OpenRead vs Paperguide
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
OpenRead
AI platform for searching, reading and comparing papers
Paperguide
AI research platform for literature and systematic reviews
Where they differ
- Only Paperguide lists a browser extension.
- OpenRead also covers notes.
- Paperguide also covers AI agents, citations and long-form writing.
At a glance
| OpenRead | Paperguide | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Starts at | Not published | $12 per seat / month, billed annually ($8 with the academic discount) |
| Free plan | The homepage shows a Free label on its AI tools and a separate Pro option; what the free plan includes could not be confirmed. | 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 | None listed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| Browser extension | ||
| Made by | OpenRead, Inc. | Paperguide |
| Price read from | Not confirmed | paperguide.ai |
| Checked | Oct 5, 2026 | Oct 5, 2026 |
Who each one suits
OpenRead
- Readers who want paper search, questions and notes in one place
- Comparing the findings of several papers side by side
- Keeping up with newly published and trending papers
Paperguide
- Teams running systematic reviews that need documented screening decisions
- Researchers who want search, references and writing in one workspace
- Students and academics, who get 30% off with a university email
- Pulling the same data points out of many papers into one table
Worth knowing
OpenRead
- Plan prices and free-plan limits are not recorded: the pricing and FAQ pages were behind a browser security check when this entry was researched.
- The homepage links only to the web app; it lists no mobile apps or browser extension.
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
OpenRead
- Paper and web search
- AI search runs over papers or the open web. The homepage says new papers arrive every 5 minutes from more than 20,000 journals.
- Paper Compare
- Sets several papers side by side to compare their findings and spot contradictions, with options such as an expert review or a comparison of frameworks.
- Reading tools
- The reading view brings together Paper Espresso, Paper Q&A, a Related Paper Graph and note taking, so a paper can be read and annotated in one place.
- Oat chat assistant
- Oat, short for OpenRead AI Technology, is a chat assistant with a choice of AI models plus web access, diagram drawing and image editing.
- Trending papers
- A trending page lists the papers that other readers on the platform are opening most.
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
OpenRead
Pricing could not be confirmed. See openread.academy.
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
OpenRead
No public discounts listed.
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.
