genei vs Scholarcy (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Scholarcy 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
Scholarcy grades higher on value for money, ease of use and platforms. They get the same grade on the free plan and features.
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
Scholarcy
Summarizes research papers into interactive flashcards
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 Scholarcy if
- Fits if you have a stack of papers and need to decide which ones to read in full
- Works for building a literature matrix or one bibliography from many papers
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you need a tool that finds papers, as this one summarizes what you give it
- Tight if you're staying free, with 10 summaries on the pricing page or 1 a day in the FAQ, and 11 MB files
- Watch out: the 7-day trial of Plus starts billing unless you cancel first
- Not for you if you want summaries in your own language or a phone app: enhanced summaries are in English, and no app is listed
- Watch out: the site turns automated readers away, so the prices here come from archived copies from March and April 2026
How we grade them
| 2.0GPAgeneiFair | 2.6GPAScholarcyGood | |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | BScholarcy Plus is $90 a year, which works out at $7.50 a month, or $9.99 billed monthly. That sits in the cheapest quarter of this category, and summaries are unlimited. One caution: Scholarcy's site turns automated readers away, so these prices come from archived copies from March and April 2026. |
| Free plan and trial | CNo free plan, just a 14-day trial. The listing does not say whether a card is needed. | CThere's a free Article Summarizer, but its limit is given two ways: 10 summaries on the pricing page, 1 a day in the FAQ. Either way you'll hit it. Files are capped at 11 MB too, and the 7-day trial of the paid plan starts billing unless you cancel first. |
| Features | CSummaries, questions, folders, notes, references and figure extraction. The listing shows multi-document analysis and AI paraphrasing as Pro-only. | CIt summarizes: flashcards with key concepts and highlights, seven rewrite styles from school level to researcher, a comparison with earlier research, a paper's tables as one Excel file, several cards combined into a literature matrix. That's one job, though. It won't find a paper for you. |
| Ease of use | CNo store rating on record. You set up projects and folders before the notes pile up usefully. | BNo store rating on record, so B is the ceiling. There's nothing to set up, though: import a file or paste a link and a flashcard comes back, and the extensions summarise whatever page you have open. Worth knowing that enhanced summaries come out in English whatever the source language. |
| Platforms and integrations | CWeb only, with no apps or integrations 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 | summarizing PDFs and web pages for essays | 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: genei and Scholarcy. 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. Scholarcy starts at $7.50 a month when paid by the year and scores 2.7.
Scholarcy scores higher, and starts $2.15 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 2 score higher than Scholarcy 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.
At a glance
| genei | Scholarcy | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free trial | Free plan |
| Starts at | £3.99 per month, billed annually (Academic Basic) | $90 per year, or $9.99 per month billed monthly |
| Free plan | None | 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 | 14-day free trial | 7-day free trial of the paid plan; billing starts afterward unless you cancel first. |
| Web | ||
| Browser extension | ||
| Made by | genei | Scholarcy Limited |
| Price read from | genei.io | web.archive.org (not the vendor's own page) |
| 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.
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
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.
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
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.
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
genei
- Education
Academic pricing at 40% off
The pricing page has an Academic tab with Basic and Pro plans labeled as a 40% discount.
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.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, genei or Scholarcy?
As of Nov 12, 2026, genei is cheaper to start with: about $5.35 a month, against $7.50 a month when paid by the year for Scholarcy. genei starts at £3.99 per month, billed annually (Academic Basic), and Scholarcy starts at $90 per year, or $9.99 per month billed monthly.
Which has a free plan, genei or Scholarcy?
As of Nov 12, 2026, only Scholarcy has a free plan. genei does not, though it has a free trial.
Which platforms do genei and Scholarcy run on?
As of Nov 12, 2026, only Scholarcy 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.