LobeChat

What is LobeChat?

LobeChat is an open source AI chat interface that lets you talk to many large language models from a single, polished UI. It connects to OpenAI, Anthropic Claude, Google Gemini, DeepSeek, and local models through Ollama, so you bring your own API keys instead of paying for one vendor’s app. It now ships under the broader “LobeHub” branding but the chat product and repo are still LobeChat.

What is LobeChat best for?

LobeChat is best for individuals and teams who want a premium ChatGPT-style experience without being locked to one provider. It suits people who already hold API keys and want history, custom assistants, and plugins in one self-hosted place — and anyone running local models who needs a clean front end for private, on-prem inference.

What can LobeChat do?

• Connect 40+ model providers including OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, DeepSeek, Mistral, Groq, and local models via Ollama — switch models mid-conversation.
• Custom assistants and agents you build with prompts and settings, plus a public marketplace of community-made agents to install.
• Plugins and MCP tools — thousands of function-calling plugins and MCP-compatible tools for web search, code, and external APIs.
• Knowledge base — upload files and documents so the model answers with retrieval over your own content.
• Voice conversation — text-to-speech and speech-to-text for hands-free chat.
• Image generation through providers like DALL·E and integrations with Stable Diffusion and Midjourney workflows.
• Multi-user and PWA — database-backed deployments support user accounts and authentication, and it installs as a progressive web app on desktop and mobile.

Where does LobeChat fall short?

LobeChat is a front end, not a governance platform — it has no built-in usage reporting, admin controls, or enforced workflows, so rolling it out company-wide takes extra tooling. You also supply and pay for every model API key yourself, which means costs and rate limits are on you. And it is feature-dense: the plugin system and custom assistants add a learning curve over a plain single-purpose chat UI.

Is LobeChat free?

Partly. The self-hosted version is free and open source — you only pay your own server and model API costs. LobeHub also runs a hosted cloud with a free credit tier and paid plans (around $9.90/month and a Pro plan near $15/month) that bundle model credits and team features, so the cloud is a convenience layer over the same software.

What does LobeChat replace?

LobeChat is most often used as a ChatGPT alternative — a self-hostable UI where you bring your own keys and reach many models instead of paying for ChatGPT Plus and one vendor’s models. It overlaps with other open source chat front ends like LibreChat and Open WebUI; the difference is mostly design polish, plugin ecosystem, and built-in features.

FAQ

Is LobeChat open source? Yes, the source is public on GitHub, but it is licensed under the custom LobeHub Community License (based on Apache 2.0), not a standard OSI license. You can self-host and use it commercially as-is; building a modified commercial derivative requires a separate license from LobeHub.

Can I self-host LobeChat for free? Yes. You can deploy it free with Docker, Vercel, or similar platforms. The software is free; you pay only for your infrastructure and the model API keys you connect.

Is LobeChat a good ChatGPT alternative? It is, if you want multi-model access, plugins, and your conversations on your own server. It matches ChatGPT’s interface polish, but you manage your own API keys and costs rather than a flat subscription.

What do I need to run LobeChat? A basic single-user setup needs only Docker or a Node host plus at least one model API key (or a local Ollama instance). Multi-user features with accounts and persistence need a PostgreSQL database and object storage.