Elicit vs Scholarcy
We give Elicit and Scholarcy the same GPA: 3.2 out of 4.0. Elicit grades higher on the free plan and features. Scholarcy grades higher on value for money. 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.
Elicit
AI research assistant for literature search and systematic reviews
Scholarcy
Summarizes research papers into interactive flashcards
How we grade them
| 3.2GPAElicitVery good | 3.2GPAScholarcyVery good | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | CPro is $49 a user a month billed annually, or $75 monthly, in a category where paid plans usually start around $12. Academics and nonprofits get a Plus plan at $11, but the systematic review workflow, Routines and the API all start at Pro, which is $39 even for them. Unused usage doesn't roll over. | AScholarcy Plus is $90 a year or $9.99 a month, under what tools here usually start at, and summaries are unlimited. One caution: Scholarcy's site turns automated readers away, so these prices come from archived copies of its pricing pages from March and April 2026. |
| Free plan and trial | ABasic is free with unlimited search over 138 million papers, unlimited summaries and unlimited chat with papers, plus Zotero import. Plenty of people could stop here. The Research Agent and reports are limited on Basic, and the listing can't say by how much. | BThere's a free Article Summarizer, but its limit is given two ways: 10 summaries on the pricing page and 1 summary per day in the FAQ. Either way it's small. The paid plan has a 7-day free trial, and billing starts afterwards unless you cancel first. |
| Features | ASearch that works from a question, across papers and about 545,000 clinical trials. A Research Agent that produces cited reports, tables and figures. A systematic review workflow that screens 5,000 papers on Pro, and Routines that rerun your research to catch new evidence. That's the full job. | BIt does summarising fully. Flashcards with key concepts and highlights, seven rewrite styles from school level to researcher, a comparison with earlier research, and a paper's tables pulled out as one Excel file. Several flashcards can become a literature matrix. It summarises what you bring, though. It doesn't search. |
| Ease of use | BNo App Store rating on record, so B is as high as we go. You start from a research question, not a keyword string. Watch the pricing page, though: it opens on industry rates, and the $11 plan only shows once you pick Academic. | BNo App Store rating on record, so B is as high as we go. Import a file or a link and you get a flashcard back. Good to know: the synopsis and enhanced summaries come out in English even when the source is in another language. |
| Platforms and integrations | BA web app with a Chrome extension that fetches full texts through your institution's journal access. It takes in papers from Zotero, PDFs and .ris or .bib files, and there's an API from Pro up. No phone or desktop app is listed. | BA web app with extensions for Chrome, Edge and Firefox. It imports from Zotero, Dropbox, Google Drive and OneDrive, and exports to Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Markdown for Obsidian, Roam and Notion. No phone or desktop app is on the listing. |
| Best for | systematic reviews and evidence tables | deciding which papers to read in full |
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: Elicit and Scholarcy. How we grade
Where they differ
- Elicit starts at $49 per user / month, billed annually ($11 on academic pricing). Scholarcy starts at $90 per year, or $9.99 per month billed monthly.
- Elicit also covers AI search and AI agents.
At a glance
| Elicit | Scholarcy | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Starts at | $49 per user / month, billed annually ($11 on academic pricing) | $90 per year, or $9.99 per month billed monthly |
| Free plan | Basic plan: unlimited search over 138 million papers, unlimited paper summaries and chat with papers, Zotero import, and limited Research Agent and report usage. | Free Article Summarizer: the pricing page lists a limit of 10 summaries with flashcards exported one at a time, and its FAQ gives the limit as 1 summary per day. |
| Free trial | None listed | 7-day free trial of the paid plan; billing starts afterward unless you cancel first. |
| Web | ||
| Browser extension | ||
| Made by | Elicit Research, PBC | Scholarcy Limited |
| Price read from | elicit.com | web.archive.org (not the vendor's own page) |
| Checked | Oct 5, 2026 | Oct 5, 2026 |
Who each one suits
Elicit
- Researchers running systematic reviews with screening and data extraction
- Finding papers from a research question instead of exact keywords
- Teams that need cited evidence reports to support a decision
Scholarcy
- Screening a stack of papers before deciding which to read in full
- Students who want a paper explained at a simpler reading level
- Building a literature matrix or bibliography from many papers
Worth knowing
Elicit
- The pricing page defaults to industry rates; the $11 Plus plan appears only when Academic is selected.
- The systematic review workflow, Routines and API access start at the Pro plan.
- Monthly usage does not roll over. Extra usage on Pro and Scale is billed in $100 increments, up to a limit you set.
- Real-time collaboration, extraction from figures and the admin panel need Scale or Enterprise.
Scholarcy
- Scholarcy's site turned automated readers away, so prices come from Internet Archive copies of its price data (April 2026) and pricing page (March 2026).
- The free Article Summarizer is limited to 10 summaries on the pricing page and 1 summary per day in its FAQ.
- Free accounts can import files of up to 11 MB; a subscription raises the limit to 50 MB.
- The synopsis and enhanced summaries are written in English even when the source is in another language.
Key features
Elicit
- Research Agent
- Gathers evidence from scientific databases, journals, public data sources and uploaded documents, then produces cited reports, tables, figures and slides.
- Paper and clinical trial search
- Semantic search over more than 138 million papers from Semantic Scholar, PubMed and OpenAlex, plus about 545,000 clinical trials, so a query does not depend on exact keywords.
- Research reports
- Generates research briefs through a process modeled on systematic reviews. You can change which papers and what information a report covers.
- Systematic review workflow
- Automates screening and data extraction, with a Pro workflow that can screen 5,000 papers. A Chrome extension fetches full texts through your institution's journal access.
- Library and Zotero import
- Stores sources in collections with tags so they can be reused across projects, and takes in papers from Zotero, PDFs, and .ris or .bib files.
- Routines and API
- Routines rerun Research Agent work to pick up new evidence, and an API covers search, reports and systematic reviews. Both start at the Pro plan.
Scholarcy
- Summary flashcards
- Each imported document becomes a structured flashcard with key concepts, highlights, a summary and a sidebar of important points that jump to the relevant section.
- Enhance modes
- A summary can be rewritten in seven styles, among them school level, general reader, undergrad level, researcher, a bulleted list, a one-liner or around your own question.
- Research comparison
- Shows how a study differs from, builds on, confirms or counters earlier research. References carry Scite data on how often a cited paper has been supported or disputed.
- Tables, figures and references
- Extracts figures with their captions, downloads a paper's tables as one Excel file, and exports the reference list as RIS or BibTeX for a reference manager.
- Import and browser extensions
- Takes PDF, Word, PowerPoint, HTML, XML, LaTeX and text files, article and YouTube URLs, and imports from Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive and Zotero. Extensions summarize the page you have open.
- Export and literature matrix
- Flashcards export to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, RIS and Markdown for Obsidian, Roam and Notion. Several flashcards can be combined into a literature matrix or one bibliography.
Plans
Elicit
Basic$0
Unlimited paper search, summaries and chat with papers, Zotero import, and limited Research Agent and report usage.
Pro$49
per user / month, billed annually ($588); $75 billed monthly
Standard usage, a systematic review workflow that screens 5,000 papers, 20 table columns at a time, Routines and API access.
Scale$169
per user / month, billed annually ($2,028); $279 billed monthly
5x the usage of Pro, real-time collaboration, extraction from figures, 30 table columns at a time and an admin panel with seat management.
EnterpriseCustom
Custom usage, SSO and SAML, screening of 40,000 papers, 40 extraction columns, custom data sources and unlimited API access.
Scholarcy
Free Article Summarizer$0
Imports a range of file formats, with a limit of 10 summaries and flashcards exported one at a time.
Scholarcy Plus$9.99
per month, billed monthly; $90 billed yearly
Unlimited and enhanced summaries, a saved flashcard library with notes and highlights, export of up to 100 flashcards at once and literature matrices.
Ways to pay less
Elicit
- Annual discount
Save 35% to 39% with annual billing
On industry pricing, Pro is $49 a month billed annually against $75 billed monthly, and Scale is $169 against $279. The pricing page labels these as savings of 35% and 39%.
- Education
Academic pricing from $11 per user / month
Choosing Academic on the pricing page shows Plus at $11, Pro at $39 and Scale at $89 per user / month, billed annually, or $19, $69 and $149 billed monthly.
- Nonprofit
Nonprofits can use the academic plans
Elicit has no separate nonprofit discount, but its help center says nonprofits can subscribe to the academic plans, its lowest pricing tier.
Scholarcy
- Annual discount
25% off with yearly billing
The archived pricing page labels the yearly Scholarcy Plus plan with a 25% discount: $90 a year against $9.99 a month.
