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)
Plan
Price
What you get
Free
$0
Free 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 yearly
unlimited Pro messages, 15 Deep reviews a month and unlimited access to every research tool
Deep
$65/mo · $45/mo yearly
everything 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
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)
Plan
Price
What you get
Free
$0
Free, 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/mo
the 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/mo
expanded 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/mo
the highest Gemini access and the largest source limits, for working across several big notebooks
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)
Plan
Price
What you get
Free
$0
Basic 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 yearly
standard 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 yearly
5x usage, the dedicated systematic review workflow that screens 5,000 papers, and 20 columns at a time
Academic Scale
$149/mo · $89/mo yearly
9x usage, extraction and interpretation of figures, and live real-time collaboration
Industry Pro
$75/mo · $49/mo yearly
standard usage, the systematic review workflow, 20 columns and reports drawing on up to 135 data sources
Industry Scale
$279/mo · $169/mo yearly
5x usage, figure extraction, live collaboration and up to 200 data sources
Enterprise
Custom
custom 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
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)
Plan
Price
What you get
Free
$0
Free tier with limited papers
Premium
$20/mo · $12/mo yearly
1,200 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 yearly
10,000 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 yearly
40,000 credits a month, up to 16 parallel agent chats and early feature access
Teams Premium
$25/mo · $15/mo yearly
the same 1,200 credits per user, plus admin role management
Teams Advanced
$100/mo · $75/mo yearly
10,000 credits per user and up to 8 parallel agent chats each
Teams Max
$220/mo · $175/mo yearly
40,000 credits per user and 16 parallel chats each
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)
Plan
Price
What you get
Free
$0
Free Article Summarizer: imports a range of file formats but stops at 10 summaries, and exports flashcards only one at a time
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)
Plan
Price
What you get
Free
$0
Free 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 yearly
raises the seed-article cap from 50 to 300, adds advanced search controls, multiple projects and Signals alerts
Institution
no price published, sold through a sales conversation
everything in RR+ plus volume discounts, LibKey integration with your research library, thousands of managed users, usage statistics and dedicated support
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)
Plan
Price
What you get
Free
$0
Free, 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 yearly
unlimited 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
Team
no price published on the pricing page
Pro features plus team-wide collaboration, which neither Free nor Pro includes
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)
Plan
Price
What you get
Free
$0
Free plan at $0: 5 graphs a month, with all features included
Academic
$10/mo quarterly · $6/mo yearly
unlimited graphs and every feature, for academics, non-profits and personal use
Business
$30/mo quarterly · $20/mo yearly
the same again, for business and industry
Academic Group and Business Group
$30/mo quarterly · $20/mo yearly
Academic Library
Custom
unlimited graphs for all students and staff, with email, IP and single sign-on access and zero-effort integration
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)
Plan
Price
What you get
Free
$0
Free, 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 yearly
12,500 credits a month, unlimited reference manager and systematic reviews of up to 1,000 papers
Academic Pro
$49/mo · $29/mo yearly
50,000 credits a month, systematic reviews of up to 5,000 papers and image and table extraction
Academic Evidence
$99/mo · $69/mo yearly
150,000 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
Enterprise
Custom
custom credits and systematic reviews of up to 20,000 papers
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)
Plan
Price
What you get
Free
$0
Included in the free Gemini tier, with a limited number of reports
Google AI Plus
$4.99/mo
2x the usage limits. Deep Research is part of the Google AI plans, not sold separately
Google AI Pro
$19.99/mo
4x the usage limits and the Pro model behind longer reports
Two things separate these and both are on every card.
Fit
Whether a tool is built for this job, a strong fit for it, or
able to do it without that being its focus.
Free plan
Whether there is a tier you can keep using rather than a
trial that expires.
The order
Fit first, then a free plan, then alphabetical. There is
no score, no weighting we decline to publish, and nothing on this site a company can buy.
Questions
What is the best ai for student research?
There is no single answer, which is why this page lists 13 rather than one: Consensus, Perplexity, Gemini Notebook, Elicit, SciSpace, Scholarcy, ResearchRabbit, Litmaps, Connected Papers, Paperguide, Gemini Deep Research, ChatGPT deep research, Claude research mode. 10 of them are built for this kind of work rather than able to do it. Start with a free one.
Which of these have a free plan?
13 of the 13: Consensus, Perplexity, Gemini Notebook, Elicit, SciSpace, Scholarcy, ResearchRabbit, Litmaps, Connected Papers, Paperguide, Gemini Deep Research, ChatGPT deep research, Claude research mode. Free means a real free tier you can keep using, not a trial that expires.
How was this list chosen?
By hand, from the 750 products this site tracks, and it is checked against the catalogue on every build — a product renamed or removed breaks the build rather than quietly disappearing from here. Nothing on this site can be paid for: no listing, no position, no wording.
