# Mendeley review (2026): is the free plan enough? > Reference manager from Elsevier, with paid AI add-ons Checked Nov 12, 2026 ยท graded Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA. Mendeley is a reference manager for saving PDFs, organizing them into collections and tags, and annotating them. Free accounts include 2 GB of storage. AI features inside Mendeley, such as asking questions across your library, are sold through Elsevier's LeapSpace subscription. - **Category:** AI Research Tools - **Made by:** Elsevier - **Website:** https://www.mendeley.com - **Runs on:** Web - **Who should skip it:** Pricey if you want its AI features, at $26 a month billed yearly. - **Facts last checked:** Nov 12, 2026 ## Pricing As of Nov 12, 2026, Mendeley has a free plan, and paid plans start at $26 per month, billed annually ($32 billed monthly). - **Pricing model:** Free plan - **Free plan:** Mendeley's reference manager is free, with 2 GB of storage. LeapSpace has a free tier whose AI features are unlimited for 14 days, then limited. - **Free trial:** None listed. | Plan | Price | What you get | | --- | --- | --- | | LeapSpace Free | $0 | Search and other AI features free for 14 days, then with limits; does not include AI features in Mendeley. | | LeapSpace Individual | $26 per month, billed annually ($32 billed monthly) | Adds AI features in Mendeley and the Word add-in. Bills $320 yearly, $30 a month for 3-month terms. | | LeapSpace Organization | Custom | Institution-wide access, admin console and SSO; price on request. | Read from https://researcher.elsevier.com/mendeley-upgrade on Nov 12, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Mendeley before buying. ## Ways to pay less - **Save $64 with yearly billing** (Annual discount): The LeapSpace page shows $320 billed every 12 months against $32 a month billed monthly, labeled as saving $64. Source: https://researcher.elsevier.com/mendeley-upgrade ## Key features - **Reference library:** Add PDFs to a library, organize them with collections and tags, then read, highlight and annotate in one place. - **Ask My Library:** On the paid plan, search, summarize and compare PDFs across your saved library; this works in Mendeley Reference Manager. - **Reading Assistant:** Summarize or question a saved document, with suggested follow-up questions. - **Compare Experiments:** Pull goals, methods and results from several studies into a table that exports as CSV. - **LeapSpace search:** Searches Scopus-indexed literature and builds Deep Research reports, with Trust Cards that show supporting sources. - **Word add-in:** The Individual plan lists a Microsoft Word add-in for inserting citations. ## Good for - Researchers who want a free reference manager with 2 GB of storage - Students whose institutions already use Elsevier products ## Worth knowing - AI features inside Mendeley need a paid LeapSpace plan; the free LeapSpace tier excludes them. - The pricing page says Mendeley Premium is now part of LeapSpace. - Platform support for desktop apps could not be confirmed from the pages read, so only web is listed. - Elsevier says the plans are not for corporate use. ## ToolGPA grades **GPA: 2.2 out of 4**, graded Nov 12, 2026. Mendeley is Elsevier's reference manager, free with 2 GB of storage. The AI features inside it need a paid LeapSpace plan at $26 a month billed yearly, which Elsevier says isn't for corporate use. - **Value for money: D.** The AI features are on LeapSpace Individual at $26 a month billed yearly, more than twice the research middle of $10 and inside the dearest tenth, which starts at $20. The free LeapSpace tier excludes the AI inside Mendeley. - **Free plan and trial: B.** The reference manager is free with 2 GB of storage, and a person can live on it. The LeapSpace free tier has unlimited AI for only 14 days, then limits. - **Features: C.** A reference library, Ask My Library, a Reading Assistant, Compare Experiments and a Word add-in. The AI bits sit behind the paid plan, and desktop support couldn't be confirmed from the pages read. - **Ease of use: C.** No store rating on record. A reference manager means importing a library, setting up folders and a plug-in. - **Platforms and integrations: B.** Listed as web only, because desktop apps couldn't be confirmed. It has a Word add-in and connects to Scopus and ScienceDirect. These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Mendeley's own pages on 12 November 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. ## Where it stands among AI research tools - Mendeley's GPA of 2.2 is higher than 7 of the 49 other AI research tools we grade, and level with 11. - It stands best on free plan and trial (B, above 36 of 49) and worst on value for money (D, above 0). - Its paid plans start at $26 a month, against a middle price of $10 for the category: 33 of the 35 others that charge start lower. - On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.3 out of 4. 21 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 Mendeley 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: 31 of the 49 other AI research tools grade higher. It costs $312 a year. - You could make: Highlights: an app builder makes this well. - You could not: A library of papers and sources to search. - You could not: An AI model, which you can rent by the request but not make. - You could not: Citation records for millions of papers. A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it. ## Works with Microsoft Word, Scopus, ScienceDirect **Tags:** Citations, Research, Highlights, AI features, Chat assistant ## Alternatives - [Zotero](https://toolgpa.com/tools/zotero): Free, open-source reference manager from a nonprofit. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/mendeley-vs-zotero) - [Paperguide](https://toolgpa.com/tools/paperguide): AI research platform for literature and systematic reviews. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/mendeley-vs-paperguide) - [SciSpace](https://toolgpa.com/tools/scispace): AI research platform for literature review and reading papers. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/mendeley-vs-scispace) - [Keenious](https://toolgpa.com/tools/keenious): Academic search that recommends papers from your own text. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/keenious-vs-mendeley) - [Anara](https://toolgpa.com/tools/anara): AI research assistant that cites the exact source passage. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/anara-vs-mendeley) ## Sources The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Nov 12, 2026: - https://www.mendeley.com/ - https://researcher.elsevier.com/mendeley-upgrade Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/mendeley Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).