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MaxKB

Open-source enterprise AI assistant platform for building RAG knowledge bases, workflows and agents on your own servers.

Open source

What is MaxKB?

MaxKB, short for Max Knowledge Brain, is an open-source platform from the Chinese company FIT2CLOUD for putting large language models to work on a company's own documents. You upload files or crawl web pages, and MaxKB splits the text, embeds it and answers questions with retrieval-augmented generation (RAG). From there you can step up to a drag-and-drop workflow editor and agents that call tools, Skills and MCP servers. It connects to mainstream hosted model providers as well as local models, and chat apps can be embedded in a website or linked to WeCom, DingTalk, Feishu, WeChat Official Accounts and Slack. Teams use it for customer service bots, internal knowledge bases, office assistants and AI features inside existing business systems. The Community Edition is free under GPL v3, the Professional Edition is a perpetual license at ¥4.8万元 per deployment, and the Enterprise Edition is quoted by sales.

Use cases

  • Build a private document Q&A bot
  • Run an AI customer service assistant
  • Create an internal company knowledge base
  • Design AI workflows with a visual editor
  • Embed a chat assistant in a website
  • Deploy local models with Ollama behind a knowledge base

Who it's for

  • Enterprise IT teams
  • AI application developers
  • Customer support teams
  • Government and public sector

Why use MaxKB

  • Documents, models and chat logs stay on infrastructure you control, which suits teams with data residency rules.
  • You can start with plain RAG question answering and move to workflows and agents without changing platforms.
  • Model-neutral setup lets you swap between hosted providers and local models such as those run through Ollama.
  • Prebuilt templates and one-command installation shorten the path from idea to a working assistant.
  • The Community Edition no longer caps users, apps or knowledge bases since MaxKB V2 in July 2025.

MaxKB features

  • Knowledge bases from uploaded files or crawled web sites
  • Supports Markdown, DOCX, PDF, TXT, HTML, XLSX, XLS and CSV files
  • Automatic document splitting and vectorization for RAG
  • Workflow editor with chat, retrieval, branching and multimodal nodes
  • Agents that call tools, Skills and MCP servers
  • Long-term memory triggered by turns or time
  • Connects to hosted and local LLMs, embedding, reranking and speech models
  • Triggers on a schedule or by event
  • 80+ preconfigured agent and knowledge base templates
  • Embeds in third-party web systems without coding
  • Role-based access, SSO and open API in paid editions

MaxKB integrations

  • Slack
  • Ollama
  • Azure OpenAI
  • Amazon Bedrock
  • LDAP
  • OIDC
  • SAML2

How to get started with MaxKB

  1. Install MaxKB on your own server using the installation package or deployment guide.
  2. Connect a model provider or a local model for chat and embeddings.
  3. Create a knowledge base by uploading documents or syncing a web site.
  4. Build a simple agent or a workflow that retrieves from the knowledge base and calls tools.
  5. Embed the assistant in a website or connect it to a chat app such as DingTalk, Feishu or Slack.

MaxKB limitations

  • Self-hosted only, so you run the servers and databases yourself
  • Community Edition omits RBAC, open API, SSO and third-party app connections
  • Community Edition is GPL v3 licensed, which affects redistribution
  • Professional maintenance renews at ¥9600 per year after the first year
  • Pricing page and docs are in Chinese

MaxKB pricing

MaxKB is open source, so you can use and self-host it for free.

MaxKB plans

  • 社区版

    Free

    open source, Community Edition

    • Unlimited knowledge bases and agents
    • Workflow and MCP tools
    • Single tenant
    • Open source community support
  • 专业版

    ¥4.8万元 /套(永久授权)

    perpetual license, one year maintenance included

    • All Community features
    • 10+ advanced features
    • Full RBAC and open API
    • 5x8 basic support
  • 企业版

    Custom

    contact sales

    • All Professional features
    • Multi-tenant architecture
    • Cluster deployment
    • 7x24 enhanced support

Plans as listed on the official pricing page on . Prices can change and may vary by country or exclude tax. Check the official pricing page.

MaxKB alternatives

The main MaxKB alternatives listed on Debuly are Dify, AnythingLLM, Flowise, Langflow, ChatBotKit and Libraria AI. The table compares pricing and platforms; order is A–Z.

MaxKB compared with its alternatives
ToolPricingStarting pricePlatforms
MaxKBOpen source—Web, API
AnythingLLMOpen source$50/moWindows, macOS, Android, Web
ChatBotKitFree trial$25/moWeb, API
DifyFreemium$59/moWeb, API, Self-hosted
FlowiseOpen source—Web, API, CLI, Self-hosted
LangflowOpen source—Web, Windows, macOS, Linux
Libraria AIFreemium$19/moWeb, API, React SDK
  1. AnythingLLM

    Open-source AI app for chatting with your documents and running agents, on desktop, in Docker or as a hosted team workspace.

  2. ChatBotKit

    Platform for building AI agents and chatbots from reusable datasets, skillsets and integrations, with multi-model support.

  3. Dify

    Platform for building LLM apps, agents and RAG workflows on Dify Cloud or your own infrastructure, with a free Sandbox tier.

  4. Flowise

    Open-source visual builder for AI agents, chatbots and RAG workflows, self-hosted or on Flowise Cloud.

  5. Langflow

    Open-source low-code visual builder for AI agents, RAG apps and MCP servers, with Python customization and an API for every flow.

  6. Libraria AI

    No-code builder for AI chatbots, search bars and FAQs trained on your own documents, with a React SDK and API.

MaxKB FAQ

How much does MaxKB cost?

The Community Edition is free. The Professional Edition is ¥4.8万元 per set as a perpetual license, with the first year of maintenance included and ¥9600 per year from the second year. The Enterprise Edition is by contacting sales.

Is MaxKB open source?

Yes. The Community Edition is released under the GPL v3 license and is free to download. The Professional and Enterprise editions add features and vendor support on top.

What plans does MaxKB have?

There are three editions: Community for individuals and small teams, Professional for small and mid-sized companies, and Enterprise for large organizations that need multi-tenancy and cluster deployment.

Does MaxKB have an API?

An open API is included in the Professional and Enterprise editions, and an unlimited user count applies to all editions. MaxKB can also connect to model APIs from many providers.

Which models does MaxKB work with?

It connects to major Chinese and international model providers and to local private models, covering language, embedding, reranking, vision, speech recognition, speech synthesis and image generation models.

What are alternatives to MaxKB?

Alternatives include Dify, AnythingLLM, Flowise, FastGPT and RAGFlow, which also offer self-hosted knowledge bases and workflow building.

Sources & verification

Facts on this page come from the official sources below, each with the date we read it. Written by Debuly; the vendor did not review this page.

SourceTypeAccessed
maxkb.cnofficial
github.com/1Panel-dev/MaxKBrepository
maxkb.cn/pricepricing
maxkb.cn/download/introduce-maxkb_202506.pdfofficial
maxkb.cn/download/introduce-maxkb_202503.pdfofficial
maxkb.cn/official

Image credits

  • Logo: from maxkb.cn · fetched · Vendor trademark, used only to identify the product; removed on request
  • Cover: none collected yet, so a generated tile is shown.

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