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PaperQA2 vs Kotaemon: catalog facts
PaperQA2	Kotaemon
Free Free and open source under the Apache 2.0 licence; model API usage may cost extra.	Free Free and open source.
Command line	Web, Self-hosted
Answers include citations to the source documents Fetches paper metadata with citation counts and retraction checks	Chat with your own documents through a web interface Works with local or hosted language models
Needs a language model, either through an API or run locally Setup and tuning assume comfort with Python	Needs a server or local setup rather than a simple installer Answer quality depends on the model you connect
Downloadable app	Self-hosted
Open source	Open source
License: Apache-2.0	License not stated
Not stated if an account is needed	Not stated if an account is needed
Not stated if it works offline	Not stated if it works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Checked October 2, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 23, 2026

Catalog facts only. Anything “not stated” is unconfirmed. Check full listings for details.