Paper Digest vs Scholarcy (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Scholarcy grades higher than Paper Digest: 2.6 against 2.2 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 and ease of use. They get the same grade on the free plan, features and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Paper Digest
Cited literature reviews, deep research and daily paper digests
Free plan
Scholarcy
Summarizes research papers into interactive flashcards
Free plan · from $90/yr
Which one is for you
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 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
| 2.2GPAPaper DigestFair | 2.6GPAScholarcyGood | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | CNo price could be read: the pricing URL showed a template table with placeholder values. With nothing to compare against the category's $10 middle, it sits at C. | 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 | CThe homepage says some features can be tried without signing in and labels several digests free, but the limits aren't stated. | 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 | CLiterature reviews, deep research, a reader, daily digests and reference manager export. The default review uses large language models for the final prose, with a no-LLM version as a separate option. | 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. Several separate tools sit on one site and you choose between them. | 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 | BWeb only, with export to Zotero, Mendeley, EndNote and Obsidian. | 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 | cited literature reviews and daily paper digests | 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: Paper Digest and Scholarcy. How we grade
Where they differ
- Paper Digest also covers chat assistant and documents.
In commonWebAI featuresResearchCitations
At a glance
| Paper Digest | Scholarcy | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Starts at | Not published | $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 | None listed | 7-day free trial of the paid plan; billing starts afterward unless you cancel first. |
| Web | ||
| Browser extension | ||
| Made by | Paper Digest | Scholarcy Limited |
| Price read from | Not confirmed | web.archive.org (not the vendor's own page) |
| Checked | Nov 12, 2026 | Oct 5, 2026 |
Worth knowing
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.
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
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.
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
Paper Digest
Pricing could not be confirmed. See paperdigest.org.
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
Paper Digest
No public discounts listed.
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, Paper Digest or Scholarcy?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Paper Digest has no price we could confirm, and Scholarcy starts at $90 per year, or $9.99 per month billed monthly.
Which has a free plan, Paper Digest or Scholarcy?
As of Nov 12, 2026, only Scholarcy has a free plan. Paper Digest does not.
Which platforms do Paper Digest 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.