Elicit vs Undermind

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.