Anara vs Paperguide
We give Anara and Paperguide the same GPA: 3.2 out of 4.0. They get the same grade on all five counts.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Anara
AI research assistant that cites the exact source passage
Paperguide
AI research platform for literature and systematic reviews
How we grade them
| 3.2GPAAnaraVery good | 3.2GPAPaperguideVery good | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | BPlus is $8 a seat a month billed yearly, or $10 monthly, a bit under the $12 or so these tools usually start at. But the listing can't say how big the weekly usage limit is. Choosing your model and OCR need Pro at $16, and Deep Search needs Max at $80. | BPlus is $12 a seat a month billed annually, or $19 monthly, which is right at typical. It includes systematic reviews of up to 1,000 papers, unlimited AI searches and 12,500 AI credits a month. A university email takes 30% off, making it $8. Dual-reviewer screening is another matter: that's Evidence at $89. |
| Free plan and trial | BNo card needed, and Zotero and Mendeley connect on the free plan. AI usage refreshes every day, but nobody says how much you get. Each upload tops out at 20 MB or 120 pages, so a long book won't fit. | BFree gives you 2,000 AI credits and 20 AI searches a month, 500 MB of reference storage and extraction tables of up to 10 papers and 5 columns. Enough to learn the tool. There are no systematic reviews or shared workspaces on it, though. |
| Features | AAsk one file, a folder or your whole library, and each answer opens the exact passage behind it. The agent searches PubMed, arXiv and JSTOR, the note editor suggests citations as you write, and it reads Word, PowerPoint, EPUB, audio and video as well as PDFs. | ASearch that answers from more than 200 million papers with each claim linked to its source, a reference manager with more than 1,000 citation styles, tables that pull the same data points out of many papers, a research agent and a writer. The systematic review workflow ends in a PRISMA diagram. |
| Ease of use | BNo App Store rating on record, so B is as high as we go. Upload your files and ask. The fiddly part is the plans: usage on each one is given as a multiple of another plan's, like 4x Plus or 5x Pro, never as a number. | BNo App Store rating on record, so B is as high as we go. You ask in plain language, and it imports a Zotero or Mendeley library, so starting is painless. Credits are the thing to learn, since the AI features all draw on one monthly pool. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb, Mac, iPhone and iPad, plus a Chrome extension and an add-in for Microsoft Word. It connects to Zotero, Mendeley, Google Drive, Notion and Slack. But the desktop app is Mac only and there's no Android app. | BA web app with a browser extension. It imports from Zotero and Mendeley, connects to Claude and ChatGPT, and has a Search API with 10 requests a month on Free and 500 on Pro. No phone or desktop app is listed. |
| Best for | answers you can check against the page | search, references and reviews in one workspace |
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: Anara and Paperguide. How we grade
Where they differ
- Anara starts at $8 per seat / month, billed yearly ($10 billed monthly). Paperguide starts at $12 per seat / month, billed annually ($8 with the academic discount).
- Only Anara lists macOS and iOS apps.
- Anara also covers web clipper.
- Paperguide also covers long-form writing.
At a glance
| Anara | Paperguide | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Starts at | $8 per seat / month, billed yearly ($10 billed monthly) | $12 per seat / month, billed annually ($8 with the academic discount) |
| Free plan | a daily allowance of AI usage and uploads, files of up to 20 MB or 120 pages each, and the Zotero and Mendeley connectors. No credit card required. | 2,000 AI credits and 20 AI searches a month, 500 MB of reference storage, extraction tables of up to 10 papers and 5 columns, and 10 Search API requests a month. |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| macOS | ||
| iOS | ||
| Browser extension | ||
| Made by | Anara Labs, Inc. | Paperguide |
| Price read from | anara.com | paperguide.ai |
| Checked | Oct 5, 2026 | Oct 5, 2026 |
Who each one suits
Anara
- Researchers who want answers grounded in their own library of papers
- Working across hundreds of files and checking each claim against its source
- Zotero and Mendeley users, whose libraries import on every plan
- Writing with citations in a note editor or in Microsoft Word
Paperguide
- Teams running systematic reviews that need documented screening decisions
- Researchers who want search, references and writing in one workspace
- Students and academics, who get 30% off with a university email
- Pulling the same data points out of many papers into one table
Worth knowing
Anara
- The Free plan's AI usage limit refreshes daily, and each upload is capped at 20 MB or 120 pages.
- Choosing a model, OCR and the Google Drive, Notion and OneDrive connectors need Pro; Deep Search and Model Council need Max.
- The pricing page's scripts show the prices recorded here to visitors without a paid plan, while its initial HTML lists an earlier, higher set (Plus $10, Pro $20, billed yearly).
- The desktop app is for Mac only and there is no Android app. Anara's FAQ says it does not currently offer a student discount.
Paperguide
- The Free plan has no systematic reviews or shared workspaces and is limited to 20 AI searches and 2,000 AI credits a month.
- AI features draw on a monthly credit pool: 12,500 on Plus, 50,000 on Pro and 150,000 on Evidence.
- Dual-reviewer screening for systematic reviews needs the Evidence plan, at $89 per seat / month billed annually.
- Image and table extraction is marked as coming soon on the pricing page.
Key features
Anara
- Chat across your library
- Ask questions of a single file, hundreds of files in a folder or the entire library. Anara says one conversation can work across up to 10,000 files.
- Answers cited to the passage
- Every answer carries inline citations that open the exact passage in the source document, in numbered form or an academic citation style.
- Agent and paper search
- The agent searches your library, the web and academic databases such as PubMed, arXiv and JSTOR, then returns a cited synthesis. It can also import files and reorganize folders on request.
- Write and cite
- The note editor matches your writing to your library and the web to suggest citations, and builds formatted reference lists. An add-in brings the same tools into Microsoft Word.
- File handling
- Reads PDF, Word, PowerPoint, Markdown, EPUB, images, audio and video; audio and video are transcribed automatically. OCR for scanned documents is part of Pro and above.
- Deep Search and Model Council
- On the Max plans, Deep Search runs multi-step research across your library and the web, and Model Council puts one question to several models at once.
Paperguide
- AI Search
- Ask a research question in plain language and get a synthesized answer drawn from more than 200 million papers, with each claim linked to its source.
- Systematic reviews
- Screens papers against a predefined protocol with cited evidence for each criterion, then produces verified extraction tables, a report and a PRISMA diagram. Dual-reviewer screening is on the Evidence plan.
- Reference manager
- Imports from Zotero or Mendeley, or by DOI, URL, PDF, BibTeX or RIS, fetches metadata and open-access PDFs, and formats citations in more than 1,000 styles.
- Extract Data
- You define the columns and the AI fills them across the selected papers, with every value linked to the statement it came from. Tables export to CSV or Excel.
- Research Agent
- Investigates a topic across the paper database and your library, answers questions about one or several PDFs, and can generate a literature review of up to 50 papers.
- AI Writer
- Drafts and edits documents with citations from your library and the paper database, and exports them as Word, PDF or LaTeX files.
Plans
Anara
Free$0
Limited AI usage that refreshes daily, uploads of up to 20 MB or 120 pages each, and Zotero and Mendeley connectors.
Plus$8
per seat / month, billed yearly ($96); $10 billed monthly
A larger weekly usage limit, credits for extra usage, uploads of up to 100 MB or 600 pages, science database connectors and 5 collaborators per folder.
Pro$16
per seat / month, billed yearly ($192); $20 billed monthly
4x the usage of Plus, a choice of every AI model, uploads of up to 300 MB or 10,000 pages, OCR, cloud storage connectors and 50 collaborators per folder.
Max 5x$80
per seat / month, billed yearly ($960); $100 billed monthly
5x the usage of Pro, plus Deep Search, Model Council, uploads with no size or page limit and unlimited folder collaborators.
Max 20x$160
per seat / month, billed yearly ($1,920); $200 billed monthly
The same features as Max 5x with 20x the usage of Pro.
EnterpriseCustom
SSO/SAML and SCIM provisioning, SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 certified security, SharePoint live sync and a shared Slack channel for support.
Paperguide
Free$0
2,000 AI credits and 20 AI searches a month, 500 MB of reference storage, and extraction tables of up to 10 papers and 5 columns.
Plus$12
per seat / month, billed annually ($144); $19 billed monthly
12,500 AI credits a month, systematic reviews of up to 1,000 papers, unlimited AI searches and reference storage, and shared workspaces.
Pro$29
per seat / month, billed annually ($348); $49 billed monthly
50,000 AI credits a month, systematic reviews of up to 5,000 papers and 500 Search API requests a month.
Evidence$89
per seat / month, billed annually ($1,068); $149 billed monthly
150,000 AI credits a month, PRISMA-grade dual-reviewer screening, a dedicated support channel and 1,500 Search API requests a month.
EnterpriseCustom
Custom AI credits, systematic reviews of up to 20,000 papers, dual-reviewer screening and a dedicated support channel.
Ways to pay less
Anara
- Annual discount
Save 20% with yearly billing
Billed yearly, Plus is $8 a seat per month against $10 billed monthly, Pro is $16 against $20 and Max 5x is $80 against $100. The pricing page labels the yearly option as a 20% saving.
Paperguide
- Annual discount
Save up to 41% with yearly billing
Billed yearly, Plus is $12 a seat per month against $19 billed monthly, Pro is $29 against $49 and Evidence is $89 against $149. The pricing page labels the saving as 41%.
- Education
30% academic discount with a university email
Verifying a university email takes 30% off: Plus becomes $8, Pro $20 and Evidence $62 per seat / month billed yearly, or $13, $34 and $104 billed monthly.
