Connected Papers vs Open Knowledge Maps (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Open Knowledge Maps grades higher than Connected Papers: 3.0 against 2.4 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 9, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 · graded Oct 10, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
Open Knowledge Maps grades higher on value for money and the free plan. They get the same grade on features, ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Connected Papers
Visual graphs of similar academic papers for literature search
Open Knowledge Maps
Free visual maps of a research topic from open scholarly sources
Which one is for you
Pick Connected Papers if
- Fits if you have one key paper and want to see the field around it
- Works for checking a bibliography for a paper you missed, a few times a month
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you want an AI to answer questions or summarize papers, as this draws maps and stops there
- Tight if you're staying free and deep in a review, at 5 graphs a month
- Pricey if your work is commercial, since that needs Business at $20 a month billed yearly or $30 a month billed quarterly
- Watch out: prices are set by where you are, plans renew on their own, and refunds cover only overlapping coverage
- Not for you if you want it on a phone or inside other tools, as it's web only with no app, extension or API
Pick Open Knowledge Maps if
- Fits if you are new to a field and want its themes before you read anything
- Works for librarians running a discovery workshop on open sources
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you need every relevant paper, as each map holds only the top 100 results
- Not for you if you want papers ranked by quality, because it groups by metadata and does not rank
- Too light for a full literature search, since it never reads full texts
- Watch out: each map takes about 30 seconds because every query runs live
How we grade them
| 2.4GPAConnected PapersFair | 3.0GPAOpen Knowledge MapsVery good | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | BUnlimited graphs are $6 a month on Academic, the low end of this category, but that's the year paid up front at $72. Quarterly it's $10, and commercial work needs Business at $20 a month, which is the dear end here. Prices are set by where you are, so yours may differ. | AFree outright, and the site shows no paid tier for individual users. Category tools start at $7.92 a month for the cheaper quarter. |
| Free plan and trial | CEvery feature is in the free plan. The problem is the count: 5 graphs a month. Two or three sittings with a new topic and that's the month gone, so it's a cap you will hit. | AEvery map is free with no plan to move up to, and the site shows no cap a normal person would hit. |
| Features | CIt does its own job fully: each graph is built from about 50,000 papers, with views for the prior works and for what came after, more starting papers if you want them, and a .bib download. But drawing a citation map is a smaller job than this category's. Nothing here reads a paper for you. | CBuilds topic maps from BASE, PubMed and OpenAIRE records. It does that job fully, but it is a small job: the top 100 results only, metadata not full text. |
| Ease of use | BNo App Store rating on record, so this rests on what the listing shows: paste a DOI, an arXiv link or just a title and the graph appears, with nothing to install and no account to connect. Similar papers sit close together, so there's little to learn. | BNo store rating on record, but you type a topic and wait about 30 seconds for the map. Nothing to set up. |
| Platforms and integrations | CWeb and nothing else. The listing shows no phone app, no extension and no API. It reads Semantic Scholar's corpus and takes arXiv and PubMed links, but that's where it gets its papers, not somewhere you plug it in. The .bib download is your only way out. | CWeb only. BASE, PubMed, OpenAIRE and ORCID are where the records come from, and no API is listed. |
| Best for | seeing a research field as a map | a free visual map of an unfamiliar research topic |
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: Connected Papers and Open Knowledge Maps. How we grade
Price against what you get
Connected Papers starts at $6 a month and scores 2.3 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Open Knowledge Maps has no paid plan and scores 2.3.
They score the same, and Open Knowledge Maps starts $6 a month lower. Of the other AI research tools on the chart, 6 score higher than Connected Papers for less, and none scores higher than Open Knowledge Maps for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Connected Papers also covers citations.
- Open Knowledge Maps also covers mind mapping.
At a glance
| Connected Papers | Open Knowledge Maps | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free |
| Starts at | $6 per month, billed annually ($72) | Free |
| Free plan | 5 graphs per month with every feature included, among them prior and derivative works, multi-origin graphs, saved papers and graph history. | None |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Connected Papers | Open Knowledge Maps |
| Price read from | web.archive.org (not the vendor's own page) | openknowledgemaps.org |
| Checked | Oct 9, 2026 | Nov 13, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Connected Papers
- Free accounts are limited to 5 graphs per month; unlimited graphs need a paid plan.
- Prices are set by visitor location. The US prices here come from an Internet Archive copy of the pricing page's own price data, captured on October 1, 2026.
- The Academic plan is restricted to academic, non-profit and personal use; for-profit work needs the Business plan.
- Subscriptions run for a full year or quarter and renew automatically, and the terms allow refunds only for overlapping coverage.
Open Knowledge Maps
- Each map uses only the top 100 results, so important papers can be missing from it.
- Maps take around 30 seconds to build, because each query is processed live.
- Grouping uses metadata, not full text, and it does not rank papers by quality.
Key features
Connected Papers
- Similarity graphs
- Each graph is built by analyzing about 50,000 papers and keeping the few dozen most strongly connected to the origin paper, arranged so that similar papers sit close together.
- Prior and derivative works
- The Prior Works view lists important ancestor papers in the field, and the Derivative Works view lists literature reviews and recent papers that followed the origin paper.
- Multi-origin graphs
- A paper found in a graph can be added as another origin, so that one graph is built around several starting papers instead of one.
- Saved papers and graph history
- Papers can be saved to a list and earlier graphs reopened from a history. Graphs, saved papers and history can each be downloaded as a .bib file.
- Search by title or identifier
- Start a graph from keywords, a paper title, a DOI, or a paper URL from arXiv, Semantic Scholar or PubMed.
- Group plans
- On group plans, administrators assign premium access to members from a pool of purchased seats on one invoice, at the same price per seat. Seats added mid-cycle are charged pro rata.
Open Knowledge Maps
- Topic maps
- A search produces an interactive map of the top 100 results, grouped by topic similarity into labeled areas you can open.
- Open data sources
- Maps are built from BASE, PubMed and OpenAIRE records, with BASE covering more than 400 million outputs from over 11,000 sources.
- Open access emphasis
- Open access resources are highlighted, and most can be read inside the interface or are one click from the full text.
- Metadata-only grouping
- Clusters come from titles, abstracts, authors, journals and subject keywords, not from reading full texts; the site says it has no hallucinations.
- Custom services for organizations
- Institutions can embed Open Knowledge Maps' discovery tools in their own systems through a separate offering.
Plans
Connected Papers
Free$0
5 graphs per month, with all features included.
Academic$6
per month, billed annually ($72); $10 billed quarterly ($30)
Unlimited graphs for academics, non-profits and personal use. Commercial use is not allowed on this plan.
Business$20
per month, billed annually ($240); $30 billed quarterly ($90)
Unlimited graphs for commercial use in business and industry.
Open Knowledge Maps
Free$0
Create knowledge maps from the search page; the site shows no paid tier for individual users.
Ways to pay less
Connected Papers
- Annual discount
Annual billing costs up to 40% less
Academic works out to $6 a month billed annually against $10 billed quarterly, and Business to $20 against $30. The pricing page offers both billing cycles.
- Other savings
Scholarship program for those who cannot pay
The pricing FAQ says researchers who cannot afford a subscription can email the scholarships address to request a discounted or free Premium plan.
- By country
Lower price shown to buyers in India
On October 9, 2026 the pricing page showed Academic at $3 a month, billed annually ($36), to a reader in India. Its US price data, archived on October 1, 2026, gives $72 a year ($6 a month).
Open Knowledge Maps
No public discounts listed.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Connected Papers or Open Knowledge Maps?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Open Knowledge Maps is cheaper to start with: it is free, against $6 a month for Connected Papers. Connected Papers starts at $6 per month, billed annually ($72), and Open Knowledge Maps is free.
Which has a free plan, Connected Papers or Open Knowledge Maps?
As of Nov 13, 2026, both Connected Papers and Open Knowledge Maps have a free plan.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.