SciSpace vs SciSummary (2026): which should you pick?

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.