Iris.ai vs Undermind (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Undermind grades higher than Iris.ai: 2.2 against 1.6 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 5, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 · graded Oct 10, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA
Iris.ai grades higher on value for money. Undermind grades higher on the free plan, ease of use and platforms. They get the same grade on features.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Undermind
AI literature search agent that reads hundreds of papers
Which one is for you
Pick Iris.ai if
- Fits if your company needs data pulled out of large piles of technical documents
- Makes sense if you're an R&D team happy to buy through a demo
Look elsewhere if
- Not for you if you want a price, as none is published and pricing couldn't be verified
- Skip it if you're an individual researcher, since the products are for enterprises
- Watch out: no free tier or trial is listed
- Watch out: no apps or integrations are listed
Pick Undermind if
- Fits if your question is too tangled for keyword search to find the right papers
- Works for academics, who pay $16 a month on annual billing against $60 for industry
Look elsewhere if
- Pricey if you work in industry: Pro is $60 a month billed annually ($75 monthly), and Team is $60 a seat from 3 seats
- Tight if you're staying free and need full texts read, since free searches cover abstracts and metadata only
- Not for you if you want an answer in seconds, as a deep search takes about 2 minutes
- Watch out: the free plan's rate limits have no published numbers, and charges aren't refunded once a billing period starts
- Skip it if you want a phone or desktop app, or writing tools, as it's a web app for searching
How we grade them
| 1.6GPAIris.aiWeak | 2.2GPAUndermindFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | CNo price is published and every product is sold through a demo request. There is nothing to compare against the category's $10 middle, so it sits at C. | DPro at the academic rate is $16 a month billed annually, or $20 monthly, which already puts it in the dearest tenth of a category whose middle is $10. Industry is another world: $60 a month billed annually for the same Pro, five times the dear end here. |
| Free plan and trial | FNothing free on record: no free plan and no trial. | CFree covers chat, deep searches, reports, shared workspaces and agent connections. The rate limits are only described as standard, with no numbers given, and free searches read abstracts and metadata rather than full texts. |
| Features | CData extraction, industry templates, an enterprise knowledge engine and R&D search. The listing doesn't show a gap, but it also doesn't show what a single researcher would get. | CA deep search reads and ranks hundreds of papers from a database of over 200 million, follows citation trails and comes back with a report carrying in-line citations, then chat, custom tables and alerts. Searching is all it does: no reading tools, no writing. |
| Ease of use | CNo store rating on record. Deploying on your own data means setup work. | BNo store rating on record, so B is the ceiling. There's nothing to configure, though: describe what you're working on in plain language, answer a few follow-up questions, and it goes off to read. Then you wait, because a deep search takes about 2 minutes. |
| Platforms and integrations | CWeb only, with no integrations or apps on the listing. | BA web app, with an MCP server so Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, VS Code and Copilot can run Undermind searches for you, and that's included on the Free plan. No phone or desktop app is on the listing. |
| Best for | enterprise teams turning documents into AI-ready data | hard questions keyword search can't crack |
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: Iris.ai and Undermind. How we grade
Where they differ
- Iris.ai also covers documents.
- Undermind also covers chat assistant, AI search and citations.
At a glance
| Iris.ai | Undermind | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Paid | Free plan |
| Starts at | Not published | $16 per month, billed annually, at the academic rate ($60 for industry) |
| Free plan | None | Chat, deep searches and reports with standard rate limits, shared workspaces and agent connections. Searches cover abstracts and metadata, not full texts. |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Iris.ai AS | Undermind AI, Inc. |
| Price read from | Not confirmed | undermind.ai |
| Checked | Nov 12, 2026 | Oct 5, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Iris.ai
- No prices are published; every product is sold through a demo request.
- Pricing could not be verified, so no plan or price is listed.
- Aimed at enterprises, not individual researchers.
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.
Key features
Iris.ai
- Axion data extraction
- Turns PDFs, reports, images, graphs and tables into structured, machine-readable data.
- Industry schema templates
- Prebuilt structures for legal contracts, patents, clinical trials and financial statements.
- Neuralith
- Described as turning enterprise knowledge into an AI engine, with agentic workflows.
- RSpace
- Described as precision intelligence for complex R&D.
- Deployment on your own data
- The vendor says teams run Iris.ai on their own documents and systems.
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.
Plans
Iris.ai
Pricing could not be confirmed. See iris.ai.
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.
Ways to pay less
Iris.ai
No public discounts listed.
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.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Iris.ai or Undermind?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Iris.ai has no price we could confirm, and Undermind starts at $16 per month, billed annually, at the academic rate ($60 for industry).
Which has a free plan, Iris.ai or Undermind?
As of Nov 12, 2026, only Undermind has a free plan. Iris.ai does not.
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.