Overview

Elicit is an AI research assistant built to help researchers find and assess evidence across scholarly literature and other sources. It fits teams that need cited synthesis and structured review work, particularly when those results must flow into existing research workflows. Its central advantage is the combination of broad discovery and traceable claims; API access and heavier usage require a paid plan.

Key features

The Research Agent draws on a corpus of 138 million academic papers and the wider web, including scientific databases, journals, public data sources, and documents uploaded for a session. Each session accepts up to 20 resources in PDF, DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, or JPG formats. That breadth is useful for combining published studies with a project’s own files, though the per-session cap may be restrictive for teams reviewing larger document sets.

Elicit supports Research Agent sessions, Research Reports, and Systematic Reviews. It can find up to 1,000 relevant papers and analyze up to 20,000 data points at once. Those ceilings make it suited to substantial evidence reviews, while sentence-level citations on AI-generated claims give reviewers a way to check the underlying sources instead of taking a synthesis on trust.

Reports export to PDF or Word, tables to CSV or Excel, and references to RIS or BIB. The MCP server connects through OAuth 2.0 to Claude Desktop, Claude Code, and other MCP-compatible clients. API access covers paper and clinical-trial searches as well as research workflows, but requires Pro or above, making it a poor fit for teams that need to integrate through an API while staying on a lower tier. Elicit states that it has achieved SOC 2 Type II compliance. Enterprise users also get SAML 2.0 SSO and MFA, and Elicit says it does not train on Enterprise user data.

Pricing

Elicit uses a freemium model, with paid plans starting at $11 per user per month. The Basic plan has no listed price and offers limited Research Agent and Research Report usage, alongside unlimited search across more than 138 million papers, summaries, paper chat with full-text access, source viewing, and Zotero import. It is a useful entry point for occasional discovery, but limited usage makes it less suitable for recurring research workflows.

Plus costs 11.00 USD per month, billed monthly. It adds exports to RIS, CSV, BIB, PDF, and DOCX; five table columns at a time; unlimited search across more than 500 thousand clinical trials; and standard usage for Research Agent, Research Reports, and Systematic Literature Reviews. This is the most accessible paid option for researchers who need routine work and export support, though its standard usage and five-column batch limit may not fit intensive reviews.

Pro costs 39.00 USD per month, billed monthly, and includes 5,000 papers screened, 135 data sources, and 10 personalized research alerts. It is the entry point for API users and a stronger fit for teams with larger screening needs. Scale costs 89.00 USD per month, billed monthly, and raises coverage to 200 data sources with 30 table columns added at a time, better suited to broader or more structured analysis.

Enterprise has custom pricing and includes 40,000 papers screened and 40 columns extracted. It also includes a dedicated customer success team for training, onboarding, and success planning, plus SAML 2.0 SSO and MFA. That makes it the tier to consider for organizations with higher screening volumes and enterprise identity requirements; Basic, Plus, Pro, and Scale do not have those Enterprise commitments in the plan details.

Platforms

Elicit is available on the web and through an API. The API requires Pro or above. Its MCP server also lets users connect compatible clients such as Claude Desktop and Claude Code through OAuth 2.0.

Who it's for

Elicit is a strong match for researchers and research teams that need to search large academic collections, combine external findings with uploaded files, and carry cited results into reports, tables, or reference managers. Teams that need an API should budget for Pro or higher; those with large document collections should account for the 20-resource session cap. It is less compelling for occasional users who need little beyond paper search, since Basic limits Research Agent and Report usage.

Pros and cons

Pro: A 138-million-paper corpus, wider-web access, and multiple evidence sources give research teams broad discovery in one workflow.
Pro: Sentence-level citations make AI-generated claims easier to verify against their sources.
Pro: Research reports, tables, and references export in formats suited to documents, spreadsheets, and reference managers.
Con: Each session is capped at 20 uploaded resources, which can interrupt work on larger private collections.
Con: API access starts at Pro, so users cannot build API workflows on the entry-level plans.
Con: Basic limits Research Agent and Report usage, while Plus provides standard usage; teams with sustained workloads may need a higher tier.

Alternatives

For a dedicated literature-review workflow, compare Literature Review Software and AI Literature Review Software. For broader discovery tools, see AI Search Engines or AI Research Assistants.

Rayyan is worth considering for a review with a small team that can work within its free tier’s three active reviews and two free reviewers. ASReview is a free, open-source option for teams prepared to run it on their own hardware or server. Bibliometrix suits users who want an open-source R package with a web interface. Buhos is another free alternative. Litmaps fits users focused on mapping literature who can work within its free plan’s 20 inputs, 100 articles, and one Litmap. ResearchRabbit is a free choice for article discovery and shared collections, with searches across more than 310 million articles and up to 50 seed articles. RevMan is another option for review work. Abstrackr suits users seeking a free web tool with no seat limits or usage caps.

Verdict

Choose Elicit if your research team needs broad paper discovery, cited AI synthesis, and structured workflows that export into the rest of its stack. The main reason to look elsewhere is cost at scale: sustained usage, API integration, or larger screening needs push the decision toward Pro, Scale, or custom-priced Enterprise.

	Elicit	Semantic Scholar
Free plan	Yes	Yes
Free trial	No	No
Paid from	$11/mo	Free
Open source	No	No
Platforms	api, Web	api, extension, Web
Free plan	Yes	Yes
Source filters	—	Yes
Browser extension	—	Yes
Mobile apps	—	none
API access	—	Yes

Elicit vs Semantic Scholar

Elicit

Semantic Scholar