Paper Digest vs Paperguide (2026): which should you pick?

Pick Paper Digest if

• Fits if you want a cited literature review draft for a topic
• Works for someone who wants a daily digest of new papers in their field

Look elsewhere if

• Not for you if you want a price, since the pricing page showed placeholders only
• Skip it if you want a desktop or phone app, as only the web is described
• Watch out: free limits aren't stated, only that some features work without signing in
• Watch out: the default literature review uses large language models for its prose

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

Paper Digest

• No pricing page could be read: the site's pricing URL shows a template table with placeholder values, so no plans or prices are recorded.
• The homepage says some features can be tried without signing in and labels several daily digests free, but the limits are not stated.
• The default literature review uses large language models for the final prose; the no-LLM version is a separate option.
• Only a web version is described; no desktop or mobile app is listed.

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.

Paper Digest

Literature review

Takes a topic and writes a review from the most influential papers, patents, grants and trials around it, with a citation for each sentence. An option avoids large language models.

Deep research reports

Gathers evidence from the index and other sources into a cited report, with a claim-verification mode that collects evidence for and against an argument.

Academic reader

Upload a PDF or text file, or paste a link, and ask for a summary, the method, the results or any free-form question, answered beside the document.

Daily and conference digests

Follows new papers by topic, venue or keyword, including arXiv, bioRxiv, PubMed and ClinicalTrials.gov feeds, and sends daily updates.

Reference manager export

Reviews and reports can be exported as RIS or Markdown for Zotero, Mendeley, EndNote and Obsidian.

Research library

Members can save documents with notes, tags and reading status, and publish a reading list or researcher profile.

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.

Paper Digest

Pricing could not be confirmed. See paperdigest.org.

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.

Paper Digest

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.