Ai2 Asta vs Undermind
We give Ai2 Asta a 3.4 GPA and Undermind a 3.2, out of 4.0. Ai2 Asta grades higher on value for money and the free plan. Undermind grades higher on features. They get the same grade on ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Undermind
AI literature search agent that reads hundreds of papers
How we grade them
| 3.4GPAAi2 AstaVery good | 3.2GPAUndermindVery good | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | AIt's free. Ai2 is a nonprofit and offers no paid plans, so there's nothing to weigh up here. Tools like this usually start around $12 a month. | BAt the academic rate, Pro is $16 a month billed annually or $20 monthly, a little over typical for the category. It adds full-text analysis, the newest AI models and 10x higher usage limits. The industry rate is another world: $60 a month billed annually for the same Pro. |
| Free plan and trial | AAll three agents work without an account, and signing in (also free) keeps your history. Two limits to know: a data exploration goes read-only after 24 hours, and uploaded datasets are deleted after 7 days. | BFree includes chat, deep searches, reports, shared workspaces and agent connections, which is a lot of the product. But its rate limits are only called standard, with no numbers given. And free searches cover abstracts and metadata, not full texts. |
| Features | BFind papers gives a reason for each result, reports carry inline citations with excerpts, and Analyze data writes and runs Python on your files. It searches about 108 million abstracts and 12 million full-text papers. But the getting started guide says reports only draw on four fields. | AA deep search reads and evaluates hundreds of papers from a database of over 200 million, follows citation trails and comes back with a report whose statements carry in-line citations. Then you can chat with an assistant grounded in those papers, build custom tables and get alerts when new work is published. |
| Ease of use | BThere's no App Store rating to go on, so B is as high as we go. Nothing to install and no sign-up needed: open the page and type a question. Uncited text in a report is labelled as model-generated, which helps. | BNo App Store rating on record, so B is as high as we go. You describe your research in plain language and answer a few follow-up questions. Then you wait: a typical deep search takes about 2 minutes, so it isn't instant. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb only, with no phone app or extension on the listing. It ties into Semantic Scholar, though, and Ai2 publishes the agents as open source, so developers can run their own copy. | BA web app, with an MCP server so Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and VS Code can run Undermind searches for you. Connecting agents is included in the Free plan. No phone or desktop app is on the listing. |
| Best for | free paper search that explains its picks | hard questions keyword search can't crack |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Ai2 Asta and Undermind. How we grade
Where they differ
- Ai2 Asta is free. Undermind starts at $16 per month, billed annually, at the academic rate ($60 for industry).
- Ai2 Asta is open source and self-hostable, according to its own site.
- Undermind also covers chat assistant.
At a glance
| Ai2 Asta | Undermind | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free | Free plan |
| Starts at | Free | $16 per month, billed annually, at the academic rate ($60 for industry) |
| Free plan | No paid plans are offered. The three agents can be used without an account; signing in saves queries and results so they can be reopened later. | Chat, deep searches and reports with standard rate limits, shared workspaces and agent connections. Searches cover abstracts and metadata, not full texts. |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Allen Institute for AI (Ai2) | Undermind AI, Inc. |
| Price read from | asta.allen.ai | undermind.ai |
| Checked | Oct 5, 2026 | Oct 5, 2026 |
Who each one suits
Ai2 Asta
- Researchers who want a stated reason for each paper a search returns
- Getting a cited overview of a question that spans many papers
- Exploring a tabular dataset with analysis code that stays visible
- Developers building or evaluating scientific AI agents
Undermind
- Complex research questions where keyword search misses relevant papers
- Academics, who pay $16 a month on annual billing instead of the $60 industry rate
- People who want literature search inside Claude, ChatGPT or a coding agent
- R&D teams tracking new publications in specific technical areas
Worth knowing
Ai2 Asta
- Ai2 publishes no pricing page; the app runs without an account, and its credit panel lists no credit cost for the three main agents.
- The getting started guide says Generate a report searches computer science, medicine, environmental science and biology papers.
- Data explorations stay active for 24 hours and then become read-only, and uploaded datasets are deleted after 7 days.
- Ai2 says not to upload sensitive or regulated data to the hosted version; that requires a self-hosted deployment.
Undermind
- Free-tier searches read abstracts and metadata only; full-text search of open-access papers and preprints needs Pro.
- Industry pricing is far higher than academic: Pro is $60 a month billed annually against $16.
- A deep search typically takes about 2 minutes to finish, so results are not instant.
- Charges are non-refundable once a billing period has begun, except where the law requires a refund.
Key features
Ai2 Asta
- Find papers
- Breaks a query into parts, searches, follows citations and judges relevance, then lists papers with a note on why each fits. A slower deep search mode handles complex questions.
- Generate a report
- Answers questions that need many papers with a structured report: expandable sections, comparison tables and inline citations with excerpts. Uncited text is labeled as model-generated.
- Analyze data
- Upload CSV, TSV, Excel, JSON, HDF5 or Parquet data and ask questions in plain language. Asta writes and runs Python and returns findings with charts, the code and a methods section.
- Follow-ups and sharing
- Reports can be refined over several turns, with specific papers referenced by an @ mention. A Share button copies a link to the results of any query.
- AstaLabs prototypes
- Hosted previews include AutoDiscovery, which generates and tests hypotheses on a dataset, and Paper + Figure QA, which answers questions about figures and tables in papers.
- Open-source agents and AstaBench
- Ai2 publishes open-source versions of the agents behind the three tools, along with AstaBench, a benchmark suite and leaderboard for scientific AI agents.
Undermind
- Deep literature search
- You describe a research goal in plain language and answer follow-up questions. Undermind then reads and evaluates hundreds of papers and follows citation trails; a typical search takes about 2 minutes.
- Reports with in-line citations
- Findings come back as a report in which statements carry in-line citations that lead to the source paper, alongside a paper list you can sort and filter to judge relevance.
- Chat and custom tables
- After a search you can brainstorm with an assistant grounded in the papers it found, extract details from full texts and generate custom tables.
- Alerts for new papers
- Undermind keeps track of your areas of interest and notifies you when relevant papers are published.
- Agent connections over MCP
- An MCP server lets assistants and coding agents such as Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and VS Code run Undermind searches. Connecting agents is included in the Free plan.
- Full-text search on Pro
- The Free tier searches abstracts and metadata. Pro adds compute to search the full texts of nearly all open-access and preprint articles.
Plans
Ai2 Asta
Free$0
Find papers, Generate a report and Analyze data, usable anonymously or with a free sign-in that keeps a history of queries.
Undermind
Free$0
Chat, deep searches and reports with standard rate limits, shared workspaces and agent connections over MCP.
Pro (Academic)$16
per month, billed annually ($192); $20 billed monthly
The newest AI models, full-text analysis, 10x higher usage limits, and unlimited workspaces, files and paper libraries.
Pro (Industry)$60
per month, billed annually ($720); $75 billed monthly
The same Pro features at the industry rate.
Team (Academic)$15
per person / month, billed annually; $18.70 billed monthly
From 3 seats. Pro features plus member management, priority support and central billing. Falls to $12.50 per person at 60 or more seats.
Team (Industry)$60
per person / month, billed annually; $75 billed monthly
From 3 seats at the industry rate, with member management, priority support and central billing.
EnterpriseCustom
Increased compute, sitewide organizational login, an admin dashboard, onboarding seminars, and custom terms, SLA and security review.
Ways to pay less
Ai2 Asta
No public discounts listed.
Undermind
- Annual discount
Save 20% with annual billing
Pro is $16 a month billed annually against $20 billed monthly at the academic rate, and $60 against $75 at the industry rate. The pricing section labels this a 20% saving.
- Education
Academic pricing from $16 a month
Choosing Academic in the pricing section shows Pro at $16 a month billed annually or $20 billed monthly, against $60 and $75 under Industry.
- Other savings
Volume pricing on academic Team plans
On annual billing the academic Team price per person is $15 for 3 to 10 seats, $14.17 for 11 to 25, $13.33 for 30 to 50 and $12.50 for 60 to 200.
