Paperguide vs Scholarcy
We give Paperguide and Scholarcy the same GPA: 3.2 out of 4.0. Paperguide grades higher on features. Scholarcy grades higher on value for money. They get the same grade on the free plan, ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Paperguide
AI research platform for literature and systematic reviews
Scholarcy
Summarizes research papers into interactive flashcards
How we grade them
| 3.2GPAPaperguideVery good | 3.2GPAScholarcyVery good | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | BPlus is $12 a seat a month billed annually, or $19 monthly, which is right at typical. It includes systematic reviews of up to 1,000 papers, unlimited AI searches and 12,500 AI credits a month. A university email takes 30% off, making it $8. Dual-reviewer screening is another matter: that's Evidence at $89. | AScholarcy Plus is $90 a year or $9.99 a month, under what tools here usually start at, and summaries are unlimited. One caution: Scholarcy's site turns automated readers away, so these prices come from archived copies of its pricing pages from March and April 2026. |
| Free plan and trial | BFree gives you 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. Enough to learn the tool. There are no systematic reviews or shared workspaces on it, though. | BThere's a free Article Summarizer, but its limit is given two ways: 10 summaries on the pricing page and 1 summary per day in the FAQ. Either way it's small. The paid plan has a 7-day free trial, and billing starts afterwards unless you cancel first. |
| Features | ASearch that answers from more than 200 million papers with each claim linked to its source, a reference manager with more than 1,000 citation styles, tables that pull the same data points out of many papers, a research agent and a writer. The systematic review workflow ends in a PRISMA diagram. | BIt does summarising fully. Flashcards with key concepts and highlights, seven rewrite styles from school level to researcher, a comparison with earlier research, and a paper's tables pulled out as one Excel file. Several flashcards can become a literature matrix. It summarises what you bring, though. It doesn't search. |
| Ease of use | BNo App Store rating on record, so B is as high as we go. You ask in plain language, and it imports a Zotero or Mendeley library, so starting is painless. Credits are the thing to learn, since the AI features all draw on one monthly pool. | BNo App Store rating on record, so B is as high as we go. Import a file or a link and you get a flashcard back. Good to know: the synopsis and enhanced summaries come out in English even when the source is in another language. |
| Platforms and integrations | BA web app with a browser extension. It imports from Zotero and Mendeley, connects to Claude and ChatGPT, and has a Search API with 10 requests a month on Free and 500 on Pro. No phone or desktop app is listed. | 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 | search, references and reviews in one workspace | 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: Paperguide and Scholarcy. How we grade
Where they differ
- Paperguide starts at $12 per seat / month, billed annually ($8 with the academic discount). Scholarcy starts at $90 per year, or $9.99 per month billed monthly.
- Paperguide also covers chat assistant, AI search, AI agents and long-form writing.
At a glance
| Paperguide | Scholarcy | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Starts at | $12 per seat / month, billed annually ($8 with the academic discount) | $90 per year, or $9.99 per month billed monthly |
| Free plan | 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 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 | Paperguide | Scholarcy Limited |
| Price read from | paperguide.ai | web.archive.org (not the vendor's own page) |
| Checked | Oct 5, 2026 | Oct 5, 2026 |
Who each one suits
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
Scholarcy
- Screening a stack of papers before deciding which to read in full
- Students who want a paper explained at a simpler reading level
- Building a literature matrix or bibliography from many papers
Worth knowing
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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.
