head to head · open source
graphrag vs R2R
graphrag has 36,035 GitHub stars, 3,794 forks, 47 open issues and last shipped yesterday. R2R has 8,002 stars, 649 forks, 126 open issues and last shipped 11 months ago. graphrag leads on adoption by 350% (36,035 vs 8,002 stars). graphrag is written in Python under MIT; R2R is written in Python under MIT. graphrag has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, R2R 8%. graphrag was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (rag), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
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
| graphrag | R2R | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 36K | ★ 8.0K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2025-11-07 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.8K | ⑂ 649 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick graphrag if
- You weight community size — 36K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick R2R if
- You want the R2R feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and R2R fits your workflow better
About graphrag
GraphRAG is a modular, Python based, MIT licensed data pipeline and transformation suite from Microsoft Research that uses large language models to extract structured data from unstructured text, then exploits the resulting knowledge graph to form targeted context for question answering over private data.
read the full graphrag overview →
About R2R
R2R is an MIT licensed, Python based retrieval system from SciPhi AI that gives developers a RESTful API for agentic Retrieval Augmented Generation over their own documents, with official Python and JavaScript clients.
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Frequently asked questions
Is graphrag or R2R more popular?
graphrag has 36,035 GitHub stars and R2R has 8,002. graphrag has the larger community by that measure.
Are graphrag and R2R free?
Both are open source. graphrag is licensed under MIT and R2R under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between graphrag and R2R?
graphrag is written in Python and R2R in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, graphrag or R2R?
Choose graphrag if you want the larger community (36,035 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose R2R if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.