# CORE review (2026): is it any good? > Open access research search backed by a free API Checked Nov 13, 2026 ยท graded Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA. CORE is a not-for-profit service from the Knowledge Media Institute at The Open University in the UK. It indexes research papers from repositories and journals and says it holds the largest collection of full-text open access papers. Searching is free, as is its API within rate limits, and organizations can pay for faster access. - **Category:** AI Research Tools - **Made by:** Knowledge Media Institute, The Open University - **Website:** https://core.ac.uk - **Runs on:** Web - **Who should skip it:** Skip it if you need paywalled papers, as it covers open access content only. - **Facts last checked:** Nov 13, 2026 ## Pricing As of Nov 13, 2026, CORE is free to use. - **Pricing model:** Free - **Free plan:** Free search and a free API with no registration, within CORE's rate limits. - **Free trial:** None listed. | Plan | Price | What you get | | --- | --- | --- | | Free | $0 | Search and API access within published rate limits; registering organizations get a faster rate that is typically not free. | Read from https://core.ac.uk/services/api on Nov 13, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with CORE before buying. ## Ways to pay less - **30-day free trial for institutions** (Other savings): CORE says it offers a 30-day free trial of the API for Institution and Enterprise users, subject to eligibility checks at registration. Source: https://core.ac.uk/services/api ## Key features - **Open access search:** One search across metadata and full texts from repositories and journals, over 400 million records according to the About page. - **API:** Real-time machine access to metadata and full texts, usable for commercial purposes under the terms and documented with examples. - **Recommender and Discovery:** Listed under content discovery services, alongside FreshFinds; the Recommender suggests related papers across the repository network. - **Dataset and FastSync:** Listed under access to raw data: a dataset of the corpus for text and data mining, and a FastSync service, beyond the API. - **Repository tools:** A dashboard, OAI identifier resolver and FAIR certification help repositories manage how their content appears. ## Good for - Developers building tools on open access papers - Researchers looking for a free full text - Repository managers who want content indexed ## Worth knowing - Free API use is rate limited; faster rates for organizations are typically paid, with no price published. - Dataset access for text mining is a benefit of the top Sustaining membership level. - It covers open access content only, so paywalled papers are not available. ## ToolGPA grades **GPA: 3.2 out of 4**, graded Nov 13, 2026. CORE searches open access research papers and offers a free API. It covers open access content only, so paywalled papers are not there, and the free API is rate limited, with faster rates for organisations at no published price. - **Value for money: A.** Free search and a free API, from a not-for-profit, with no paid plan for individuals. - **Free plan and trial: A.** Search and the API are free, with no registration, within rate limits that a normal person is unlikely to reach. - **Features: C.** Open access search, an API, a recommender, datasets and repository tools. It holds open access papers only, and dataset access for text mining is a top membership benefit. - **Ease of use: B.** No store rating on record, but you search and read open papers with nothing to set up. The API is for developers. - **Platforms and integrations: B.** Web and an API, with PubMed Central and Iris.ai. No desktop or phone app is listed. These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from CORE'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 - CORE's GPA of 3.2 is higher than 65 of the 69 other AI research tools we grade, and level with 4. - It stands best on free plan and trial (A, above 61 of 69) and worst on features (C, above 1). - CORE has no paid plan. - On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.7 out of 4, and no tool on the category's chart scores higher without costing more. The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/ai-research ## Keep it, or make your own? **Keep it.** CORE is free, so making your own would save you nothing. And it is not the kind of software a weekend replaces. It is one of the better ones too: its GPA of 3.2 is higher than 65 of the 69 other AI research tools we grade. - 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: It plugs into other products, OAI Resolver, PubMed Central and Iris.ai among them, and has an API. A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it. ## Works with OAI Resolver, PubMed Central, Iris.ai **Tags:** Research, AI search, Public API ## Alternatives - [Semantic Scholar](https://toolgpa.com/tools/semantic-scholar): Free AI-powered search engine for scientific literature. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/core-research-vs-semantic-scholar) - [Google Scholar](https://toolgpa.com/tools/google-scholar): Free search engine for scholarly articles, books and theses. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/core-research-vs-google-scholar) - [Open Knowledge Maps](https://toolgpa.com/tools/open-knowledge-maps): Free visual maps of a research topic from open scholarly sources. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/core-research-vs-open-knowledge-maps) - [Exa](https://toolgpa.com/tools/exa): Web search API built for AI agents and applications. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/core-research-vs-exa) ## Sources The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Nov 13, 2026: - https://core.ac.uk/about - https://core.ac.uk/services/api - https://core.ac.uk/membership Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/core-research Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).