# Citely review (2026): is it worth $14 a month, billed yearly? > Citation checker that flags fake references and finds sources Checked Nov 13, 2026 ยท graded Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA. Citely checks whether the references in a paper or an AI-written draft are real, and flags fabricated or mismatched ones. It can also take a claim and return published papers that support it. It verifies against scholarly databases such as Crossref, OpenAlex, Semantic Scholar, PubMed and arXiv. - **Category:** AI Research Tools - **Made by:** Citely - **Website:** https://citely.ai - **Runs on:** Web - **Who should skip it:** Tight if you stay free, as you get two checks per new account. - **Facts last checked:** Nov 13, 2026 ## Pricing As of Nov 13, 2026, Citely is a paid product with a free trial, starting at $14 per month, billed annually ($19 billed monthly). - **Pricing model:** Free trial - **Free plan:** None. - **Free trial:** Two free checks per new account, no credit card required. | Plan | Price | What you get | | --- | --- | --- | | Trial | $9 one-time, 15 credits valid for 1 month | For checking one paper; reference checks up to 2,000 characters and basic verification. | | Monthly | $19 per month, billed monthly | 150 credits a month, reference checks up to 4,000 characters, and APA, MLA and Chicago export. | | Yearly | $14 per month, billed annually ($168 a year) | 1,500 credits for the year, the Monthly features and priority support. | | Believer | $347 one-time, 5,000 credits valid for 3 years | For heavy users and labs; adds all citation formats, dedicated support and professor guidance sessions. | Read from https://citely.ai/ on Nov 13, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Citely before buying. ## Ways to pay less - **Yearly plan at $14 a month** (Annual discount): Billed as $168 a year, which works out to about $14 a month against $19 on the Monthly plan. Source: https://citely.ai/pricing.md ## Key features - **Citation checker:** Checks each entry of a reference list and flags fake, mismatched or unverifiable references. - **AI-reference checks:** Aimed at references produced by ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini, including invented DOIs and mixed-up details. - **Source finder:** Paste a claim or paragraph and get published papers with verified metadata; searches are limited to 300 characters. - **Scholarly databases:** Verifies against Crossref, OpenAlex, Semantic Scholar, Google Scholar, PubMed, arXiv, Wanfang and CNKI. - **Citation export:** Paid plans export citations in APA, MLA and Chicago; the Believer plan adds all formats. - **Ten site languages:** The site is available in English, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, German, French, Portuguese and Russian. ## Good for - Students checking a bibliography before submitting - Editors and supervisors screening manuscripts for fabricated references - Writers who drafted with an AI chatbot and want its citations verified ## Worth knowing - Usage runs on credits, and each plan caps how many characters one check can cover. - Monthly and Yearly plans renew automatically; the refund policy gives no refund once more than 10 credits are used. - One-time packages are non-refundable and their credits expire after 1 month (Trial) or 3 years (Believer). - It verifies references but does not manage a library or help write the paper. ## ToolGPA grades **GPA: 2.2 out of 4**, graded Nov 13, 2026. Citely checks the references in a paper for fakes and finds sources, using Crossref, OpenAlex, Semantic Scholar, PubMed and arXiv. Everything runs on credits, with each plan capping how much one check covers. It checks references only: no library, no writing help. - **Value for money: C.** Yearly is $14 a month, at the category's dearer-quarter line, and Monthly is $19. Believer is $347 one-time. - **Free plan and trial: C.** Two free checks per new account, with no card. After that it is the $9 Trial or a subscription. - **Features: C.** Citation checker and source finder with APA, MLA and Chicago export. It does that job fully, but it is a smaller job: no library and no writing help. - **Ease of use: B.** No store rating on record. Paste your references and run a check, with nothing to set up. - **Platforms and integrations: C.** Web only, with scholarly databases behind it. No API or apps are listed. These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Citely's own pages on 13 November 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. ## Where it stands among AI research tools - Citely's GPA of 2.2 is higher than 16 of the 69 other AI research tools we grade, and level with 14. - It stands best on ease of use (B, above 42 of 69) and worst on platforms and integrations (C, above 0). - Its paid plans start at $14 a month, against a middle price of $10 for the category: 34 of the 48 others that charge start lower. - On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.3 out of 4. 20 tools score higher and cost less. The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/ai-research ## Keep it, or make your own? **Keep it.** To replace Citely you would be making a library of papers and sources to search. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one. That makes this kind of software worth paying for, not this one in particular: 39 of the 69 other AI research tools grade higher. It costs $168 a year. - You could not: A library of papers and sources to search. - You could not: A search engine with an AI model behind it. - You could not: Citation records for millions of papers. - You could not: It plugs into other products, Crossref, OpenAlex and Semantic Scholar among them. A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it. ## Works with Crossref, OpenAlex, Semantic Scholar, PubMed, arXiv **Tags:** Citations, Research, AI features, AI search ## Alternatives - [Scite](https://toolgpa.com/tools/scite): Research assistant that shows how papers have been cited. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/citely-vs-scite) - [Scholarcy](https://toolgpa.com/tools/scholarcy): Summarizes research papers into interactive flashcards. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/citely-vs-scholarcy) - [Paperguide](https://toolgpa.com/tools/paperguide): AI research platform for literature and systematic reviews. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/citely-vs-paperguide) - [SciSpace](https://toolgpa.com/tools/scispace): AI research platform for literature review and reading papers. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/citely-vs-scispace) - [Keenious](https://toolgpa.com/tools/keenious): Academic search that recommends papers from your own text. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/citely-vs-keenious) ## Sources The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Nov 13, 2026: - https://citely.ai/ - https://citely.ai/pricing.md - https://citely.ai/about.md - https://citely.ai/refund-policy Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/citely Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).