head to head · open source
GPT4All vs Beam
GPT4All has 77,399 GitHub stars, 8,291 forks, 771 open issues and last shipped 1.3 years ago. Beam has 1,780 stars, 165 forks, 21 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. GPT4All leads on adoption by 4,248% (77,399 vs 1,780 stars). GPT4All is written in C++ under MIT; Beam is written in Go under AGPL-3.0. GPT4All has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, Beam 9%. Beam 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
| GPT4All | Beam | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 77K | ★ 1.8K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | C++ | Go |
| Last push | 2025-05-27 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 8.3K | ⑂ 165 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick GPT4All if
- You weight community size — 77K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Beam if
- You want the Beam feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and Beam fits your workflow better
About GPT4All
GPT4All is an MIT licensed C++ chat application and Python client from Nomic that runs large language models privately on everyday desktops and laptops, built for developers and teams who want local inference without API calls, GPUs, or sending data off device.
read the full GPT4All overview →
About Beam
Beam is an open source runtime for serverless AI workloads, released under AGPL 3.0 and implemented in Go. It lives in the Python AI infrastructure ecosystem, where it gives developers a Pythonic interface for deploying and scaling GPU inference, sandboxes, and background jobs without managing infrastructure. The open source engine is Beta9, which powers the managed Beam cloud platform.
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Frequently asked questions
Is GPT4All or Beam more popular?
GPT4All has 77,399 GitHub stars and Beam has 1,780. GPT4All has the larger community by that measure.
Are GPT4All and Beam free?
Both are open source. GPT4All is licensed under MIT and Beam under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between GPT4All and Beam?
GPT4All is written in C++ and Beam in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, GPT4All or Beam?
Choose GPT4All if you want the larger community (77,399 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Beam if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.