Semantic Scholar
Free AI-powered search engine for scientific literature
Our verdict
Third of our top three AI research tools
For: Anyone who wants to pay nothing
Semantic Scholar is a search engine for scientific papers that is entirely free, with no paid plans, built by the nonprofit Allen Institute for AI. It indexes more than 200 million papers from all fields of science, and a free account adds a library, email alerts and Research Feeds that recommend new papers. It is third because its AI does less than the two above: the short TLDR summaries cover only computer science, biology and medicine, the Semantic Reader is in beta and covers mostly arXiv papers, and Ask This Paper works on a limited set of papers. There is no smartphone app; the site is designed to be used in mobile browsers.
See all three and how we rankWhat is Semantic Scholar?
Semantic Scholar is a free academic search engine built by Ai2, the nonprofit Allen Institute for AI. It indexes more than 200 million papers from all fields of science and adds AI-generated TLDR summaries, a ranking of highly influential citations and personalized Research Feeds. Its Academic Graph API and bulk datasets are open to developers.
Semantic Scholar is free to use. See every plan
Good for
- Free literature search across all fields of science
- Keeping up with new papers through alerts and recommendation feeds
- Developers who need open scholarly data through an API
Worth knowing
- There is no smartphone app; the FAQ says the site is designed to be used in mobile browsers.
- TLDR summaries are limited to papers in computer science and the biomedical fields.
- Semantic Reader is in beta and covers mostly arXiv papers, and Ask This Paper works on a limited set of papers.
- Unauthenticated API calls share one pool of 1,000 requests per second; an API key starts at 1 request per second.
Key features
- Paper search with TLDR summaries
- Searches papers with filters for venue, author, publication type and date. TLDRs are very short AI summaries, available for nearly 60 million papers in computer science, biology and medicine.
- Highly Influential Citations
- A machine-learning model flags the citations where the cited paper had a significant effect on the citing one, so a long citation list has a starting point.
- Library and Research Feeds
- Save papers into folders, share public folders and bulk export citations. Turning on a Research Feed for a folder brings paper recommendations based on its contents.
- Paper and author alerts
- Email alerts report new citations of a chosen paper, or new papers and citations for an author you follow.
- Semantic Reader
- A beta reading view for most arXiv papers, with in-line citation cards, a table of contents, AI skimming highlights and on-demand definitions of terms.
- Academic Graph API and datasets
- A REST API for papers, authors, citations, venues and recommendations, plus downloadable datasets. Most endpoints work without a key.
Semantic Scholar pricing
- Starts at
- Free
- Free plan
- Entirely free, with no paid plans. Papers can be read without an account; a free account adds a library, email alerts, Research Feeds and author page claiming.
- Free trial
- None listed
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Search, TLDR summaries, Semantic Reader, a paper library, alerts and Research Feeds, plus rate-limited API access. |
Read from semanticscholar.org on Oct 5, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Semantic Scholar before you buy.
Works with
Semantic Scholar alternatives
- Semantic Scholar vs Consensus
Free plan
- Semantic Scholar vs Elicit
Free plan · from $49/mo
- Semantic Scholar vs ResearchRabbit
Free plan · from $10/mo
- Semantic Scholar vs Connected Papers
Free plan · from $6/mo
- Semantic Scholar vs Scite
Free trial · from $20/mo
Common questions
Is Semantic Scholar free?
Yes. Semantic Scholar is free to use. Entirely free, with no paid plans. Papers can be read without an account; a free account adds a library, email alerts, Research Feeds and author page claiming.
How much does Semantic Scholar cost?
Semantic Scholar lists one plan. Free: $0. Prices were read from semanticscholar.org on Oct 5, 2026.
What platforms does Semantic Scholar work on?
Semantic Scholar is available on Web. It also has a browser extension.
Does Semantic Scholar have an Android app?
No Android app was listed when its pages were read on Oct 5, 2026. Semantic Scholar is listed for Web.
Does Semantic Scholar have an iPhone app?
No iPhone app was listed when its pages were read on Oct 5, 2026. Semantic Scholar is listed for Web.
Is Semantic Scholar open source?
Semantic Scholar is not described as open source on its own site, as read on Oct 5, 2026.
Does Semantic Scholar have an API?
Yes. Semantic Scholar offers a public API, according to its own site.
What does Semantic Scholar integrate with?
Semantic Scholar's listing names Zotero, Mendeley, OpenAthens, LibKey and GetFTR. A listing names up to eight integrations, so it may connect to more.
Who makes Semantic Scholar?
Semantic Scholar is made by Allen Institute for AI (Ai2). It dates from 2015.
What are the alternatives to Semantic Scholar?
The closest alternatives to Semantic Scholar in our directory are Consensus, Elicit, ResearchRabbit, Connected Papers and Scite. Each one has a side-by-side comparison with Semantic Scholar.
Sources for this page
The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Oct 5, 2026.