Scholarcy vs Sharly AI (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Scholarcy grades higher than Sharly AI: 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
Sharly AI
AI workspace for summarizing, comparing and citing documents
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 Sharly AI if
- Fits if you compare several documents and need citations
- Works for someone who keeps documents in Notion, Google Docs or Dropbox
Look elsewhere if
- Tight if you stay free: 5 documents a day and 50 messages a month, if the plan card is right
- Skip it if you share work, as Pro is for one user and sharing needs Team
- Pricey if you need SSO, audit logs or private deployments, which are sales-only on Business
- Watch out: monthly-billing prices aren't visible on the pricing page
How we grade them
| 2.6GPAScholarcyGood | 2.2GPASharly AIFair | |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | CPro is $12.50 a month billed yearly, the upper end of a category whose middle is $10. Team is $24 per seat. |
| 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. | CA free plan with 5 documents a day and 50 messages a month. The plan card says 5 a day, but the comparison table says 10 documents a month, so the cap is unclear. |
| 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, sourced answers, cross-document comparison and citation formats. Shared workspaces and annotations need Team, and SSO and audit logs are on a sales-only Business plan. |
| 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. You upload and connect documents and set up workspaces. |
| 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 Notion, Google Docs and Dropbox. |
| Best for | deciding which papers to read in full | summarizing and comparing documents with citations |
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 Sharly AI. 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. Sharly AI 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 Sharly AI 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
- Sharly AI also covers chat assistant and documents.
At a glance
| Scholarcy | Sharly AI | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Starts at | $90 per year, or $9.99 per month billed monthly | $12.5 per month, billed yearly |
| 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. | One user, 5 documents a day, fast answers and a 10k context length. |
| Free trial | 7-day free trial of the paid plan; billing starts afterward unless you cancel first. | None listed |
| Web | ||
| Browser extension | ||
| Made by | Scholarcy Limited | VOX AI Inc. |
| Price read from | web.archive.org (not the vendor's own page) | sharly.ai |
| 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.
Sharly AI
- The pricing page shows only yearly-billed prices; the monthly-billing prices are not visible, so the monthly cost of month-to-month billing is not confirmed.
- The free plan's limits are shown as 5 documents a day in the plan card but 10 documents a month in the comparison table, so the exact cap is unclear.
- Pro is for one user; shared workspaces and annotations need Team, which lists up to 100 seats.
- SSO / SAML, audit logs and private deployments are on the sales-only Business plan.
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.
Sharly AI
- Summaries and key insights
- Uploaded documents get an automatic summary, topics and highlights. PDF, DOCX, PPTX and Notion exports are listed as supported formats.
- Sourced answers
- Answers point back to the pages of the uploaded files they came from, and a docs-only mode restricts the assistant to your documents.
- Cross-document comparison
- Key metrics from several documents can be lined up in a table, with matches, conflicts and missing data flagged.
- Citation formats
- Citations can be switched between APA, MLA and Chicago styles. The comparison table lists a citation format switcher as a paid-plan feature.
- Team annotations
- The Team plan adds shared workspaces, annotations, and citation history for groups working across the same documents.
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.
Sharly AI
Free$0
One user with instant summaries and AI answers, 5 documents a day, PDF, DOCX and Notion uploads, 50 messages a month.
Pro$12.5
per month, billed yearly
For solo researchers: unlimited uploads, 1,000 messages a month, reasoning capabilities, a 50k context length, and a stated no-training-on-your-data policy.
Team$24
per seat / month, billed yearly
Up to 100 seats, unlimited documents and chats, team annotations, knowledge retention, semantic extraction, and analytics with citation history.
BusinessCustom
Unlimited seats, admin dashboard with role-based access, version history and audit logs, SSO / SAML, and private deployments. Sold through sales.
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.
Sharly AI
- Annual discount
20% off with yearly billing
The pricing page marks the Yearly option as 20% off; the prices shown are the yearly-billed ones.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Scholarcy or Sharly AI?
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 Sharly AI. Scholarcy starts at $90 per year, or $9.99 per month billed monthly, and Sharly AI starts at $12.5 per month, billed yearly.
Which has a free plan, Scholarcy or Sharly AI?
As of Nov 12, 2026, both Scholarcy and Sharly AI have a free plan.
Which platforms do Scholarcy and Sharly AI 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.