Obsidian Copilot Freemium
Chat with your Obsidian vault using your own API key or local model
Obsidian Copilot is an Obsidian plugin that adds an AI chat panel inside the app. It answers questions using your own vault notes, works with OpenAI, Anthropic or Google keys, and can run fully local models via Ollama so nothing leaves your machine.
What is Obsidian Copilot?
Obsidian is a local-first markdown note app. Copilot, built by Logan Yang, plugs a chat sidebar into it and indexes your notes so you can ask “what did I write about X?” and get an answer with links back to the source notes. It also does inline writing help and can query the web if you enable it.
Because Obsidian stores plain files, everything stays portable. You bring your own model access.
Product Features
- Vault chat: ask questions and get answers grounded in your notes.
- Local models: connect Ollama, LM Studio or any OpenAI-compatible server.
- Cloud models: OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and others via API key.
- Inline actions: summarize, rewrite or translate selected text.
- Custom prompts: save reusable prompt templates.
- Web search: optional mode that pulls in live results.
Product Highlights
- Free and open source; you pay only your model provider.
- Local-model support keeps private notes off the cloud entirely.
- Upgrade to Copilot Plus adds a hosted model and chat memory.
- Works offline when paired with a local model.
Who should use Obsidian Copilot, and who should not?
It is a natural fit for Obsidian users who want AI without shipping their notes to a hosted service. If you do not already use Obsidian, installing a whole note app just for this is overkill. Setting up a good local model also needs decent hardware, and the free experience depends on the quality of the model you connect.
Use Cases
- Summarizing months of journal entries.
- Finding a past note by describing it loosely.
- Rewriting a draft section inside your vault.
- Building a private research assistant on local models.
- Translating notes into another language.
Quick Summary
- Obsidian Copilot is a free, open-source AI plugin for Obsidian.
- It chats with your vault and cites your own notes.
- Supports cloud APIs and fully local models via Ollama.
- Copilot Plus adds a hosted model and memory.
- Best for existing Obsidian users who value privacy.
