The Best Perplexity Alternative for Professionals
Okara is a private, secure Perplexity alternative built for professionals who need privacy while doing research, writing, and analysis. Unlike Perplexity, Okara encrypts all chats, never trains on your data, and gives you access to 20+ open-source AI models inside a unified workspace.
Powered by the best open-source AI models, self-hosted on Okara
Why Professionals Are Switching from ChatGPT to Okara
If you're a lawyer, doctor, founder, analyst, researcher, or work with sensitive information, Okara is the best ChatGPT alternative designed for professionals who need privacy, control, and shared intelligence.
Privacy-First by Design
Most AI tools process or store your data in ways you can't control. Okara takes a fundamentally different approach:
Encrypted-at-rest chat & file storage
Your conversations, uploads, and workspace memory remain encrypted and safe.
Zero training on your data
Your prompts, documents, PDFs, and conversations never train the models.
Client-side key generation
Your private keys never leave your device.
Full data sovereignty
Your ideas remain yours, never repurposed, never harvested.
Okara is Better Than a Single Closed Model
Okara is the best ChatGPT alternative for experts who want flexibility across writing, research, code, design, and analysis.
Latest open-source LLMs
Get access to the latest models from leading open-source LLMs such as Llama, Kimi, GLM, DeepSeek, Mistral, etc.
Real-time Search
Execute web, Reddit, X/Twitter, and YouTube research using AI and prompting.
Multi-model switching
Switch between different AI models inside the same chat interface without losing context.
All types of models
Get access to reasoning models, Coding assistants, Summarization models, Research models, Image generation models, and more.
Collaborative AI for Teams
ChatGPT is designed for personal chats and isolated history. Okara is the first private AI workspace for teams:
Shared AI Chat
Collaborate with your team inside one AI thread.
Shared context
Everyone works with the same information.
Shared memory
The workspace remembers everything allowed inside it.
Shared intelligence
Your team builds a collective AI that compounds knowledge across people, files, and workflows.
Perplexity Alternative With Team Collaboration, Shared AI Memory & Privacy
Comparing Perplexity vs Okara
| Feature | Perplexity |   Okara |
|---|---|---|
| Privacy | Stores data on Perplexity servers | Encrypted-at-rest + zero training |
| Models | Mix of proprietary & partner models | 20+ open-source + image models |
| Team Collaboration | No shared workspace | Full shared workspace |
| Web / Social Research | Strong web search only | Web + Reddit + X + YouTube |
| Pricing | Multiple tiers | $15/month flat pricing |
| Data Ownership | Perplexity owns infra | You fully own your data |
What others are saying about Okara, the best Perplexity Alternative
“Perplexity was great for quick answers, but Okara became our team's primary research tool because of the privacy. We handle client-sensitive reports daily, and encrypted chat + zero training on our data made the switch obvious.”
Maya R.
Research Analyst
“Our team needed more than web answers — we needed collaboration. Okara Workspace let our entire team brainstorm, upload documents, and analyze data together. Perplexity never came close to this workflow.”
Tomás E.
Product Lead
“As a writer, I need both accuracy and confidentiality. Okara gives me open-source transparency and the freedom to switch between models without sacrificing privacy. It replaced Perplexity for all my long-form content.”
Chloe D.
Senior Content Strategist
Simple pricing for everyone
Start free, upgrade when you're ready. No hidden fees, no surprises.
Pro
500 Pro credits (~5000 messages)
Unlimited Lite model usage
Loved by 26,000+ users
Get 20+ latest Open-Source text and image models
Get real-time insights directly in your chats
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Lifetime Pro access
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Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you need to know about Okara as a Perplexity alternative
For professionals and teams needing privacy, compliance, and transparency, Okara is currently the best Perplexity alternative. It offers open-source models, encrypted chats, and collaboration features not available in Perplexity.
You may need a Perplexity alternative if you:
- Work with sensitive data
- Need privacy and encryption
- Prefer open-source AI models
- Want team collaboration features
- Want predictable pricing
- Want more control over your AI workflows
Okara solves all of these pain points.
Yes — Okara is a private, encrypted Perplexity alternative. Your chats, files, and documents are encrypted at rest and are never used for model training. Perplexity cannot provide this level of privacy.
Okara is built entirely on top of the latest open-source models like Llama, Qwen, Gemma, Mistral, and DeepSeek. This makes it the best open-source-based Perplexity alternative for professionals.
Yes. Okara allows multi-member collaboration, shared memory, shared context, document upload, and persistent workspaces — features Perplexity does not support in a team-friendly way.
Absolutely. Many professionals use Okara as their default AI tool for:
- Writing
- Research
- Coding
- Data analysis
- Content creation
- Legal / medical analysis
- Brainstorming
- Document workflows
It is designed as a full replacement for Perplexity.
Yes — Okara never uses your chats or files for training. Perplexity does unless you specifically opt out.
- Full data ownership
- Zero training
- Workspace collaboration
- Role-based access (coming)
- Shared memory
- Integrations roadmap
- Enterprise-ready privacy
Businesses prefer Okara because they get control, transparency, and compliance.
Yes — Okara is a flat $15/month with unlimited usage, making it far more affordable than Perplexity's credit-based or usage-based pricing.
Okara is better for privacy-heavy industries because it:
- Encrypts data
- Supports open-source models
- Never trains on your data
- Allows document uploads
- Provides a shared workspace for teams
Professionals working with confidential information overwhelmingly prefer Okara.
Yes. Teams can securely upload a wide range of documents, including:
- PDFs
- DOCX files
- Spreadsheets (CSV, XLSX)
- Presentations
- Images
- Text files
- Research papers
- Case studies
- Product documentation
- Code snippets
These files remain encrypted and private, never used for training any AI models.
Workspace is ideal for:
- Startups & founders needing rapid iteration
- Marketing teams & creative agencies
- Product & UX teams
- Engineering & dev teams
- Research teams & analysts
- Leadership teams for strategy & planning
- Consultants & client-facing teams
- Remote & distributed teams
Any team that collaborates, plans, documents, or solves problems will benefit from Workspace.
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