SurfSense

Air-gapped, privacy-focused, open-source NotebookLM alternative. AI agent that researches, transforms, and edits your documents. Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/ejRNvftDp9

⭐ 16,697 stars on GitHub · 🍴 1,596 forks · 📜 License: apache-2.0 · 💻 Language: Python

What is SurfSense?

An open-source AI/LLM project — run models locally, no cloud data sharing, fully customizable to your needs.

The biggest strength is fully local AI inference — zero API cost, no data leak risk, low latency.

Best for AI devs, researchers, anyone building agents/chatbots without OpenAI dependency.

Topics: the project is tagged with popular topics:

• 🏷️ agent
• 🏷️ agents
• 🏷️ ai
• 🏷️ notebooklm
• 🏷️ notebooklm-alternative
• 🏷️ rag
• 🏷️ self-hosted
• 🏷️ self-hosted-ai
• 🏷️ web-scraping

📸 Screenshots

Quick install

See the README for detailed install instructions. Most projects support Docker — if the repo has a Dockerfile, use:

git clone https://github.com/MODSetter/SurfSense.git
cd SurfSense
docker build -t SurfSense .
docker run -d -p 8080:8080 SurfSense

Minimum system requirements

⚡ Deploy fast on VSIS

Use the VSIS VPS Standard 4GB RAM / 2 vCPU / 50GB SSD (~150k/tháng) plan from VSIS.NET — high-speed VN-based VPS, 24/7 support, ideal for running SurfSense smoothly.

🎯 Benefits:

• One-command docker compose up -d deploy in 2 minutes
• Dedicated IPv4, root access, unmetered domestic bandwidth
• Daily snapshot backup
• Free install assistance from the VSIS team

👉 See matching VPS plans at vsis.net

Resources

• 🔗 GitHub: MODSetter/SurfSense
• 🌐 Homepage: https://www.surfsense.com
• 📚 Official docs: see README in the repo
• 💬 Community: GitHub Issues + Discussions

Article compiled from GitHub data on 31/10/2026. Star/fork counts may have changed — see live numbers via the GitHub link.