Scholarcy vs SciSummary (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Scholarcy grades higher than SciSummary: 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.
Scholarcy
Summarizes research papers into interactive flashcards
SciSummary
AI summaries, figure explanations and chat for scientific papers
Which one is for you
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
Pick SciSummary if
- Fits if you read scientific papers and want the figures explained
- Works for someone who searches PubMed and arXiv and wants one library
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you want a free plan, as only a 7-day capped trial exists
- Pricey if you read the vendor's own pages: they disagree between $12.50 and $4 a month
- Watch out: the trial caps summaries at 30,000 words, 5 figures and 100 chat messages
- Watch out: uploads are capped at 200 MB, and there's no desktop or mobile app
How we grade them
| 2.6GPAScholarcyGood | 2.2GPASciSummaryFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | 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. | C$12.50 a month billed yearly or $15 monthly, at the upper end of a category whose middle is $10. The homepage and the site's llms.txt file list different prices ($4 and $7), so the figure is unclear. |
| Free plan and trial | 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. | CNo free plan. A 7-day trial is capped at 30,000 words of summaries, 5 figures and 100 chat messages, and non-AI features are free with no card. |
| Features | 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. | CSummaries, figure analysis, chat, a library with folders and tags, and an API. Uploads are capped at 200 MB per file, and larger files may fail. |
| Ease of use | 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. | CNo store rating on record. There's a library with folders and tags to organize before it earns its keep. |
| Platforms and integrations | 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. | BWeb only, with PubMed, arXiv and ChatGPT, plus API and agent access. |
| Best for | deciding which papers to read in full | summaries and figure explanations of scientific papers |
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: Scholarcy and SciSummary. How we grade
Price against what you get
Scholarcy starts at $7.50 a month when paid by the year and scores 2.7 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. SciSummary starts at $12.50 a month and scores 2.3.
Scholarcy scores higher and starts $5 a month lower. Of the other AI research tools on the chart, 2 score higher than Scholarcy for less, and 16 score higher than SciSummary for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- SciSummary also covers chat assistant.
At a glance
| Scholarcy | SciSummary | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free trial |
| Starts at | $90 per year, or $9.99 per month billed monthly | $12.50 per month, billed yearly ($15 billed monthly) |
| Free plan | 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. | None |
| Free trial | 7-day free trial of the paid plan; billing starts afterward unless you cancel first. | 7-day free trial of the AI tools, limited to 30,000 words of summaries, 5 analyzed figures and 100 chat messages. |
| Web | ||
| Browser extension | ||
| Made by | Scholarcy Limited | Ariso |
| Price read from | web.archive.org (not the vendor's own page) | scisummary.com |
| Checked | Oct 5, 2026 | Nov 12, 2026 |
Worth knowing
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.
SciSummary
- The homepage shows $12.50 a month billed yearly and $15 billed monthly, but the site's llms.txt file lists $4 and $7 a month, so the vendor's own pages disagree.
- The 7-day trial caps summaries at 30,000 words, 5 figures and 100 chat messages; non-AI features are free without a card.
- Only a web version is described, with no desktop or mobile app.
- Uploads are capped at 200 MB per file, and the FAQ says larger files may fail.
Key features
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.
SciSummary
- Structured summaries
- Breaks a paper into labeled sections and can summarize several papers into one combined summary, or compare papers with AI.
- Figure analysis
- Explains figures, tables and charts, including statistics such as p-values, confidence intervals and effect sizes.
- Chat with papers
- Ask questions of one paper, or of the whole library through semantic search and chat.
- Library with folders and tags
- Papers can be organized into folders and tags, and imported from a PDF, DOI, PubMed ID, arXiv ID or URL.
- API and agent access
- A REST API for bulk summarization, an MCP server and a command-line tool are described on the site's developer pages.
Plans
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.
SciSummary
Pro Plan$12.50
per month, billed yearly ($15 billed monthly)
Unlimited summaries, figure analysis, chat messages and article searches, and semantic search over 1,000 indexed documents. Yearly billing is $150 a year.
Ways to pay less
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.
SciSummary
- Annual discount
Yearly billing at $150
The homepage shows the Pro Plan at $12.50 a month billed as $150 a year, labeled Save $30 a year against $15 a month billed monthly.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Scholarcy or SciSummary?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Scholarcy is cheaper to start with: $7.50 a month when paid by the year, against $12.50 a month for SciSummary. Scholarcy starts at $90 per year, or $9.99 per month billed monthly, and SciSummary starts at $12.50 per month, billed yearly ($15 billed monthly).
Which has a free plan, Scholarcy or SciSummary?
As of Nov 12, 2026, only Scholarcy has a free plan. SciSummary does not, though it has a free trial.
Which platforms do Scholarcy and SciSummary 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.