Base vs Glean
Glean is company-wide: it connects to more than 275 workplace apps so the people in a company can search and ask questions across everything it holds, licensed per user. A Base is scoped to one project, deal or handoff: the documents you chose, read into cited facts, shared with whoever needs them, including people outside your company and their own AI. Use Glean to find anything inside your company. Use Base to package what one piece of work needs and send it.
Updated October 7, 2026
At a glance
| Base | Glean | |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | One project: the documents and data you chose, for a stated purpose | Everything across your company's connected apps |
| Who it serves | You and anyone you share it with, inside or outside your company | People across your company |
| Getting started | Self-serve: create a Base and add files | Connect your company's apps, with 275+ connectors available |
| Permissions | Set per Base: link, invite or paid access, with per-file access on Pro | Inherited from each connected app, so users see only what they already could |
| Answers point to the source | Every fact carries a verbatim quote from its file | Permission-aware answers across connected sources |
| AI apps | An MCP connector for Claude, ChatGPT and other apps | An MCP gateway for Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, Gemini and others, controlled by your admins |
| Price | Free for 2 Bases with 500 credits; Pro is $29 a month | Licensed per user, per month |
When Glean is the better choice
- Employees need to find things across Slack, email, drives, tickets and wikis without knowing where they live.
- IT is rolling out one assistant and one set of agents for the whole company, governed centrally.
- The knowledge stays inside the company.
When Base is the better choice
- The work has edges: a deal, a client engagement, a handoff, a hire. A Base holds what that work needs and nothing else, so a reader is not searching the whole company to answer one question about it.
- The people who need it are outside your company, or have no seat in your tools.
- You want the knowledge to look after itself. When a document arrives, Base reads it, rebuilds what it touched and rechecks the questions it used to answer, and an intention check proposes the documents that would close any gaps.
- You want to start today, without a rollout.
Questions
Can I share Glean with a client or investor?
Glean is built for the people inside your company, and its permissions mirror your own systems. To give an outside party a set of documents and an AI that can answer from them, put the documents in a Base and send the link.
Can my company use both?
Yes. Glean covers what your company knows in general. A Base covers one piece of work you need to hand to someone, and it can be connected to the same AI apps your team already uses.
Sources checked on October 7, 2026
Try it with your own documents
Free for your first Bases, no card. Every new account starts with a Base that explains Base, so there is a cited answer to inspect right away.