Litmaps vs Open Knowledge Maps (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Open Knowledge Maps grades higher than Litmaps: 3.0 against 2.0 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 9, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 · graded Oct 10, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
Open Knowledge Maps grades higher on value for money, the free plan and ease of use. They get the same grade on features and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Litmaps
Literature review tool that maps papers by their citations
Open Knowledge Maps
Free visual maps of a research topic from open scholarly sources
Which one is for you
Pick Litmaps if
- Fits if your literature review starts from a handful of papers you already know
- Works for students and academics, who get Pro at $10 a month with an academic email
Look elsewhere if
- Pricey if you have no academic email, at $40 a month billed annually for the same Pro, or $50 monthly
- Tight if you're staying free, with 2 Litmaps of up to 100 articles, 20 inputs a search and monthly alerts only
- Watch out: Zotero Sync, advanced filters and custom alerts all need Pro, and Team prices aren't published
- Skip it if you work on a phone, as making a Litmap needs a bigger screen and no app is listed
- Too light for reading or writing, as it finds and maps papers but won't answer a question or hold your notes
Pick Open Knowledge Maps if
- Fits if you are new to a field and want its themes before you read anything
- Works for librarians running a discovery workshop on open sources
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you need every relevant paper, as each map holds only the top 100 results
- Not for you if you want papers ranked by quality, because it groups by metadata and does not rank
- Too light for a full literature search, since it never reads full texts
- Watch out: each map takes about 30 seconds because every query runs live
How we grade them
| 2.0GPALitmapsFair | 3.0GPAOpen Knowledge MapsVery good | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | CPro is $10 a month billed annually, but only with an academic email. Without one the same Pro is $40, double the dear end of what this category charges. So it's ordinary money at a university and steep outside one. More than 100 lower income countries get a discount code. | AFree outright, and the site shows no paid tier for individual users. Category tools start at $7.92 a month for the cheaper quarter. |
| Free plan and trial | CFree gets you basic search with up to 20 input articles, 2 Litmaps of up to 100 articles each and a monthly alert. One real review week and you're done: a third map means paying, and so do Zotero Sync and the advanced filters. | AEvery map is free with no plan to move up to, and the site shows no cap a normal person would hit. |
| Features | CIt does citation mapping: three ways to search, maps you can share by link, and Monitor emails when new related papers appear. That is a smaller job than most tools here take on, though. It finds and maps papers. It won't answer a question, hold your notes or write a line. | CBuilds topic maps from BASE, PubMed and OpenAIRE records. It does that job fully, but it is a small job: the top 100 results only, metadata not full text. |
| Ease of use | CNo store rating on record, and it isn't a tool you just open and use: you pick seed articles, read a citation map and choose between three search algorithms. The homepage also tells small screens that making a Litmap needs a bigger one. | BNo store rating on record, but you type a topic and wait about 30 seconds for the map. Nothing to set up. |
| Platforms and integrations | CWeb only. No phone or desktop app, and no API on the listing. Zotero and LibKey are the only products it connects to, alongside BibTeX, RIS and PubMed files going in and out. | CWeb only. BASE, PubMed, OpenAIRE and ORCID are where the records come from, and no API is listed. |
| Best for | literature reviews built from a few known papers | a free visual map of an unfamiliar research topic |
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: Litmaps and Open Knowledge Maps. How we grade
Price against what you get
Litmaps starts at $10 a month and scores 2.0 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Open Knowledge Maps has no paid plan and scores 2.3.
Open Knowledge Maps scores higher and starts $10 a month lower. Of the other AI research tools on the chart, 22 score higher than Litmaps for less, and none scores higher than Open Knowledge Maps 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
- Litmaps also covers citations.
- Open Knowledge Maps also covers mind mapping.
At a glance
| Litmaps | Open Knowledge Maps | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free |
| Starts at | $10 per month, billed annually, with an academic email ($40 commercial) | Free |
| Free plan | Basic search with up to 20 input articles, 2 Litmaps of up to 100 articles each, and monthly literature alerts. No collaboration features. | None |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Litmap Limited | Open Knowledge Maps |
| Price read from | litmaps.com | openknowledgemaps.org |
| Checked | Oct 9, 2026 | Nov 13, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Litmaps
- The free plan allows 20 input articles per search and 2 Litmaps of up to 100 articles each.
- Advanced search filters, customizable Monitor alerts and Zotero Sync all need Litmaps Pro.
- The $10 Education price needs an academic email address; the standard Commercial license is $40 a month, billed annually.
- The homepage tells visitors on small screens that creating a Litmap needs a bigger screen, and no mobile app is listed.
Open Knowledge Maps
- Each map uses only the top 100 results, so important papers can be missing from it.
- Maps take around 30 seconds to build, because each query is processed live.
- Grouping uses metadata, not full text, and it does not rank papers by quality.
Key features
Litmaps
- Citation-network search
- Start from one or more articles and Litmaps returns the most connected papers among their citations, references and co-citations, from a database of 270+ million articles.
- Three search algorithms
- Shared Citations & References is the default. Common Authors finds other work by the same collaborators, and Similar Text uses AI semantic analysis of titles and abstracts.
- Visual literature maps
- Results are shown as a Litmap of articles linked by citation. A map can be shared through a public link, with specific email addresses or as an exported image.
- Monitor alerts
- Monitor reruns a map's search and emails you about newly published articles. Every user can enable it; Pro users can set the frequency, algorithm and filters.
- Import, export and Zotero Sync
- Import BibTeX, RIS or PubMed files and export as BibTeX, RIS or CSV. Zotero Sync, a Pro feature, keeps Zotero collections and Litmaps Tags matched in both directions.
- Advanced search filters
- Pro users can narrow results by publication date, keyword, author, journal title, journal h-index and SJR quartile.
Open Knowledge Maps
- Topic maps
- A search produces an interactive map of the top 100 results, grouped by topic similarity into labeled areas you can open.
- Open data sources
- Maps are built from BASE, PubMed and OpenAIRE records, with BASE covering more than 400 million outputs from over 11,000 sources.
- Open access emphasis
- Open access resources are highlighted, and most can be read inside the interface or are one click from the full text.
- Metadata-only grouping
- Clusters come from titles, abstracts, authors, journals and subject keywords, not from reading full texts; the site says it has no hallucinations.
- Custom services for organizations
- Institutions can embed Open Knowledge Maps' discovery tools in their own systems through a separate offering.
Plans
Litmaps
Free$0
Basic search with up to 20 inputs, 2 Litmaps of up to 100 articles each and monthly literature alerts.
Pro (Education)$10
per month, billed annually ($120); $12.50 billed monthly
Needs an academic email address. Unlimited inputs, articles and Litmaps, advanced search and configurable alerts.
Pro (Commercial)$40
per month, billed annually ($480); $50 billed monthly
The same Pro features on the standard license, for people without an academic affiliation.
TeamCustom
Pro features for every member in shared Team Workspaces, bought by the seat. The pricing page gives no public price.
EnterpriseCustom
Institution-wide and customizable licensing, arranged with the sales team.
Open Knowledge Maps
Free$0
Create knowledge maps from the search page; the site shows no paid tier for individual users.
Ways to pay less
Litmaps
- Annual discount
Save 20% with annual billing
Pro costs $10 a month billed annually against $12.50 billed monthly on an Education license, and $40 against $50 on a Commercial one. The pricing page labels the annual price as a 20% saving.
- Education
75% off with an Educational License
Students, professors and others affiliated with an educational institution qualify for the Educational License, which is 75% off the standard price.
- By country
Country discounts in over 100 countries
People doing most of their research in an eligible low or middle income country are shown a discount code when they upgrade in the app. More than 100 countries qualify.
- Nonprofit
Special rates for nonprofits on request
The Litmaps Pro help article invites nonprofits, publicly funded research and government education research to contact the company about special rates.
Open Knowledge Maps
No public discounts listed.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Litmaps or Open Knowledge Maps?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Open Knowledge Maps is cheaper to start with: it is free, against $10 a month for Litmaps. Litmaps starts at $10 per month, billed annually, with an academic email ($40 commercial), and Open Knowledge Maps is free.
Which has a free plan, Litmaps or Open Knowledge Maps?
As of Nov 13, 2026, both Litmaps and Open Knowledge Maps have a free plan.
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.