Scholarcy vs SciSpace

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

SciSpace

• Students and researchers who want search, reading and writing tools in one place
• Getting plain-language explanations of dense papers, equations and tables
• Research teams of 2 to 300 people billed per user

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).