genei vs Paperguide (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Paperguide grades higher than genei: 2.6 against 2.0 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 5, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 · graded Oct 10, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA
Paperguide grades higher on features and platforms. They get the same grade on value for money, the free plan and ease of use.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
genei
Summarizes PDFs and web pages and keeps research organized
Paperguide
AI research platform for literature and systematic reviews
Which one is for you
Pick genei if
- Fits if you're a student who wants summaries and references in one place
- Works for someone who builds essay notes from many PDFs and pages
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you want a free plan, as there's only a 14-day trial
- Pricey if you need multi-document analysis or paraphrasing, which sit on Pro at £24.99 a month yearly
- Watch out: prices are in pounds, so the dollar cost moves with the rate
- Watch out: the homepage promotes a separate tool, CoLoop, for qualitative analysis
Pick Paperguide if
- Fits if your team runs systematic reviews and needs every screening decision documented
- Works for students and academics, who get 30% off with a university email
Look elsewhere if
- Tight if you're staying free, with 20 AI searches and 2,000 credits a month, and no systematic reviews or shared workspaces
- Pricey if you need dual-reviewer screening, which sits on Evidence at $89 a seat a month billed annually
- Watch out: every AI feature draws on one monthly credit pool, 12,500 on Plus and 50,000 on Pro
- Skip it if you were counting on image and table extraction, as that's still marked coming soon
- Not for you if you want a phone or desktop app, as only a web app and browser extension are listed
How we grade them
| 2.0GPAgeneiFair | 2.6GPAPaperguideGood | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | CBasic is £7.99 a month billed yearly (£9.99 monthly), about the category's $10 middle. Pro is £24.99. The academic discount drops Basic to £3.99, but only for those who qualify. | CPlus is $12 a seat a month billed annually, or $19 monthly, which is the middle of this category exactly. It does carry systematic reviews of up to 1,000 papers, unlimited AI searches and 12,500 credits a month, and a university email takes 30% off. Dual-reviewer screening is another matter: Evidence, at $89. |
| Free plan and trial | CNo free plan, just a 14-day trial. The listing does not say whether a card is needed. | CFree 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, not to run a project on: there are no systematic reviews and no shared workspaces. |
| Features | CSummaries, questions, folders, notes, references and figure extraction. The listing shows multi-document analysis and AI paraphrasing as Pro-only. | ATwo parts rivals like Elicit and Consensus don't list: screening that ends in a PRISMA diagram with dual-reviewer checking, and a full reference manager with 1,000-plus citation styles. Then AI search across 200 million papers, extraction tables, an agent and a writer. |
| Ease of use | CNo store rating on record. You set up projects and folders before the notes pile up usefully. | CNo store rating on record, and the work is front-loaded: a protocol to define for screening, columns to set up for extraction, and one monthly credit pool that every AI feature draws on. It does import a Zotero or Mendeley library, so your references don't start from nothing. |
| Platforms and integrations | CWeb only, with no apps or integrations listed. | BA web app with a browser extension, plus a Search API at 10 requests a month on Free and 500 on Pro. It imports from Zotero and Mendeley and connects to Claude and ChatGPT. No phone or desktop app is listed, so that API is what earns the B. |
| Best for | summarizing PDFs and web pages for essays | 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: genei and Paperguide. How we grade
Price against what you get
genei starts at about $5.35 a month and scores 2.0 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Paperguide starts at $12 a month for each person and scores 3.0.
Paperguide scores higher, and starts $6.65 a month higher: the question is whether the extra is worth that to you. Of the other AI research tools on the chart, 4 score higher than genei for less, and none scores higher than Paperguide 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
- genei also covers notes and documents.
- Paperguide also covers chat assistant, AI search, AI agents and long-form writing.
At a glance
| genei | Paperguide | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free trial | Free plan |
| Starts at | £3.99 per month, billed annually (Academic Basic) | $12 per seat / month, billed annually ($8 with the academic discount) |
| Free plan | None | 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 | 14-day free trial | None listed |
| Web | ||
| Browser extension | ||
| Made by | genei | Paperguide |
| Price read from | genei.io | paperguide.ai |
| Checked | Nov 12, 2026 | Oct 5, 2026 |
Worth knowing
genei
- Prices are shown in pounds sterling.
- Multidocument analysis and AI paraphrasing are Pro only.
- The homepage promotes a separate qualitative analysis tool, CoLoop.
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
genei
- AI summaries
- Summarizes documents and web pages and extracts keywords to speed up background reading.
- Question mode
- Ask questions and have the AI find answers across your documents; GPT-3 search is on Pro.
- Projects and folders
- Store documents in customizable projects with unlimited resources on both plan tiers.
- Notes and references
- Cloud notes and annotations, note linking and automatic reference generation.
- Multidocument analysis
- Pro analyzes several documents together.
- Figure and table extraction
- Pulls graphs, figures and tables out of documents.
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
genei
Basic£9.99
per month (£7.99 billed annually)
Summaries, keywords, notes, reference generation; files up to 5 GB.
Pro£29.99
per month (£24.99 billed annually)
Adds multi-document analysis, AI expand and paraphrase, and GPT-3 search and questions.
Academic Basic£4.99
per month (£3.99 billed annually)
Basic features at the academic discount.
Academic Pro£19.99
per month (£15.99 billed annually)
Pro features at the academic discount.
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
genei
- Education
Academic pricing at 40% off
The pricing page has an Academic tab with Basic and Pro plans labeled as a 40% discount.
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.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, genei or Paperguide?
As of Nov 12, 2026, genei starts at £3.99 per month, billed annually (Academic Basic), and Paperguide starts at $12 per seat / month, billed annually ($8 with the academic discount). 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, genei or Paperguide?
As of Nov 12, 2026, only Paperguide has a free plan. genei does not, though it has a free trial.
Which platforms do genei and Paperguide run on?
As of Nov 12, 2026, only Paperguide 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.