Last updated: 2026-07-01
Glean is an enterprise AI search platform that crossed $300 million in annual recurring revenue in 2026. It builds a permissions-aware knowledge graph across every connected business application, from Slack to Jira to Google Workspace, so employees can search their entire company in plain language instead of hunting through each app one by one.
About Glean
Glean is an enterprise AI search and knowledge platform founded in 2019 by Arvind Jain, a former Google Search engineering lead who also co-founded Rubrik. Its core promise is to connect every application a company uses so employees can find anything in plain language, without needing to know which system holds it. The engine behind Glean is a proprietary Context Graph that maps relationships between people, documents, conversations, and activity across every connected application. Unlike keyword-based tools that rank by recency or popularity, Glean understands organizational context, surfacing results personalized to each user's team, role, and typical collaborations. A developer asking about the status of an authentication refactor gets answers pulled from Jira tickets, Slack threads, and GitHub pull requests, all permission-trimmed to what that person is allowed to see. Real-time indexing means results reflect the current state of connected apps, not a stale snapshot. The platform has expanded well beyond pure search. Glean Assistant answers questions by synthesizing from multiple sources with citations. Glean Agents automate repetitive workflows across those same data connections. Glean Protect continuously scans for overshared sensitive data across connected apps and applies governance policies automatically. A built-in MCP Remote Server lets developers connect Glean directly into Claude Desktop, Cursor, and VS Code, reducing context switching for engineering teams who query internal knowledge alongside external tooling. Pricing is enterprise-only and fully custom-quoted; Glean does not publish a public rate card. The platform runs on web, iOS, and Android with browser extensions for Chrome and Edge. Deployment is managed SaaS, meaning Glean operates the software even inside a customer's own VPC. In June 2025, Glean raised $150 million in a Series F at a $7.2 billion valuation, bringing total funding to $765 million from investors including Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital, and DST Global. The company holds top-tier enterprise compliance certifications and maintains zero-retention agreements with every LLM provider, so customer data is never used to train outside models. Its LLM abstraction layer lets enterprise IT choose the underlying model, including ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude.
Pricing
No free tier and no public pricing; Glean is enterprise-only and fully custom-quoted per contract. Buyer-reported minimum annual contracts run around $60,000. The Work AI add-on for generative features adds roughly $15 per user per month on top of the base license. A proof-of-concept engagement can cost up to $70,000, and standard contracts renew with a 7-12% annual price increase by default.
Key Features
- Context Graph Search: Builds a knowledge graph across every connected application and returns permissions-aware, personalized search results in real time based on each user's role and team context.
- Glean Assistant: Synthesizes multi-source answers with inline citations, letting employees ask questions like 'What was decided in last week's sprint review?' and get structured answers from Slack, Confluence, and Jira simultaneously.
- Glean Agents: Automates repetitive back-office workflows by executing multi-step tasks across connected apps, reducing manual data-collection work for operations and HR teams.
- MCP Remote Server: Ships a native Model Context Protocol server at developers.glean.com that connects Claude Desktop, Cursor, and VS Code directly to Glean's search and chat API via OAuth 2.1.
- Glean Protect: Continuously scans all connected apps for overshared sensitive data and enforces permission policies, reducing the risk of employees accessing content outside their authorized scope.
- 100+ Pre-built Connectors: Integrates out of the box with Slack, Google Workspace, Jira, Confluence, GitHub, Salesforce, Zendesk, and ServiceNow, with custom connector APIs for unsupported systems.
Pros
- Ships with far more prebuilt connectors than comparable enterprise search tools like Coveo or GoSearch, roughly 3-5x by public connector-count comparisons, cutting custom integration work for IT teams.
- Nearly doubled its Fortune 500 customer count year over year, with 85% of customers now using Glean across five or more departments, a sign of deep production adoption rather than a single-team pilot.
- Certified SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA, GDPR, ISO 27001, and ISO 42001:2023, with zero-retention agreements across every connected LLM provider, meeting the strictest enterprise security bars.
Cons
- No free tier and no self-serve trial; every deployment starts with a paid proof-of-concept engagement and a custom enterprise contract before a single seat goes live.
- Closed-source managed SaaS with no self-hosting option; Glean deploys and operates the software even in a customer's VPC, limiting code auditability.
- Search-first platform that surfaces information but does not execute complex multi-step workflows end-to-end, limiting utility for operations teams needing RPA-style automation.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does Glean cost in 2026?
Glean has no public pricing page; every contract is custom-quoted through direct sales. Reported buyer data puts base licensing at roughly $50 per user per month with a minimum annual contract around $60,000, plus about $15 per user per month for the Work AI add-on. A proof-of-concept engagement can run up to $70,000, and standard renewals escalate 7-12% a year.
Is Glean free to use?
Glean has no free tier and no self-serve trial. It only sells through enterprise contracts with a paid proof-of-concept step, so teams without an enterprise budget should look at a cheaper knowledge-management tool such as Guru instead.
What are the best alternatives to Glean?
Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365, priced lower per seat, is the closest alternative for teams already living in Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive. Guru suits mid-market teams that want a curated, verified knowledge base instead of universal search. GoSearch pairs federated search with agentic workflows at a lower price point for teams that want broader automation without Glean's enterprise minimums.
How does Glean compare to Microsoft Copilot in 2026?
Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 is the closest and cheaper alternative for teams already standardized on Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive, since it ships as part of an existing Microsoft 365 subscription rather than a new $50-per-seat contract. Glean wins when the toolstack is mixed, spanning Slack, Jira, GitHub, and Salesforce alongside any Microsoft apps, because its permissions-aware graph unifies search across all of them instead of just the Microsoft suite.
How do you get started with Glean?
Start by requesting an enterprise demo through glean.com. A sales engineer scopes your app connectors and seat count before signing. Once under contract, admins connect data sources through Glean's pre-built OAuth connectors, configure role-based access, and roll out the web, browser extension, iOS, and Android apps to employees, with typical enterprise rollouts taking 4-8 weeks.
Top Alternatives
- Microsoft Copilot: Choose Glean when your toolstack spans Slack, Jira, and Google Workspace; pick Copilot if you are 80%+ Microsoft 365.
- Notion: Pick Glean if you need permissions-aware search across all company apps; choose Notion if your team keeps most knowledge in one structured wiki.
- ChatGPT: Choose Glean when you need search grounded in your internal data with permission controls; use ChatGPT for general reasoning and external knowledge.
- Perplexity AI: Pick Glean when you need to search proprietary internal company data; choose Perplexity AI when you need real-time web search and external research.
HokAI guides covering Glean
- Best AI Search Tools in 2026: Match the Tool to the Job: Perplexity, Bing, and Glean all get called AI search tools, but only Glean searches a company's internal Slack. Here is how the category splits by job in 2026.
- Algolia and You.com Both Call Themselves AI Search Infrastructure. They Aren't Rivals.: Algolia and You.com both market themselves as AI search infrastructure in 2026, but Algolia indexes data you own while You.com searches the live web for agents.
- Oracle Added Claude Code to Fusion. Its Analyst Ranking Didn't Move.: Oracle's July 2026 update lets developers build Fusion agents with Claude Code, but Futurum's June report still ranks Oracle in its lowest platform tier.