Knowledge bases are divided into two categories according to their purposes and areas of use: internal and external. Both knowledge bases have their areas of use, advantages, and benefits. For example, internal knowledge bases are effective for increasing your employees' performance and allowing them to find the information they are looking for quickly. If you are wondering about the differences between internal and external knowledge bases, we’ve got you covered!

In this article, we will explore the differences between internal and external knowledge bases.

Ready? Let’s dive in!

TL; DR

  • Internal knowledge bases are libraries where you store the information and data your employees need.
  • External knowledge bases are libraries where you upload the data and information you want to share with your customers.
  • Internal and external knowledge bases contain different types of data and have different categories and audiences.
  • While you can use internal knowledge bases to increase the performance of your employees, you can use external knowledge bases to increase customer satisfaction.
  • If you want to take your knowledge management game a step further, TextCortex, which offers AI-powered features, is the way to go.

What is an Internal Knowledge Base (IKB)?

An internal knowledge base gathers, stores, and shares knowledge within your organization. You can create separate internal knowledge bases for each department in your company, or you can use a common knowledge base.

For best performance, we recommend that you divide your internal knowledge bases into categories such as IT, customer service, and finance. This way, each department can quickly access the structured knowledge it needs.

What is an Internal Knowledge Base (IKB)?

Who Uses an Internal Knowledge Base?

Entire organizations or companies can benefit from internal knowledge bases. Knowledge bases are tools that store the information and data that all your employees, from your blogger to your front-end developer team, need. However, some departments get the most benefit from internal knowledge bases, such as:

  • Call Centers
  • Human Resources
  • Marketing
  • Sales
  • IT
  • Accounting
  • New Employees

Benefits of Internal Knowledge Bases

Having an internal knowledge base comes with lots of advantages. First of all, internal knowledge bases allow your employees to find the information they are looking for much faster, in other words, they can access information faster. This way, your employees can focus on tasks instead of spending hours searching for information. Other advantages of having an internal knowledge base include:

  • Internal knowledge bases can increase communication and collaboration
  • Internal knowledge bases can help reduce costs through time savings
  • They can increase individual employee performance
  • They can be personalized to meet the needs of the organization

What to Include in an Internal Knowledge Base?

The data and information you will upload to internal knowledge bases depend entirely on the goals and objectives of your organization or company. However, the most common types of content stored in your internal knowledge bases include:

  • Company Policies
  • How-to Guides
  • Guidelines
  • Information on Company Products and Services
  • Contact Information
  • Ongoing Project Documentation

What is an External Knowledge Base (EKB)?

An external knowledge base is data and information storage that are publicly available and accessible. It collects, stores and shares knowledge with customers so they can easily find the answers they need without customer support services.

Who Uses an External Knowledge Base?

External knowledge bases are the primary means of sharing information and data with your customers. However, they can be utilized by your employees, stakeholders, and investors. The audience addressed by external knowledge bases includes:

  • Employees
  • Customers
  • Call Centers
  • Product-based Companies
  • Software Developers

Benefits of External Knowledge Bases

The biggest benefit of external knowledge bases is that your customers can access the information they are looking for without the need for any human resources personnel. Let’s take a look at the most important benefits of external knowledge bases:

  • Reduces Customer Support Inquiries
  • Increase Access to Information
  • Information Delivered and Organized in a Logical Way
  • Customers can Resolve Their Problems on Their Own
  • Increase Visibility and Traffic of Your Business

What to Include in an External Knowledge Base?

Common types of data and information you need to add to an external knowledge base include:

  • FAQs
  • Blog Page
  • Setup Guides
  • Troubleshooting
  • Product & Service Information

Internal vs. External Knowledge Bases: Key Differences

Internal and external knowledge bases are distinct resources, each offering unique advantages, benefits, and content. They cater to different audiences and possess specific characteristics. Depending on your organization's needs, you can choose to implement an internal knowledge base, an external one, or both. Let's explore the key differences between them in more detail.

Audience

The primary difference between internal and external knowledge bases lies in their target audience. Internal knowledge bases are designed for employees, providing information relevant to their work. External knowledge bases, on the other hand, serve both employees and customers. If your goal is to streamline employee access to information and reduce their workload, an internal knowledge base is a strong choice. To empower customers to resolve issues independently and lighten the burden on human support teams, an external knowledge base is essential.

Data and Information

Another feature that distinguishes internal and external knowledge bases is the content, information, and data differences they contain. While internal knowledge bases contain data and information that only concerns your company and employees, external knowledge bases contain information and data, such as how-to guides, that concern your customers. If you want to share data and information with all your employees, internal knowledge bases are solutions for you. If you want to transfer information to your customers, external knowledge bases are solutions for you.

Use Cases

Internal knowledge bases are used to increase employee performance and save time. You can also use internal knowledge bases to support ongoing projects and provide access to a common data source for everyone working on the project. You can also boost the work quality of your employees with AI-powered knowledge bases. Check out the results from one of our case studies:

  • Reduction of internal expertise search time from minutes to seconds
  • 10-12% more efficient proposal creation
  • Employee confidence in working with AI improved from 8/10 to 10/10
  • Employee enthusiasm toward AI increased from 25% to 67%
  • 94% of employees report that AI improves their work quality

On the other hand, external knowledge bases are used to transfer frequently asked questions or information that customers need. With external knowledge bases, you can both increase customer satisfaction and reduce the workload of the human resources department.

TextCortex AI: Enhance Your Knowledge Management via AI

TextCortex is an AI assistant that offers its users AI-powered customizable knowledge bases. Using TextCortex knowledge bases, you can integrate your existing data sources such as Google Drive, Notion, and Microsoft OneDrive and start using AI-powered features. TextCortex knowledge bases offer ZenoChat, which can work integrated with all your data and information. With ZenoChat, you can chat with all your knowledge bases or different folders in your knowledge base. Moreover, thanks to ZenoChat’s powerful RAG (Retrieval-augmented generation) capabilities, it can concisely and accurately recall the information you are looking for, regardless of whether it is text or an image.

TextCortex offers not only knowledge bases but also other advanced AI features, such as:

  • Multiple LLMs such as Gemini 2.5 Pro and o3-mini
  • Multiple AI Image Generators Including Stable Diffusion 3
  • Web Search via Citations
  • Writing Assistance
  • Workflow Automation
  • Custom AI Agent Builder

Sounds exciting? Click here to create your TextCortex account to automate your professional tasks.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is an internal knowledge base?

An internal knowledge base is a repository where you archive the information you want to share with your company's employees and provide them with easy access. Thanks to internal knowledge bases, your employees can quickly access the information they are looking for and spend more time on their main tasks. What’s more, thanks to AI knowledge bases, employees can access the information they are looking for in a conversational format.

What is an external knowledge base?

An external knowledge base is a library where you store information that you want to share with your customers. It can include FAQs, product and service information pages, policies, shipping information pages, blog pages, and more. With external knowledge bases, your customers can solve their own problems.

What is the difference between internal and external knowledge base?

While internal knowledge bases contain the data your employees need, external knowledge bases contain the information your customers need. While internal knowledge bases are only accessible to members of your organization, external knowledge bases are accessible to everyone.