head to head · open source
chatbox vs screenpipe
chatbox has 41,791 GitHub stars, 4,252 forks, 1,290 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. screenpipe has 21,609 stars, 2,203 forks, 36 open issues and last shipped yesterday. chatbox leads on adoption by 93% (41,791 vs 21,609 stars). chatbox is written in TypeScript under GPL-3.0; screenpipe is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence. chatbox has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, screenpipe 10%. screenpipe was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| chatbox | screenpipe | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 42K | ★ 22K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.3K | ⑂ 2.2K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick chatbox if
- You weight community size — 42K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick screenpipe if
- You want the screenpipe feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and screenpipe fits your workflow better
About chatbox
Chatbox (Community Edition) is a cross platform desktop client for large language models, written in TypeScript and released under the GPL 3.0 license. It runs on Windows, macOS and Linux, and it connects to a range of providers including OpenAI (ChatGPT), Azure OpenAI, Claude, Google Gemini Pro, Ollama and ChatGLM 6B. The project lives in the AI interaction and interfaces ecosystem, where desktop chat front ends sit between a user and one or more hosted or locally hosted model APIs. The repository carries 41,767 stars and 4,251 forks across four years of history.
read the full chatbox overview →
About screenpipe
Screenpipe is a source available Rust application that continuously records a computer's screen and audio, then turns that local history into searchable context for AI agents. It lives in the AI and machine learning ecosystem, covering local first memory, computer vision, audio recording, and agent interfaces.
read the full screenpipe overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is chatbox or screenpipe more popular?
chatbox has 41,791 GitHub stars and screenpipe has 21,609. chatbox has the larger community by that measure.
Are chatbox and screenpipe free?
Both are open source. chatbox is licensed under GPL-3.0, and screenpipe has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between chatbox and screenpipe ?
chatbox is written in TypeScript and screenpipe in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, chatbox or screenpipe ?
Choose chatbox if you want the larger community (41,791 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose screenpipe if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.