Filtered for a researcher · verified 4 September 2026

The best AI for researchers

29 tools 29 with a free plan 4 jobs broken out Prices verified 4 September 2026

All 29 tools for researchers

Claude

By AnthropicSan Francisco, United States3 products across 7 categories

Built for this. Long documents and reasoning that holds together over many pages. Handles large uploads well.

Free plan
Yes
Free tier with daily caps
Month to month
$20/mo
Pro
Billed yearly
$17/mo
$200 a year, Pro plan −15%

Watch out: Free tier caps out quickly under heavy use. Judge it against the others yourself rather than trusting any ranking.

All plans (6)
PlanPriceWhat you get
Free$0Free tier with daily caps
Pro$20/mo · $17/mo yearly
Max$100/mo
Team standard seat$25/mo · $20/mo yearly
Team premium seat$125/mo · $100/mo yearly
Enterprise$20/mo
Open Claude Pricing and company Prices checked 4 September 2026

Connected Papers

By Connected PapersTel Aviv, Israel1 product across 1 category

Built for this. Builds a similarity graph from citation data rather than from a language model, so nothing in the output is generated and there is nothing to hallucinate.

Free plan
Yes
5 graphs a month, with all features included
Month to month
None
Shortest billing is quarterly: $10/mo ($30 a quarter)
Billed yearly
$6/mo
$72 a year, Academic plan −40%

Watch out: It finds neighbours of one seed paper, so a bad starting point gives a confidently wrong map. The free tier is 5 graphs a month with every feature included, so paying buys volume rather than capability, and there is no monthly option — billing is annual or quarterly.

All plans (5)
PlanPriceWhat you get
Free$0Free plan at $0: 5 graphs a month, with all features included
Academic$10/mo quarterly · $6/mo yearlyunlimited graphs and every feature, for academics, non-profits and personal use
Business$30/mo quarterly · $20/mo yearlythe same again, for business and industry
Academic Group and Business Group$30/mo quarterly · $20/mo yearly
Academic LibraryCustomunlimited graphs for all students and staff, with email, IP and single sign-on access and zero-effort integration
Open Connected Papers Pricing and company Prices checked 4 September 2026

Consensus

By ConsensusBoston, United States1 product across 1 category

Built for this. Searches published papers and tells you how many of them support a claim, which turns a yes-or-no question into a count you can inspect.

Free plan
Yes
Basic paper search, 15 Pro messages a month and up to 3 Deep reviews a month
Month to month
$20/mo
Pro
Billed yearly
$12/mo
$144 a year, Pro plan −40%

Watch out: The consensus meter reflects the papers it found, not the state of the field. Deep reviews are the metered resource — 3 a month free, 15 on Pro, 200 on Deep — so that is what decides the tier rather than how much you search.

All plans (3)
PlanPriceWhat you get
Free$0Free plan at $0: basic paper search, 15 Pro messages a month and up to 3 Deep reviews a month, though the same card also describes the free tier as being without AI analysis
Pro$20/mo · $12/mo yearlyunlimited Pro messages, 15 Deep reviews a month and unlimited access to every research tool
Deep$65/mo · $45/mo yearlyeverything in Pro with 200 Deep reviews a month, aimed at researchers and clinicians running frequent literature reviews. Team and Enterprise are priced on their own tab
Open Consensus Pricing and company Prices checked 4 September 2026

DeepL Write

By DeepLCologne, Germany1 product across 1 category

Built for this. The same quality that made its translation worth paying for, applied to rewriting. Notably better than the field on European languages.

Free plan
Yes
Free tier with a character limit
Month to month
$10.49/mo
Individual
Billed yearly
$8.74/mo
Individual plan −17%

Watch out: Improves phrasing rather than argument, and will not tell you a paragraph is not worth keeping. Write is not sold on its own: it comes with a DeepL Pro subscription, whose entry tier is capped at 300,000 characters a month.

All plans (7)
PlanPriceWhat you get
Free$0Free tier with a character limit
Individual$10.49/mo · $8.74/mo yearly300,000 characters a month, 3 file translations a month, one glossary and no training on your data. Sold as DeepL Pro, which carries Write alongside the translator
Team$34.49/mo · $28.74/mo yearly1,000,000 characters per user a month, 20 file translations a month, bulk file translation, 5 shared style rule lists and 5 glossaries
Business$68.99/mo · $57.49/mo yearlyunlimited characters, 100 file translations a month, 20 shared style rule lists, unlimited glossaries and translation memory
EnterpriseCustom
Voice Starter$13/mo · $11/mo yearly300 minutes a user a month of real-time meeting translation, up to 50 participants online and 10 in person
Voice Business$38/mo · $32/mo yearly600 minutes a user a month pooled across the subscription, up to 300 participants online and 100 in person, and single sign-on. Voice sits on its own tab, as does the API, and the translator plans open on a 30-day trial against 14 days on Voice
Open DeepL Write Pricing and company Prices checked 4 September 2026

Elicit

By ElicitOakland, United States1 product across 1 category

Built for this. Searches actual papers and extracts findings into a table you can check, one row per study, rather than answering in prose.

Free plan
Yes
Limited use of the Research Agent and Research Reports, but unlimited search across more than
Month to month
$19/mo
Academic Plus
Billed yearly
$11/mo
$132 a year, Academic Plus plan −42%

Watch out: Coverage is strongest in empirical fields. Extraction is a starting point for a literature review, not the review.

All plans (7)
PlanPriceWhat you get
Free$0Basic plan, free on both tabs: limited use of the Research Agent and Research Reports, but unlimited search across more than 138 million papers, unlimited summaries and unlimited chat with papers at full text
Academic Plus$19/mo · $11/mo yearlystandard Research Agent, Reports and systematic review usage, export to RIS, CSV, BIB, PDF and DOCX, and 5 table columns at a time
Academic Pro$69/mo · $39/mo yearly5x usage, the dedicated systematic review workflow that screens 5,000 papers, and 20 columns at a time
Academic Scale$149/mo · $89/mo yearly9x usage, extraction and interpretation of figures, and live real-time collaboration
Industry Pro$75/mo · $49/mo yearlystandard usage, the systematic review workflow, 20 columns and reports drawing on up to 135 data sources
Industry Scale$279/mo · $169/mo yearly5x usage, figure extraction, live collaboration and up to 200 data sources
EnterpriseCustomcustom usage, unlimited paper alerts, no training on your data by default, screening of 40,000 papers with 40 columns, and PRISMA-grade screening and extraction accuracy. Academic and industry are separate ladders — academics get an extra Plus tier and pay less at every step
Open Elicit Pricing and company Prices checked 4 September 2026

EvidenceHunt

By EvidenceHuntAmsterdam, Netherlands1 product across 1 category

Built for this. Scoped to clinical evidence and built with practising clinicians, so the filters match how medical literature is actually appraised.

Free plan
Yes
Unlimited questions on the low-cost models plus 3 PRO-quality questions, with chat history
Month to month
None
Not published
Billed yearly
—
No yearly price published

Watch out: Medicine only, and no use for research in any other field. It prices in euros rather than dollars, and the free tier gives you 3 PRO-quality questions before dropping you to the low-cost models.

All plans (3)
PlanPriceWhat you get
Free$0Basic plan, free: unlimited questions on the low-cost models plus 3 PRO-quality questions, with chat history
Pro16.50 euros a month billed yearly, or 20 euros month to month, opening on a 7-day free trialunlimited questions on the best models rather than only the low-cost ones. EvidenceHunt prices in euros, not dollars, so these figures are not directly comparable with the rest of this list
Team or Organisationno price publishedtailored to the organisation through a sales conversation or a booked demo
Open EvidenceHunt Pricing and company Prices checked 4 September 2026

Gemini Deep Research

By Google DeepMindLondon, United Kingdom6 products across 6 categories

Built for this. Runs a multi-step search across dozens of sources and returns a structured, referenced report. Strong first pass on an unfamiliar field.

Free plan
Yes
Included in the free Gemini tier, with a limited number of reports
Month to month
$4.99/mo
Google AI Plus
Billed yearly
$4.17/mo
$49.99 a year, Google AI Plus plan −16%

Watch out: Searches the open web, not scholarly databases. It will miss paywalled literature a library search would find.

All plans (4)
PlanPriceWhat you get
Free$0Included in the free Gemini tier, with a limited number of reports
Google AI Plus$4.99/mo2x the usage limits. Deep Research is part of the Google AI plans, not sold separately
Google AI Pro$19.99/mo4x the usage limits and the Pro model behind longer reports
Google AI Ultra$99.99/mo5x the Pro limits for the heaviest research use
Open Gemini Deep Research Pricing and company Prices checked 4 September 2026

Gemini Notebook

By Google DeepMindLondon, United Kingdom6 products across 6 categories

Built for this. You upload the sources and it answers only from them, linking every sentence to the passage it came from. The strongest verification pattern here.

Free plan
Yes
Free, and the core product is not gated: what a paid plan buys is headroom — a bigger notebook
Month to month
$4.99/mo
Google AI Plus
Billed yearly
$4.17/mo
$49.99 a year, Google AI Plus plan −16%

Watch out: Deliberately limited — it will not answer what your documents do not cover, and cannot tell you whether they are any good. Paid headroom comes from a Google AI subscription rather than a plan of its own.

All plans (4)
PlanPriceWhat you get
Free$0Free, and the core product is not gated: what a paid plan buys is headroom — a bigger notebook, more sources per notebook and higher limits on Audio and Video Overviews and Slides
Google AI Plus$4.99/mothe cheapest step that raises its limits, with more Gemini access, increased feature limits and a bigger notebook. Introductory offers were showing: $1.29/month for 3 months, or $44.99 for the first year
Google AI Pro$19.99/moexpanded Gemini access for complex research, expanded feature limits and a large notebook size. Introductory offers were showing: $4.99/month for 3 months, or $179.99 for the first year
Google AI Ultra$99.99/mothe highest Gemini access and the largest source limits, for working across several big notebooks
Open Gemini Notebook Pricing and company Prices checked 4 September 2026

Julius AI

By Julius AISan Francisco, United States1 product across 1 category

Built for this. Upload a spreadsheet and it writes and runs real code against it, showing the working rather than describing it.

Free plan
Yes
Free tier with a monthly message allowance
Month to month
$20/mo
Plus
Billed yearly
$16/mo
$200 a year, Plus plan −20%

Watch out: A generated analysis is only as good as the question. Work is metered in credits, and Max and Business are sold at a credit level you choose, so their headline price is the entry rate.

All plans (5)
PlanPriceWhat you get
Free$0Free tier with a monthly message allowance
Plus$20/mo · $16/mo yearly
Pro$45/mo · $37/mo yearly
Max$200/mo · $166/mo yearly
Business$450/mo · $375/mo yearly
Open Julius AI Pricing and company Prices checked 4 September 2026

LanguageTool

By LearneoRedwood City, United States2 products across 1 category

Built for this. Strong across more than 30 languages rather than English alone, and it can be self-hosted, which almost nothing else in this category offers.

Free plan
Yes
Free tier covering basic grammar and spelling
Month to month
$24.90/mo
Premium
Billed yearly
$5.83/mo
$69.90 a year, Premium plan −77%

Watch out: Owned by the same company as QuillBot since 2023. Month to month costs more than four times the annual rate, and there are four payment intervals to pick between, so the interval matters more than the tier.

All plans (3)
PlanPriceWhat you get
Free$0Free tier covering basic grammar and spelling
Premium$24.90/mo · $16.63/mo quarterly · $5.83/mo yearlyenhanced grammar, punctuation and style checking, up to 150,000 characters a text field, unlimited AI sentence paraphrasing, a style guide and the browser add-on
Teams$11.07/moeverything in Premium plus user management, a team style guide and a team dictionary. Every price on the page includes VAT
Open LanguageTool Pricing and company Prices checked 4 September 2026

Litmaps

By LitmapsWellington, New Zealand2 products across 1 category

Built for this. Draws a citation map you can steer, so the shape of a literature becomes visible rather than being a list of titles.

Free plan
Yes
Free, capped rather than trial-limited: 2 Litmaps with 100 articles per map, basic search
Month to month
$12.50/mo
Pro
Billed yearly
$10/mo
Pro plan −20%

Watch out: A map is a prompt to read, not a substitute for reading. The free tier stops at 2 maps of 100 articles each, so a real review needs Pro, and Pro is priced on separate education and commercial tabs.

All plans (3)
PlanPriceWhat you get
Free$0Free, capped rather than trial-limited: 2 Litmaps with 100 articles per map, basic search taking up to 20 seed inputs, monthly literature alerts and no collaboration
Pro$12.50/mo · $10/mo yearlyunlimited Litmaps and unlimited articles per map, advanced search with unlimited inputs, and weekly or configurable alerts rather than monthly. Litmaps prices Pro on two sub-tabs, education and commercial; these are the education figures
Teamno price published on the pricing pagePro features plus team-wide collaboration, which neither Free nor Pro includes
Open Litmaps Pricing and company Prices checked 4 September 2026

OpenEvidence

By OpenEvidenceCambridge, United States1 product across 1 category

Built for this. Built for clinical literature. Answers cite primary medical research, and it is free for verified clinicians.

Free plan
Yes
Free for verified clinicians, ad-supported
Month to month
None
Nothing to pay — there is no paid tier
Billed yearly
—
No paid tier to buy

Watch out: Medicine only, and access is gated behind clinician verification. No use for a history or engineering student.

Open OpenEvidence Pricing and company Prices checked 4 September 2026

Paperguide

By PaperguideMilton, United States1 product across 1 category

Built for this. Covers finding papers, reading them, managing references and drafting in one place, which is unusually broad for this category.

Free plan
Yes
Free, capped by credits: 2,000 AI credits a month across Research Agents, Research Reports and
Month to month
$15/mo
Academic Plus
Billed yearly
$9/mo
Academic Plus plan −40%

Watch out: Breadth costs depth against the tools that do one of those jobs properly. A young product, so expect it to keep changing shape.

All plans (8)
PlanPriceWhat you get
Free$0Free, capped by credits: 2,000 AI credits a month across Research Agents, Research Reports and the AI Writer, with a limited reference manager and limited AI searches, and no systematic reviews
Academic Plus$15/mo · $9/mo yearly12,500 credits a month, unlimited reference manager and systematic reviews of up to 1,000 papers
Academic Pro$49/mo · $29/mo yearly50,000 credits a month, systematic reviews of up to 5,000 papers and image and table extraction
Academic Evidence$99/mo · $69/mo yearly150,000 credits a month and PRISMA-grade dual screening. This is the team tier
Industry Plus$29/mo · $17/mo yearly
Industry Pro$69/mo · $39/mo yearly
Industry Evidence$199/mo · $119/mo yearly
EnterpriseCustomcustom credits and systematic reviews of up to 20,000 papers
Open Paperguide Pricing and company Prices checked 4 September 2026

Perplexity

By PerplexitySan Francisco, United States1 product across 3 categories

Built for this. Purpose-built for cited web answers. Every claim carries a numbered link, and Comet extends it across normal browsing.

Free plan
Yes
Free tier with citations in every answer, basic AI models and limited daily use
Month to month
$20/mo
Pro
Billed yearly
—
No yearly price published

Watch out: A citation proves a source was consulted, not that it supports the sentence attached to it. Click through on anything that matters.

All plans (6)
PlanPriceWhat you get
Free$0Free tier with citations in every answer, basic AI models and limited daily use
Pro$20/modeep research, top AI models, expanded Computer access, 4,000 bonus credits
Max$200/moexpert-level research, frontier models, 35,000 bonus credits and 10,000 monthly credits
Enterprise Pro$34/mo yearlyno training on your data, SSO, SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA and GDPR compliance, 500 Computer credits a seat
Enterprise Max$271/mo yearlythe most advanced reasoning models, 15,000 Computer credits a seat, SCIM and audit logs
Additional security and governanceCustomrole-based access control, custom retention, volume discounts
Open Perplexity Pricing and company Prices checked 4 September 2026

Rayyan

By Rayyan SystemsCambridge, United States1 product across 1 category

Built for this. Built for systematic reviews — thousands of abstracts screened by a team, with blinding and conflict resolution built into the workflow.

Free plan
Yes
Free forever, pitched at your first systematic review rather than as a trial
Month to month
None
Shortest billing is quarterly: $8.33/mo ($24.99 a quarter)
Billed yearly
$4.99/mo
$59.88 a year, Essential plan −40%

Watch out: Overkill for anything smaller than a formal review. Individual seats are cheap, but the institutional tier starts at 5 licenses for $2,500 a year.

All plans (5)
PlanPriceWhat you get
Free$0Free forever, pitched at your first systematic review rather than as a trial
Essential$8.33/mo quarterly · $4.99/mo yearly
Advanced$13.33/mo quarterly · $8.33/mo yearly
Business or Academic$41.67/mo yearly
EnterpriseCustom
Open Rayyan Pricing and company Prices checked 4 September 2026

ResearchRabbit

By LitmapsWellington, New Zealand2 products across 1 category

Built for this. Follows citations outward from papers you already trust and keeps alerting you as new ones appear. Strong for finding what you did not know to look for.

Free plan
Yes
Free forever, and unusually complete: unlimited searches across more than 310 million articles
Month to month
$12.50/mo
ResearchRabbit+
Billed yearly
$10/mo
ResearchRabbit+ plan −20%

Watch out: Owned by Litmaps since May 2025 and overlaps it heavily, down to charging the same $10 and $12.50. Discovery only — it will not read or summarise anything for you, and the free tier stops at 50 seed articles.

All plans (3)
PlanPriceWhat you get
Free$0Free forever, and unusually complete: unlimited searches across more than 310 million articles, unlimited library and collections, and sharing a collection to collaborate. The cap is 50 seed articles and core rather than advanced search settings
ResearchRabbit+$12.50/mo · $10/mo yearlyraises the seed-article cap from 50 to 300, adds advanced search controls, multiple projects and Signals alerts
Institutionno price published, sold through a sales conversationeverything in RR+ plus volume discounts, LibKey integration with your research library, thousands of managed users, usage statistics and dedicated support
Open ResearchRabbit Pricing and company Prices checked 4 September 2026

Scholarcy

By ScholarcyLondon, United Kingdom1 product across 1 category

Built for this. Breaks a paper into structured cards — aims, method, findings, limitations — instead of one block of summary, which makes skimming a stack of them practical.

Free plan
Yes
Free Article Summarizer: imports a range of file formats but stops at 10 summaries, and exports
Month to month
$9.99/mo
Scholarcy Plus
Billed yearly
$7.50/mo
$90 a year, Scholarcy Plus plan −25%

Watch out: Structure comes from the paper being conventionally written; it copes badly with anything that is not. The free tier stops at 10 summaries, so a reading list of any size needs the paid plan.

All plans (2)
PlanPriceWhat you get
Free$0Free Article Summarizer: imports a range of file formats but stops at 10 summaries, and exports flashcards only one at a time
Scholarcy Plus$9.99/mo
Open Scholarcy Pricing and company Prices checked 4 September 2026

Scite

By SciteBrooklyn, United States1 product across 1 category

Built for this. Shows whether later papers supported or contradicted the one you are reading. Nothing else on this site answers that question.

Free plan
Yes
Connect, free and without a card: 25 MCP credits a month to use Scite inside ChatGPT, Claude
Month to month
$20/mo
Basic
Billed yearly
$12/mo
Basic plan −40%

Watch out: Coverage depends on publisher agreements, so an absence of contrasting citations is not evidence of agreement. The free tier is a connector for other AI tools, not the Scite platform: no Assistant, no Search.

All plans (6)
PlanPriceWhat you get
Free$0Connect, free and without a card: 25 MCP credits a month to use Scite inside ChatGPT, Claude and other AI tools, grounded in more than 300 million papers. It is a connector rather than a cut-down platform — the Assistant and Search are not included at all
Basic$20/mo · $12/mo yearlythe full platform, with Assistant and Search, 250 MCP credits a month, Article Smart Citation reports, collections up to 1,000 papers and citation alerts. Opens on a 7-day free trial
Pro$50/mo · $40/mo yearlyadds API access, 2,500 MCP credits a month, collections up to 10,000 papers and the patent, clinical trial and grant datasets. Opens on a 7-day free trial
Team$50/moeverything in Pro plus private and shared collections, team usage analytics, centralised billing and 2,500 MCP credits per user
Academicno price published, sold through a sales conversation and based on users and usagecampus or department-level access by domain, IP or university email, unlimited users inside the licensed group, collections up to 50,000 papers and librarian dashboards
Enterpriseno price published, also sales-ledfull API access with custom limits, collections up to 50,000 papers, enterprise MCP integration, SAML and SSO, and Article Galaxy full-text delivery
Open Scite Pricing and company Prices checked 4 September 2026

Trinka AI

By Crimson AIMumbai, India1 product across 1 category

Built for this. Edits against journal conventions and subject-specific usage rather than general style, and flags the things reviewers flag.

Free plan
Yes
5,000 words a month of writing assistance, 4 proofread files or reports a month on credits, 5
Month to month
$20/mo
Premium
Billed yearly
$6.67/mo
$80 a year, Premium plan −67%

Watch out: Academic English only — it is the wrong tool for a blog post. The yearly prices on the cards are 40 per cent offers on Premium and Confidential Data, whose standing rates are $80 and $500, and the free tier stops at 5,000 words a month.

All plans (4)
PlanPriceWhat you get
Free$0Basic plan, free at $0: 5,000 words a month of writing assistance, 4 proofread files or reports a month on credits, 5 AI writing requests a month, Lite and Standard modes only, standard data privacy and 1 plagiarism score a month
Premium$20/moevery writing feature including the grammar checker, paraphraser, consistency and file proofreading, all advanced writing modes, the APA, IEEE, ACS and AGU style guides, and the native Microsoft Word app
Premium Plus$125 a year, with no offer applied to iteverything in Premium at double the credits, file translation across more than 30 languages, and proofreading of up to 240 files a year as editable files
Confidential Data$500 a year is the standing rate, cut to $300 by the same 40 per cent offereverything in Premium Plus plus an offline grammar checker app, unlimited AI writing, instant data deletion with no training on your text, and sovereignty and regulatory compliance. These are the Individuals prices; Enterprise and Institution are quoted on their own tabs
Open Trinka AI Pricing and company Prices checked 4 September 2026

You.com

By You.comPalo Alto, United States1 product across 2 categories

Built for this. Answers a question from one live search pass and lists the pages it used beside the answer, so a claim can be checked without leaving it.

Free plan
Yes
Free tier of 100 web search queries a day, no API key required
Month to month
None
Not published
Billed yearly
—
No yearly price published

Watch out: The company has moved toward developers: the pricing page now sells APIs by the thousand calls, and the consumer assistant has changed shape several times while that happened. Good for checking a fact, less safe to build a habit on.

All plans (6)
PlanPriceWhat you get
Free$0Free tier of 100 web search queries a day, no API key required
Web Search API$5 per 1,000 calls, 1 to 100 results a call, news included$100 free credit
Contents API$1 per 1,000 pages extracted as Markdown or HTML, several URLs a request$100 free credit
Answer API$5 per 1,000 calls for a cited, synthesised answer$100 free credit
Research APIfrom $12 per 1,000 calls on Lite, rising through Standard, Deep, Exhaustive and Frontier tiers$100 free credit
Finance Research APIfrom $110 per 1,000 calls on Deep, with an Exhaustive tier above$100 free credit
Open You.com Pricing and company Prices checked 4 September 2026

AskYourPDF

By ProtonLabs TechnologyBirmingham, United Kingdom1 product across 1 category

Strong fit. Straightforward document chat with citation back to the page, and it handles long PDFs without the usual truncation.

Free plan
Yes
Free, but tightly capped: 1 document a day, 100 pages per document and a 15MB upload limit
Month to month
$14.99/mo
Premium
Billed yearly
$11.99/mo
Premium plan −20%

Watch out: A thin layer over a general model, so it inherits that model’s habits. Little here that a general assistant with file upload does not also do.

All plans (4)
PlanPriceWhat you get
Free$0Free, but tightly capped: 1 document a day, 100 pages per document and a 15MB upload limit
Premium$14.99/mo · $11.99/mo yearly50 documents a day, 2,500 pages per document and a 31MB upload limit
Pro$19.99/mo · $14.99/mo yearly150 documents a day, 6,000 pages per document and an 877MB upload limit
EnterpriseCustom1,000 documents a day, unlimited pages per document and a 1,431MB upload limit
Open AskYourPDF Pricing and company Prices checked 4 September 2026

ChatGPT deep research

By OpenAISan Francisco, United States3 products across 8 categories

Strong fit. Long autonomous research runs that produce a cited write-up. Useful for scoping a topic before you commit to reading.

Free plan
Yes
A small number of deep research runs on the free ChatGPT tier
Month to month
$20/mo
ChatGPT Plus
Billed yearly
—
No yearly price published

Watch out: Web-first rather than database-first. Verify every citation before it enters a bibliography.

All plans (4)
PlanPriceWhat you get
Free$0A small number of deep research runs on the free ChatGPT tier
ChatGPT Plus$20/mofar more deep research runs, advanced models and Codex. Deep research is part of the ChatGPT plans, not sold separately
ChatGPT Pro$100/mo
ChatGPT Business$25/mo · $20/mo yearly$100 or $125 for a premium seat with 5x the usage
Open ChatGPT deep research Pricing and company Prices checked 4 September 2026

Claude research mode

By AnthropicSan Francisco, United States3 products across 7 categories

Strong fit. Holds long papers in context well, which suits close reading and synthesis across several full texts at once.

Free plan
Yes
Reading and summarising papers works on the free Claude tier
Month to month
$20/mo
Pro
Billed yearly
$17/mo
$200 a year, Pro plan −15%

Watch out: Not connected to indexed scholarly databases. There is no separate research plan: longer runs come with a Claude subscription.

All plans (6)
PlanPriceWhat you get
Free$0Reading and summarising papers works on the free Claude tier
Pro$20/mo · $17/mo yearlyextended multi-step research runs. Research mode is part of the Claude plans, not sold separately
Max$100/mo
Team standard seat$25/mo · $20/mo yearly
Team premium seat$125/mo · $100/mo yearly
Enterprise$20/mo
Open Claude research mode Pricing and company Prices checked 4 September 2026

Explainpaper

By ExplainpaperUnited States1 product across 1 category

Strong fit. Highlight the passage that lost you and get it explained at the level you ask for, in place, without leaving the paper.

Free plan
Yes
Free for everyone, forever, and not metered: unlimited highlight explanations, follow-up
Month to month
$16/mo
Pro
Billed yearly
$12/mo
Pro plan −25%

Watch out: Explains what a passage says rather than whether it is right, and a confident explanation of a flawed method reads exactly like a good one. The free tier is unlimited but runs on weaker models, so what you pay for is the quality of the explanation rather than more of it.

All plans (3)
PlanPriceWhat you get
Free$0Free for everyone, forever, and not metered: unlimited highlight explanations, follow-up questions and Zotero import. The limit is model quality — the free tier runs on what Explainpaper calls basic AI models
Pro$16/mo · $12/mo yearly
Teamsno price published, sold through a sales conversationeverything in Pro plus team management, priority support and volume discounts
Open Explainpaper Pricing and company Prices checked 4 September 2026

Humata

By HumataAustin, United States1 product across 1 category

Strong fit. Ask questions across a set of uploaded documents and get answers with the page they came from, which suits a folder of papers rather than one.

Free plan
Yes
Free, capped at 60 pages of use in total rather than per month, with the basic features and
Month to month
$9.99/mo
Expert
Billed yearly
—
No yearly price published

Watch out: Answers only from what you upload, so the quality of the shortlist is the quality of the answer. The free tier is 60 pages in total, and the step from Expert to Team switches from a flat rate to per user.

All plans (4)
PlanPriceWhat you get
Free$0Free, capped at 60 pages of use in total rather than per month, with the basic features and GPT-5 support
Expert$9.99/mo
Team$49/mo
EnterpriseCustompersonalised service and enterprise security for large teams
Open Humata Pricing and company Prices checked 4 September 2026

Jenni AI

By Jenni AINew York, United States1 product across 1 category

Strong fit. Writes alongside you in an academic register and inserts citations as it goes, in your reference style.

Free plan
Yes
10 AI autocompletes a day, 10 PDF uploads, 3 AI edits, 5 AI chat messages, 3 reviews, unlimited
Month to month
$30/mo
Plus
Billed yearly
$12/mo
Plus plan −60%

Watch out: A suggested citation still has to be checked against the source. The free tier is metered in autocompletes rather than words, at 10 a day, and month-to-month billing costs two and a half times the annual rate on both paid plans.

All plans (3)
PlanPriceWhat you get
Free$0Free tier: 10 AI autocompletes a day, 10 PDF uploads, 3 AI edits, 5 AI chat messages, 3 reviews, unlimited citations across more than 10,000 styles, and editor content export
Plus$30/mo · $12/mo yearly5,000 autocompletes a month, unlimited PDF uploads, 500 AI edits and 500 AI chat messages a month, 10 reviews a month, full document export and live chat support
Pro$73/mo · $29/mo yearlyunlimited autocomplete, PDF uploads, AI edits, AI chat and reviews, with full document export and priority support
Open Jenni AI Pricing and company Prices checked 4 September 2026

Kagi Assistant

By KagiPalo Alto, United States1 product across 1 category

Strong fit. Sits on top of a search engine you pay for rather than one funded by advertising, so the results behind an answer are not ranked by who bought them.

Free plan
Yes
Trial tier, 100 searches with the Assistant included, no card needed
Month to month
$5/mo
Starter
Billed yearly
$4.50/mo
$54 a year, Starter plan −10%

Watch out: The free tier is a 100-search trial. Beyond that you are buying the search subscription, and the assistant comes with it rather than being sold on its own; prices exclude sales tax.

All plans (8)
PlanPriceWhat you get
Free$0Trial tier, 100 searches with the Assistant included, no card needed
Starter$5/mo · $4.50/mo yearly300 searches a month and the Assistant in Quick mode
Professional$10/mo · $9/mo yearlyunlimited searches and a larger Assistant allowance
Ultimate$25/mo · $22.50/mo yearlyadds Research mode and flagship models
Duo$14/mo · $12.60/mo yearlytwo Professional accounts, each upgradable to Ultimate for $15 more
Family$20/mo · $18/mo yearlyProfessional for up to six people, each upgradable to Ultimate for $15 more
Team Professional$10/mo
Team Ultimate$25/mo
Open Kagi Assistant Pricing and company Prices checked 4 September 2026

Petal

By PetalCambridge, United States1 product across 1 category

Strong fit. A document library with AI built in rather than a chat window you paste into, so your sources stay organised between sessions.

Free plan
Yes
Free, with 1GB of cloud storage, one seat and three guests. Support is included rather than
Month to month
$4.25/mo
Plus
Billed yearly
$2.55/mo
Plus plan −40%

Watch out: You have to commit to keeping documents in it for the value to appear. The individual tiers are separated by storage rather than by features, and the two cheapest are priced for .edu addresses — without one they cost around two thirds more.

All plans (7)
PlanPriceWhat you get
Free$0Free, with 1GB of cloud storage, one seat and three guests. Support is included rather than priority
Plus$4.25/mo · $2.55/mo yearly$2.99 and $4.99 respectively month to month. 2GB of storage
Advanced$8.49/mo yearly$9.99 and $13.99 month to month. 10GB of storage and priority support
Premium$29.99/mo · $25.49/mo yearly
Teams Starter$59.99/mo · $50.99/mo yearly5 seats, 10 guests and 50GB
Teams Pro$119.99/mo · $101.99/mo yearly20 seats, 100 guests and 1TB
Teams EnterpriseCustom
Open Petal Pricing and company Prices checked 4 September 2026

SciSpace

By SciSpaceBengaluru, India1 product across 1 category

Strong fit. Explains a paper section by section while you read it, and will answer questions against the PDF in front of you.

Free plan
Yes
Free tier with limited papers
Month to month
$20/mo
Premium
Billed yearly
$12/mo
Premium plan −40%

Watch out: Explanations are only as good as the paper is clear, and it will paraphrase confidently past a passage it has not understood. Paid tiers are metered in credits rather than papers, and the jump from the entry tier to the next is more than five times the price.

All plans (7)
PlanPriceWhat you get
Free$0Free tier with limited papers
Premium$20/mo · $12/mo yearly1,200 credits a month, Pro model access, unlimited file downloads, deep research, systematic review and papers from Google Scholar, PubMed and arXiv
Advanced$90/mo · $70/mo yearly10,000 credits a month, ten times Premium, expert models, verified reports and unlimited refreshes at 5,000 credits each time you hit the limit
Max$200/mo · $160/mo yearly40,000 credits a month, up to 16 parallel agent chats and early feature access
Teams Premium$25/mo · $15/mo yearlythe same 1,200 credits per user, plus admin role management
Teams Advanced$100/mo · $75/mo yearly10,000 credits per user and up to 8 parallel agent chats each
Teams Max$220/mo · $175/mo yearly40,000 credits per user and 16 parallel chats each
Open SciSpace Pricing and company Prices checked 4 September 2026

Researchers pages

The rest of this page family, plus the readers next to it.

Best AI for researchers: general-purpose ai assistants

Questions, brainstorming, explanations, everyday tasks, decision-making, general advice.

Best AI for researchers: search, research & academics

Web research, deep research, books, academic papers, citations, news, fact-checking.

Best AI for researchers: writing, communication & language

Emails, reports, essays, editing, summarizing, translation, presentations.

Best AI for researchers: coding, data & technical work

Programming, debugging, data analysis, spreadsheets, math, engineering, technical research.

Best AI for students

The whole catalogue, filtered to a student.

Best AI for developers

The whole catalogue, filtered to a developer.

Best AI for beginners

The whole catalogue, filtered to a beginner.

Best AI for professionals

The whole catalogue, filtered to a working professional.

Every tool we track

All 750 products, one page each.

Questions

What is the best AI for researchers?

There is no single answer, which is why this page lists 29 rather than one. 20 of them are built for the job they are listed under. Start with a free one.

Which of these are free for researchers?

29 of the 29 have a genuine free plan: Claude, Connected Papers, Consensus, DeepL Write, Elicit, EvidenceHunt, Gemini Deep Research, Gemini Notebook, Julius AI, LanguageTool, Litmaps, OpenEvidence, Paperguide, Perplexity, Rayyan, ResearchRabbit, Scholarcy, Scite, Trinka AI, You.com, AskYourPDF, ChatGPT deep research, Claude research mode, Explainpaper, Humata, Jenni AI, Kagi Assistant, Petal, SciSpace. Free means a real free tier, not a trial.

How were these picked for researchers?

Every tool on this site is tagged with who it suits. This page is that filter, nothing more — no tool was added or promoted for being here, and placement is not for sale.