AI research tools
Search engines and paper readers that answer with sources you can check. Useful for students, analysts and anyone who needs citations, not just answers. We note which ones search academic databases and which ones search the open web.
| What it does | Free plan | Tested by us | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Consensus | Search engine that answers questions from peer-reviewed papers. | Free$12/mo | ✓ | — | |
| Elicit | Research assistant that finds papers and pulls data out of them. | Free$49/mo | ✓ | — | |
| Gemini | Google AI assistant tied into Search, Gmail and Docs. | Free$4.99/mo | ✓ | — | |
| Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM) | Google's source-grounded research notebook, formerly called NotebookLM. | Free | ✓ | — | |
| Paperpal | Academic writing assistant for essays, theses and journal papers. | Free$12/mo | ✓ | — | |
| Perplexity | Answer engine that searches the web and cites every source. | Free$17/mo | ✓ | — | |
| ResearchRabbit | Maps related papers and authors from a few starting articles. | Free$10/mo | ✓ | — | |
| scite | Shows whether later papers support or dispute a study's claims. | Trial | — | — |
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