Mem
A weekend of work, and real gaps remain.
Notes with retrieval driven by a language model: you write without organising, and it surfaces related notes and answers questions across everything you have written.
Build retrieval over your own notes. STACK - A folder of Markdown, SQLite with sqlite-vec, and a local or hosted embedding model INDEXING - Split each note into chunks at heading boundaries, not at a fixed character count — a chunk that straddles two topics retrieves badly - Embed each chunk, store the vector with the note path and the heading - Re-embed only chunks whose text hash changed SEARCHING - Combine vector similarity with full-text search and merge the rankings; neither alone is good enough - Return the note, the heading and the surrounding lines, never a bare score ASKING QUESTIONS - Retrieve the top chunks, then answer from them with citations back to the note and heading - Refuse to answer when nothing retrieved is relevant, rather than inventing something WHILE WRITING - On a pause, embed the current paragraph and show three related notes in a sidebar Include the chunker, the hybrid search and the citation format.
What you lose
- Retrieval quality tuned against many users' notes, which is the difference between useful suggestions and noise
- Embedding, indexing and re-indexing handled without you running anything
- Suggestions surfaced while you write, rather than only when you search
If you would rather not build
- Obsidian with a local retrieval plugin
- ripgrep, which answers more than people expect
The escape hatch
open source · no votes, no paid placement
Khoj
$0Self-hosted semantic search and chat over your own notes and documents.
khoj-ai/khojfree · open source
sqlite-vec
$0Vector search inside SQLite, so retrieval needs no extra service.
asg017/sqlite-vecfree · open source
Why this verdict
our own opinion · changed only by a person
56/100
Verdict kinda at 56. Hybrid retrieval over your own notes is a weekend and works well; matching the quality of suggestions while you type is the harder half.
History
tracked since 10 Aug 2026 · nothing is ever overwritten
Nothing recorded yet. This chart fills in once the page has visitors, votes or prompt copies — it will not draw a flat line to look busy.
Questions about Mem
answered from the record above
Is Mem free?
No — the plan we track is $14.99 a month. Mem Plus at around $14.99/month billed monthly, cheaper annually.
Can you replace Mem by building your own?
ALMOST. A weekend of work, and real gaps remain. Replacement score 56 out of 100, build time a weekend. Read what you lose before you decide.
How much does Mem cost?
$14.99 a month on Mem Plus — $179.88 a year. Recorded 10 Aug 2026.
What do you lose by replacing Mem?
Retrieval quality tuned against many users' notes, which is the difference between useful suggestions and noise; Embedding, indexing and re-indexing handled without you running anything; Suggestions surfaced while you write, rather than only when you search. If any of those carry weight for you, keep paying.
Is there an open-source alternative to Mem?
Yes: Khoj, sqlite-vec. The prompt on this page is for when you want it your way instead.
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