Elicit vs SciSummary (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, we pick Elicit: it is first in our ranking of AI research tools, and it grades higher too, 2.4 against 2.2.
Checked Nov 9, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 · graded Nov 9, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA
Elicit grades higher on the free plan and features. SciSummary 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
SciSummary
AI summaries, figure explanations and chat for scientific papers
Which one is for you
Pick Elicit if
- Fits if you're running a systematic review and want the screening and data extraction automated
- Works for students and casual readers, since free search, summaries and paper chat are unlimited
Look elsewhere if
- Pricey if you're outside a university, with Pro at $49 a user a month billed yearly and $75 monthly
- Skip it if you want real-time collaboration or extraction from figures on a budget, as both need Scale at $229 a user a month billed yearly, $375 monthly
- Tight if your workload is lumpy, because monthly usage doesn't roll over and extra is billed in $100 steps
- Watch out: the pricing page opens on industry rates, and the $11 academic Plus plan shows only once you switch
- Too light for phone or desktop use, with a web app and Chrome extension only, and an integration list that stops at Zotero
Pick SciSummary if
- Fits if you read scientific papers and want the figures explained
- Works for someone who searches PubMed and arXiv and wants one library
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you want a free plan, as only a 7-day capped trial exists
- Pricey if you read the vendor's own pages: they disagree between $12.50 and $4 a month
- Watch out: the trial caps summaries at 30,000 words, 5 figures and 100 chat messages
- Watch out: uploads are capped at 200 MB, and there's no desktop or mobile app
How we grade them
| 2.4GPAElicitFair | 2.2GPASciSummaryFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | DPro is $49 a user a month billed annually, $75 monthly, where paid plans in this category usually start around $12. Everything you'd come for sits up there: the review workflow, Routines, the API. Academic pricing only brings Pro to $39, and unused usage doesn't roll over. | C$12.50 a month billed yearly or $15 monthly, at the upper end of a category whose middle is $10. The homepage and the site's llms.txt file list different prices ($4 and $7), so the figure is unclear. |
| Free plan and trial | BBasic costs nothing and gives you unlimited search over 138 million papers, unlimited summaries and unlimited chat with papers, plus Zotero import. One person could really live on that. The Research Agent and reports are capped on Basic, and the listing can't say by how much. | CNo free plan. A 7-day trial is capped at 30,000 words of summaries, 5 figures and 100 chat messages, and non-AI features are free with no card. |
| Features | BIt covers the whole job: search from a question across papers and 545,000 clinical trials, cited reports with tables and figures, screening and data extraction for a systematic review, a Zotero library, Routines and an API. Rivals here run systematic reviews too, so there's no trick that's Elicit's alone. | CSummaries, figure analysis, chat, a library with folders and tags, and an API. Uploads are capped at 200 MB per file, and larger files may fail. |
| Ease of use | CNo store rating on record, and this isn't a box you type into and walk away from: there are screening workflows, extraction columns and a monthly usage pool to watch. The pricing page doesn't help, opening on industry rates with the $11 academic plan hidden until you switch. | CNo store rating on record. There's a library with folders and tags to organize before it earns its keep. |
| Platforms and integrations | BA web app plus a Chrome extension that fetches full texts through your institution's journal access, and it takes in Zotero, PDFs and .ris or .bib files. The integration list stops at Zotero though, the API starts at Pro, and there's no phone or desktop app. | BWeb only, with PubMed, arXiv and ChatGPT, plus API and agent access. |
| Best for | systematic reviews and evidence tables | summaries and figure explanations of scientific papers |
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 SciSummary. How we grade
Price against what you get
Elicit starts at $49 a month for each person and scores 2.7 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. SciSummary starts at $12.50 a month and scores 2.3.
Elicit scores higher, and starts $36.50 a month higher: the question is whether the extra is worth that to you. Of the other AI research tools on the chart, 6 score higher than Elicit for less, and 16 score higher than SciSummary 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
- Elicit also covers AI search and AI agents.
- SciSummary also covers chat assistant.
At a glance
| Elicit | SciSummary | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free trial |
| Starts at | $49 per user / month, billed annually ($11 on academic pricing) | $12.50 per month, billed yearly ($15 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. | None |
| Free trial | None listed | 7-day free trial of the AI tools, limited to 30,000 words of summaries, 5 analyzed figures and 100 chat messages. |
| Web | ||
| Browser extension | ||
| Made by | Elicit Research, PBC | Ariso |
| Price read from | elicit.com | scisummary.com |
| Checked | Nov 9, 2026 | Nov 12, 2026 |
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.
SciSummary
- The homepage shows $12.50 a month billed yearly and $15 billed monthly, but the site's llms.txt file lists $4 and $7 a month, so the vendor's own pages disagree.
- The 7-day trial caps summaries at 30,000 words, 5 figures and 100 chat messages; non-AI features are free without a card.
- Only a web version is described, with no desktop or mobile app.
- Uploads are capped at 200 MB per file, and the FAQ says larger files may fail.
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.
SciSummary
- Structured summaries
- Breaks a paper into labeled sections and can summarize several papers into one combined summary, or compare papers with AI.
- Figure analysis
- Explains figures, tables and charts, including statistics such as p-values, confidence intervals and effect sizes.
- Chat with papers
- Ask questions of one paper, or of the whole library through semantic search and chat.
- Library with folders and tags
- Papers can be organized into folders and tags, and imported from a PDF, DOI, PubMed ID, arXiv ID or URL.
- API and agent access
- A REST API for bulk summarization, an MCP server and a command-line tool are described on the site's developer pages.
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$229
per user / month, billed annually ($2,748); $375 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.
SciSummary
Pro Plan$12.50
per month, billed yearly ($15 billed monthly)
Unlimited summaries, figure analysis, chat messages and article searches, and semantic search over 1,000 indexed documents. Yearly billing is $150 a year.
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 $229 against $375. 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.
SciSummary
- Annual discount
Yearly billing at $150
The homepage shows the Pro Plan at $12.50 a month billed as $150 a year, labeled Save $30 a year against $15 a month billed monthly.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Elicit or SciSummary?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Elicit starts at $49 per user / month, billed annually ($11 on academic pricing), and SciSummary starts at $12.50 per month, billed yearly ($15 billed monthly). One is priced for each person and the other is not, so which costs less depends on how many of you use it.
Which has a free plan, Elicit or SciSummary?
As of Nov 12, 2026, only Elicit has a free plan. SciSummary does not, though it has a free trial.
Which platforms do Elicit and SciSummary run on?
As of Nov 12, 2026, only Elicit lists a browser extension. Both list a web app. A platform missing from a listing is one its maker's pages did not mention.
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.