# Scite

> Research assistant that shows how papers have been cited

Scite is a literature search and evaluation tool built around Smart Citations, which show whether later research supported, contrasted or simply mentioned a paper's findings. Its AI Assistant answers questions from the full text of licensed and open access articles and links each claim to the sentence it came from. Scite is part of Research Solutions and also runs as a browser extension, a Zotero plugin and an MCP connector for AI assistants.

- **Category:** AI Research Tools
- **Made by:** Scite LLC (Research Solutions)
- **Website:** https://scite.ai
- **Runs on:** Web, Browser extension
- **Facts last checked:** Oct 5, 2026

## Pricing

Scite is a paid product with a free trial, starting at $20 per month, billed monthly.

- **Pricing model:** Free trial
- **Free plan:** None.
- **Free trial:** 7-day free trial for new users; it rolls into the plan chosen at sign-up unless canceled first.

| Plan | Price | What you get |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Basic | $20 per month, billed monthly | Unlimited Assistant queries, full-text search, Smart Citation reports, citation alerts, 250 MCP credits a month and Collections of up to 1,000 papers. |
| Pro | $50 per month, billed monthly | Everything in Basic, plus 2,500 MCP credits a month, Collections of up to 10,000 papers, and search across patents, clinical trials and grants. |
| Enterprise | Custom | For organizations and universities: unlimited users with pooled usage, SAML/SSO, access by domain, IP or email, and regulatory and safety datasets. |

Read from https://scite.ai/pricing on Oct 5, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Scite before buying.

## Ways to pay less

- **Student and academic discount on request** (Education): The pricing FAQ says students and academics who recommend Scite to their institution by email, copying Scite's sales and support addresses, are sent a discount code. The amount is not stated. Source: https://scite.ai/pricing

## Key features

- **Smart Citations:** Shows how later research has cited a paper: whether the citing statements support, contrast or simply mention its findings, with the surrounding context.
- **Scite Assistant:** Answers questions from the scientific literature and links every claim back to the specific sentence in the paper it came from.
- **Full-text search:** Searches inside more than 280 million full-text articles under agreements with Wiley, SAGE and 30+ other publishers, alongside preprints, books, patents and datasets.
- **Collections and citation alerts:** Group papers into Collections of up to 1,000 papers on Basic or 10,000 on Pro, and get alerts about new citations.
- **Browser extension:** Adds Smart Citation counts to paper listings on Google Scholar, PubMed and publisher sites. Clicking a badge opens the full Scite report.
- **MCP, Zotero and API access:** Runs inside Claude, ChatGPT and other MCP-compatible assistants, plugs into Zotero and offers an API for teams building their own tools.

## Good for

- Checking whether a paper's findings were supported or disputed by later work
- Searching inside the full text of licensed journal articles
- Researchers who want cited answers inside Claude or ChatGPT

## Worth knowing

- No free plan is listed; after the 7-day trial a paid subscription is needed.
- The pricing page also offers annual billing and a Team plan for labs; those prices could not be confirmed in page text and are left out here.
- Patent, clinical trial and grant search and Collections above 1,000 papers need the Pro plan.
- MCP use is capped by monthly credits: 250 on Basic and 2,500 on Pro.

## Works with

Zotero, Claude, ChatGPT

**Tags:** Research, AI search, Citations, Chat assistant, Public API

## Alternatives

- [Consensus](https://toolgpa.com/tools/consensus): AI search engine that answers questions from peer-reviewed papers. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/consensus-vs-scite)
- [Elicit](https://toolgpa.com/tools/elicit): AI research assistant for literature search and systematic reviews. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/elicit-vs-scite)
- [Semantic Scholar](https://toolgpa.com/tools/semantic-scholar): Free AI-powered search engine for scientific literature. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/scite-vs-semantic-scholar)
- [SciSpace](https://toolgpa.com/tools/scispace): AI research platform for literature review and reading papers. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/scispace-vs-scite)
- [ResearchRabbit](https://toolgpa.com/tools/researchrabbit): Literature discovery tool that maps how papers connect. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/researchrabbit-vs-scite)

## Sources

The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Oct 5, 2026:

- https://scite.ai/pricing
- https://web.archive.org/web/20260731120915/https://scite.ai/pricing
- https://web.archive.org/web/20260527044451/https://scite.ai/pricing
- https://web.archive.org/web/20260731164533/https://scite.ai/
- https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/scite/homifejhmckachdikhkgomachelakohh

Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/scite
Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).