Paper Digest vs SciSpace (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 SciSpace if

• Fits if you want search, reading and writing tools on one subscription
• Works for research teams of 2 to 300 people who want to be billed per user

Look elsewhere if

• Skip it if you're on Android, as the mobile app is listed for iPhone and iPad only
• Pricey if you run agents a lot, since the step past 1,200 credits is Advanced at $70 a month billed annually
• Not for you if you need the free limits in writing first, as they couldn't be confirmed
• Tight if you start several jobs at once, as Premium runs 4 tasks at a time and Advanced 8
• Watch out: prices come from an archived copy of the pricing page from 30 September 2026, and no integrations 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.

SciSpace

• SciSpace's site blocked automated reading, so prices come from an Internet Archive copy of its pricing page captured on September 30, 2026.
• The limits of the free tier could not be confirmed on a SciSpace page.
• Paid plans meter usage in monthly credits: 1,200 on Premium, 10,000 on Advanced and 40,000 or more on Max.
• The mobile app is listed for iPhone and iPad; no Android app was found on Google Play (US) when checked.

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.

SciSpace

Literature Review

Ask a research question in plain language and get answers drawn from a repository of more than 270 million papers, each with references to its sources.

Chat with PDF

Ask questions about a paper or PDF and get answers backed by citations that point to where in the source they came from.

SciSpace Agent and Biomedical Agent

Agents take on research tasks and draw on the plan's monthly credits. Each plan also caps how many tasks run at once: 4 on Premium, 8 on Advanced and 16 on Max.

Writing and citation tools

AI Writer, Paraphraser and AI Detector sit beside a Citation Generator that formats references in APA, MLA and more than 2,300 other styles.

Extract Data

Pulls the summary, conclusions and findings out of several PDFs at once so papers can be compared side by side.

Chrome extension

Explains highlighted text, math and tables on any web page or PDF, answers follow-up questions with citations and replies in 13 languages.

Paper Digest

Pricing could not be confirmed. See paperdigest.org.

SciSpace

• Premium$12

  per month, billed annually ($144); $20 billed monthly

  1,200 credits a month and up to 4 concurrent tasks.

• Teams (Premium)$15

  per user / month, billed annually ($180); $25 billed monthly

  For 2 to 300 users, each with 1,200 credits a month and up to 4 concurrent tasks.

• Advanced$70

  per month, billed annually ($840); $90 billed monthly

  10,000 credits a month and up to 8 concurrent tasks.

• Teams (Advanced)$75

  per user / month, billed annually ($900); $100 billed monthly

  For 2 to 300 users, each with 10,000 credits a month and up to 8 concurrent tasks.

• MaxFrom $160

  per month, billed annually ($1,920); from $200 billed monthly

  Priced by credit tier, from 40,000 credits a month up to 300,000, with up to 16 concurrent tasks.

• Teams (Max)$175

  per user / month, billed annually ($2,100); $220 billed monthly

  For 2 to 300 users, each with 40,000 credits a month and up to 16 concurrent tasks.

Paper Digest

No public discounts listed.

SciSpace

• Annual discount

  Save 20% to 40% with annual billing

  Annual billing brings Premium from $20 to $12 a month (40% off), Advanced from $90 to $70 (22% off) and the entry Max tier from $200 to $160 (20% off).