Why pay when there is a free government AI solution?

Which government AI solutions exist?

Several German states and national governments have built their own AI assistants for their staff. They are an important contribution: they show that AI works in public administration and make experience available to others.

Solution	Operator	Who may use it	What it includes
F13	State of Baden-Württemberg	Staff of the state administration and teachers; as F13-OS, any administration that runs it itself	Chat, summaries, research in administrative documents; within the state with open-source models
LLMoin	City of Hamburg and Dataport	Hamburg and states that reuse it (including Lower Saxony, Bremen, Saxony-Anhalt, Rhineland-Palatinate); municipalities in Schleswig-Holstein via a framework agreement	Summaries, drafting texts, research in documents; according to Hamburg, a model from OpenAI on Microsoft infrastructure in Europe
GovGPT	Federal Chancellery and Federal Computing Centre (BRZ), Austria	Federal employees; according to the Federal Chancellery, talks are under way with states and municipalities	Drafting texts, summarising documents, questions on knowledge collections; technology from Mistral AI on BRZ servers
Albert and L’Assistant	DINUM, France	Employees of the French state	Chat with documents and knowledge bases, interface to AI models; open-source models and models from Mistral AI

As of 11 October 2026, based on information from the operators and the linked comparisons.

What does the government solution cost for others?

For the eligible group, the individual office usually pays no licence fees; the operator bears the costs. For everyone else, the picture is as follows:

• Reuse through a service provider: States and municipalities obtain LLMoin through Dataport or a state IT agency. Prices are not public; according to a report, municipalities in Schleswig-Holstein get reduced terms through the state’s online shop.
• Open source, run yourself: F13-OS is available without a licence fee. The operator bears hardware or model provider, operation, maintenance, support and proof.
• No access: As of October 2026, no offer for GovGPT or L’Assistant outside the respective administration is publicly known.

What does an organisation have to provide itself if it runs an open-source solution?

Task	What it involves
Hardware or model provider	Servers with GPUs on site or a contract with a model provider
Operation	Installation, updates, backups, monitoring, incidents
Sign-in and permissions	Connection to the user directory, groups and roles
Connecting systems	Access to document management, council information systems and specialist applications with the person’s permissions
Proof	Data protection impact assessment, record of processing activities, security concept, logs
Training and support	AI literacy under Art. 4 of the EU AI Act, a contact for questions

How the numbers work out is shown in the guide Run it yourself or buy a platform?

When does a licence still pay off?

• When your organisation is not in the eligible group and no service provider offers the solution.
• When citizen and social data are to be used and your data protection officer has to clarify where the AI model runs and which law the provider is subject to.
• When your organisation’s own systems are to be connected, with each person’s permissions.
• When recurring tasks are to run as apps that are shared within the organisation.
• When there are no staff to run it yourself.

What does basebox offer here?

basebox is a ready-made AI platform with licence, support and updates. Permissions come from your user directory, every use is logged, and sharing an app shares its documents, never your own access. The data processing agreement and the agreement under § 203 StGB (German Criminal Code, professional secrecy) are part of the contract; the agreement also applies to public officials. At the request of a public authority, basebox formally obliges its staff under the Verpflichtungsgesetz (German law on the formal obligation of non-officials).

basebox runs in our cloud in Germany, with the AI model on our servers in the Munich East data centre, or on a server at your site, without an internet connection if you wish. Existing hardware with GPUs can still be used. In Germany, Austria and Switzerland there is both cloud and server; in France only the server, run by the organisation’s own IT. Interface and support are available in German and English.

The cloud starts from 5 people at €490 per person per year; you only pay for the people who use the AI. List prices, net; the calculator works out any other figure.

What do the government solutions offer that basebox does not?

• No procurement effort for staff in the eligible group.
• Operation by the public sector itself or its IT service provider.
• Open source code for F13-OS and for Albert’s interface (OpenGateLLM).
• A community from public administration that develops the solution further.
• French interface for L’Assistant; basebox is available in German and English.

What suits whom?

• The government solution suits everyone who belongs to the eligible group and whose tasks it covers.
• The open-source version suits administrations with the staff, hardware and time to run it themselves.
• basebox suits administrations that have no access to the government solution or need more: permissions, apps, connection of their own systems and the AI model in Germany or on their own premises. More on basebox for local government.