indexio vs grep, ripgrep and Sourcegraph
indexio is a local code search engine for AI coding agents. Against an agent's built-in grep and file reads it cut tokens by 63% over a day of real coding sessions, with median lookups of 0 to 29 ms. grep and ripgrep scan every file on every query; indexio answers from an index it builds once.
indexio vs grep vs Sourcegraph: Comparison
Updated October 2026. Three ways to give an agent your code; speeds are medians from indexio's benchmark on the same repositories.
| Feature | indexio | grep / ripgrep | Sourcegraph |
|---|---|---|---|
| How it works | Builds a local index once, then re-indexes only changed files (about 25 ms) | Scans every file on every query | Server-side index on a hosted or self-hosted instance |
| Setup | One binary, then indexio add ~/code | Preinstalled and built into most coding agents | Enterprise deployment, cloud or self-hosted |
| Price | Free, Apache-2.0 | Free, open source | Enterprise plans, priced through sales |
| Identifier lookup | 0.6 ms | 32 ms (rg -n) | Not measured by us |
| Recursive search | 0.7 ms | 26 to 860 ms (grep -rn) | Not measured by us |
| Search modes | Lexical, semantic and hybrid, fused by Reciprocal Rank Fusion | Exact text and regex | Keyword, regex and structural search |
| Symbols and callers | Definitions, call sites and change impact in 6 languages | None | Code navigation across repositories |
| Agent integration | MCP server with 13 tools | The agent's built-in tools | MCP server on enterprise plans |
| Where code lives | Your machine; nothing is uploaded | Your machine | Your Sourcegraph instance |
| Web UI for people | None: CLI, MCP and HTTP API | None | Full web UI |
Sourcegraph details are from its pricing page, checked October 2026.
What the index saves
Claude Code's built-in Grep, Read and Glob against indexio, tokens counted with tiktoken.
−63%
Tokens in real sessions
−90%
Reading one function
0.6 ms
Identifier lookup
12 ms
Median search, live
Method, scripts and full tables: indexio benchmarks and the bench suite.
Where grep still wins
The same benchmark, read honestly.
One definition, nothing else
A single search, no index
Callers by name
indexio or Sourcegraph
Choose indexio if
Choose Sourcegraph if
Questions engineers ask
Is indexio faster than ripgrep?
For repeated lookups, yes. ripgrep scans the files on every query, while indexio answers from an index it builds once. In indexio's benchmark an identifier lookup took 0.6 ms against 32 ms for rg -n, and a recursive search took 0.7 ms against 26 to 860 ms for grep -rn.
How much does indexio reduce AI agent token usage?
Over one day of real coding sessions (423 compared calls), indexio returned 220k tokens where Claude Code's built-in Grep, Read and Glob would have returned 596k: a 63% reduction. Reading a single function through file_outline and read_span cut tokens by 90%.
Is indexio a Sourcegraph alternative?
For AI coding agents and individual developers, yes: indexio is free, runs as one local binary and plugs into agents over MCP. Sourcegraph is a hosted or self-hosted platform with a web UI for whole engineering organizations, sold on enterprise plans.
Does indexio upload my code?
No. The index lives in ~/.indexio on your machine, credential files such as .env and private keys are never indexed, and the HTTP server binds to 127.0.0.1 unless you configure a token.
Which coding agents work with indexio?
Any MCP client. indexio setup claude configures Claude Code in one command, and Cursor, Codex and other MCP clients connect by running indexio mcp as an MCP server.
Which languages does indexio support?
Lexical and semantic search cover every text file, including docs, configs, scripts and SQL. Symbols and the call graph cover Rust, Python, Go, TypeScript and JavaScript, Java and C++.
Get indexio
Open source under Apache-2.0. One command installs it, one more connects your agent.
Also compared: searchio vs Firecrawl, Jina Reader and Tavily