Open-source AI research agents (2026)

Open-source deep-research agents that search many sources and write up a cited answer or report. Here are all 17 from the AgentScout directory.

How we picked and ranked: tools are matched by category, the pricing each maker states and what each tool says it does. They are ranked by GitHub stars as recorded on each listing (link checks 2026-10-18); tools without a tracked repo follow, by listing maturity. No paid placements.

1. A

   1. Agent-Reach

   researchOpen source★ 98,176 GitHub stars

   Lets an AI agent read and search sites like X, Reddit, YouTube and GitHub through one toolkit, without paid APIs.

   Pricing (as stated): Open source · Mature

2. D

   2. Deer Flow

   researchOpen source★ 83,959 GitHub stars

   ByteDance's open-source long-horizon agent harness that researches, codes and creates using sandboxes, memory and sub-agents.

   Pricing (as stated): Open source · Mature

3. V

   3. Vane

   researchOpen source★ 37,364 GitHub stars

   Open-source AI answering engine that searches the web and replies with sources, self-hostable.

   Pricing (as stated): Open source · Mature

4. S

   4. STORM

   researchOpen source★ 31,627 GitHub stars

   Stanford system that writes Wikipedia-style articles from web research.

   Pricing (as stated): Open source · Research project

5. G

   5. GPT Researcher

   researchOpen source★ 30,082 GitHub stars

   Autonomous agent that researches the web and writes cited reports.

   Pricing (as stated): Open source · Mature

6. D

   6. DB-GPT

   researchOpen source★ 20,156 GitHub stars

   Open-source agentic data assistant for querying and analyzing data with LLMs.

   Pricing (as stated): Open source · Mature

7. W

   7. WrenAI

   researchOpen source + cloud★ 17,881 GitHub stars

   Generative BI for agents: governed text-to-SQL with a semantic context layer.

   Pricing (as stated): Open source + cloud · Mature

8. S

   8. SurfSense

   researchOpen source★ 16,459 GitHub stars

   Privacy-focused, open-source NotebookLM alternative with a research agent over your sources.

   Pricing (as stated): Open source · Mature

9. F

   9. Feynman

   researchOpen source★ 9,976 GitHub stars

   Open-source research agent that searches, reads papers and writes cited reports.

   Pricing (as stated): Open source · Mature

10. D

    10. Deep Research (u14)

    researchOpen source★ 4,695 GitHub stars

    Deep research app that works with any LLM and exposes an API and MCP server.

    Pricing (as stated): Open source · Active

11. O

    11. OpenScience

    researchOpen source★ 4,043 GitHub stars

    Research agent workbench that reads the literature, writes and runs code and experiments and logs every step, with skills and connectors for databases like PubMed, UniProt and arXiv.

    Pricing (as stated): Open source · Active

12. P

    12. PipesHub

    researchOpen source★ 3,837 GitHub stars

    Open-source context layer that indexes company knowledge for AI agents and search.

    Pricing (as stated): Open source · Active

13. P

    13. Paper2Agent

    researchOpen source★ 3,830 GitHub stars

    Multi-agent system that turns a research paper and its code into a working MCP server and agent skills you can query and run.

    Pricing (as stated): Open source · Active

14. M

    14. MiroFlow

    researchOpen source★ 3,120 GitHub stars

    Research agent framework with web UI supporting MiroThinker and other models.

    Pricing (as stated): Open source · Active

15. T

    15. ToolUniverse

    researchOpen source★ 1,744 GitHub stars

    Harvard's collection of scientific tools for AI scientist agents.

    Pricing (as stated): Open source · Active

16. F

    16. Firecrawl

    researchOpen source + cloud

    Turns websites into clean, LLM-ready data for agents.

    Pricing (as stated): Open source + paid cloud · Mature

17. B

    17. Bruin

    researchOpen source + cloud

    Open-source, AI-powered data platform covering ingestion, pipelines and quality checks.

    Pricing (as stated): Open source + cloud · Active

FAQ

What are the best open-source AI research agents?

Ranked by tracked GitHub stars, the top open-source AI research agents in our directory are Agent-Reach, Deer Flow, Vane, STORM, GPT Researcher. Stars measure popularity, not fit, so compare a few against your own task.

How many open-source AI research agents does AgentScout list?

17 tools match. This page shows the top 17. Pricing mix on this page: Open source (14), Open source + cloud (3).

How much do these tools cost?

Pricing is what each maker states on their site. Open-source tools are free to self-host but may need a paid model API key or offer paid cloud plans; freemium tools have a free plan with limits. Check each official site.

Where can I see every tool for research?

Our task page lists all 89 tools we match to research.

Related: All tools for research · research (17)

Similar searches: AI research assistants (ready to use)

By role: For researchers

All popular searches · AI agents by role · Free tools

Best-of lists: All best lists

Facts come from our directory listings; pricing is as each maker states it and can change. Check official sites before you choose.