Fonts like Recursive
12 open fonts whose letters are closest to Recursive, ranked by a glyph comparison. All free for commercial use.
Quick answer
The closest open font to Recursive is Anek Telugu (similarity 80), then Clear Sans and IBM Plex Sans. Anek Telugu is released under the SIL Open Font License 1.1 and is free for commercial use.
Side-by-side comparison
Top lookalikes compared at the same size Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow
Top lookalikes: licence permissions
Commercial rights side by sideAnek TeluguOFL-1.1
Commercial workAllowed
Logo or wordmarkAllowed
WebsiteAllowed, with conditions
App or gameAllowed, with conditions
Modify the fontAllowed, with conditions
Share the font fileAllowed, with conditions
Sell the font fileNot allowed
No credit needed in your workAllowed
Clear SansApache-2.0
Commercial workAllowed
Logo or wordmarkAllowed
WebsiteAllowed, with conditions
App or gameAllowed, with conditions
Modify the fontAllowed, with conditions
Share the font fileAllowed, with conditions
Sell the font fileAllowed, with conditions
No credit needed in your workAllowed
IBM Plex SansOFL-1.1
Commercial workAllowed
Logo or wordmarkAllowed
WebsiteAllowed, with conditions
App or gameAllowed, with conditions
Modify the fontAllowed, with conditions
Share the font fileAllowed, with conditions
Sell the font fileNot allowed
No credit needed in your workAllowed
All 12 open lookalikes, ranked
Comparison based on letter shape and edge texture#1
Anek Telugu OFL-1.1
Similarity 80 — 100 = identical letters, 0 = an average pair
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow
#2
Clear Sans Apache-2.0
Similarity 78 — 100 = identical letters, 0 = an average pair
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow
#3
IBM Plex Sans OFL-1.1
Similarity 76 — 100 = identical letters, 0 = an average pair
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow
#4
iA Writer Quattro OFL-1.1
Similarity 75 — 100 = identical letters, 0 = an average pair
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow
#5
Doppio One OFL-1.1
Similarity 74 — 100 = identical letters, 0 = an average pair
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow
#6
Sofia Sans OFL-1.1
Similarity 74 — 100 = identical letters, 0 = an average pair
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow
#7
iA Writer Duo OFL-1.1
Similarity 73 — 100 = identical letters, 0 = an average pair
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow
#8
Quantico OFL-1.1
Similarity 73 — 100 = identical letters, 0 = an average pair
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow
#9
Radio Canada OFL-1.1
Similarity 73 — 100 = identical letters, 0 = an average pair
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow
#10
Allerta OFL-1.1
Similarity 72 — 100 = identical letters, 0 = an average pair
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow
#11
Basic OFL-1.1
Similarity 72 — 100 = identical letters, 0 = an average pair
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow
#12
Source Sans 3 OFL-1.1
Similarity 72 — 100 = identical letters, 0 = an average pair
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow
Fonts made for other scripts with similar Latin letters
How the similarity score works
Each score is calculated by comparing 62 letters and digits (A-Z a-z 0-9) rendered at a 160px cap height on a 32×32 grid with 3px gaussian blur, combined with edge-orientation texture (weighted at 15%).
Scores are normalized on a standardized scale: 100 represents identical letterforms, and 0 represents an average pair among the 1571 fonts compared.