao/QAnything](https://github.com/netease-youdao/QAnything)
- **GitHub stars:** 14,190
- **How you run it:** Self-host · Runs offline · API
- **Made for:** Developers · Businesses
- **Website:** [qanything.ai](https://qanything.ai)
- **Also known as:** 有道 QAnything

## What it can do

- **[Ask your documents](https://godooo.ai/en/capability/document-qa)** — main job, _proposed by a machine, awaiting calibration_. “With QAnything , you can simply drop any locally stored file of any format and receive accurate, fast, and reliable answers.” (read on [github.com](https://github.com/netease-youdao/QAnything), 2026-09-24)
- **[Knowledge base (RAG)](https://godooo.ai/en/capability/knowledge-base)** — main job, _proposed by a machine, awaiting calibration_. “QAnything ( Q uestion and A nswer based on Anything ) is a local knowledge base question-answering system designed to support a wide range of file formats and databases, allowing for offline installation and use.” (read on [github.com](https://github.com/netease-youdao/QAnything), 2026-09-24)
- **[Build a chatbot](https://godooo.ai/en/capability/chatbot-builder)** — supported, _proposed by a machine, awaiting calibration_. “Supports a quick start mode similar to Kimi, fileless chat mode, retrieval mode only, custom Bot mode.” (read on [github.com](https://github.com/netease-youdao/QAnything), 2026-09-24)
- **[Document parsing](https://godooo.ai/en/capability/document-parsing)** — supported, _proposed by a machine, awaiting calibration_. “Currently supported formats include: PDF(pdf) , Word(docx) , PPT(pptx) , XLS(xlsx) , Markdown(md) , Email(eml) , TXT(txt) , Image(jpg，jpeg，png) , CSV(csv) , Web links(html) and more formats coming soon…” (read on [github.com](https://github.com/netease-youdao/QAnything), 2026-09-24)
- **[Vector search](https://godooo.ai/en/capability/vector-search)** — supported, _proposed by a machine, awaiting calibration_. “Supports massive data question and answer, two-stage vector sorting, solves the problem of degradation of large-scale data retrieval” (read on [github.com](https://github.com/netease-youdao/QAnything), 2026-09-24)

## Alternatives

- **[RAGFlow](https://godooo.ai/en/product/ragflow)** (Open source, free): Also does: Ask your documents, Document parsing, Knowledge base (RAG)
- **[kotaemon](https://godooo.ai/en/product/kotaemon)** (Open source, free): Also does: Ask your documents, Knowledge base (RAG), Build a chatbot; no code needed
- **[AnythingLLM](https://godooo.ai/en/product/anythingllm)** (Open source, free): Also does: Ask your documents, Knowledge base (RAG), Build a chatbot; no code needed
- **[PrivateGPT](https://godooo.ai/en/framework/privategpt)** (Open source, free): Also does: Ask your documents, Knowledge base (RAG), Document parsing
- **[LlamaIndex](https://godooo.ai/en/framework/llamaindex)** (Open source, free): Also does: Knowledge base (RAG), Ask your documents, Document parsing
- **[Khoj](https://godooo.ai/en/product/khoj)** (Open source, free): Also does: Ask your documents, Knowledge base (RAG); no code needed
- **[Langchain-Chatchat](https://godooo.ai/en/product/langchain-chatchat)** (Open source, free): Also does: Ask your documents, Knowledge base (RAG)
- **[MaxKB](https://godooo.ai/en/product/maxkb)** (Open source, free): Also does: Build a chatbot, Knowledge base (RAG), Ask your documents; no code needed
- **[FastGPT](https://godooo.ai/en/product/fastgpt)** (Open source, free): Also does: Build a chatbot, Knowledge base (RAG), Document parsing; no code needed
- **[LightRAG](https://godooo.ai/en/framework/lightrag)** (Open source, free): Also does: Knowledge base (RAG), Ask your documents, Vector search
- **[NotebookLM](https://godooo.ai/en/product/notebooklm)** (Free plan + paid upgrades): Also does: Ask your documents, Knowledge base (RAG); no code needed
- **[Dify](https://godooo.ai/en/product/dify)** (Open source, free): Also does: Build a chatbot, Knowledge base (RAG); no code needed

## Connections

- **Applies:** [Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)](https://godooo.ai/en/concept/rag)

## Questions

### What is QAnything?

QAnything is an open-source AI app, launched in 2024, made for developers and businesses. A local knowledge-base Q&A system from NetEase Youdao that reads many file formats.

### Is QAnything free?

Yes. QAnything is open source (AGPL-3.0) and free to use.

### Is QAnything open source?

Yes, under the AGPL-3.0 license. The source code is at https://github.com/netease-youdao/QAnything.

### Can QAnything run locally?

Yes. QAnything can run offline on your own machine. It can also be self-hosted on your own server.

### What can QAnything do?

Main jobs: Ask your documents, Knowledge base (RAG). It can also do: Build a chatbot, Document parsing, Vector search.

### What are open-source alternatives to QAnything?

Open-source ones: RAGFlow, kotaemon, AnythingLLM, PrivateGPT, LlamaIndex, Khoj, Langchain-Chatchat and MaxKB. Others: NotebookLM.

## Sources

- [github.com](https://github.com/netease-youdao/QAnything) — checked 2026-09-24
- [qanything.ai](https://qanything.ai)

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Last updated 2026-09-24 · sources checked 2026-09-24 · Markdown version of https://godooo.ai/en/product/qanything. Every page on this site has one: add .md to its address.