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Elicit

Elicit

AI research assistant for evidence-based scientific literature review

AI-Powered Summary

Elicit is an AI research assistant that helps scientists and researchers quickly find and analyze academic papers across a database of 138 million papers and 545,000 clinical trials. It automates key parts of literature reviews including screening, data extraction, and report generation, with sentence-level citations for verifiability. Used by over 5 million researchers at academic and industry institutions.

Key Features

What makes Elicit stand out

Semantic Paper Search

Search over 138 million papers and 545,000 clinical trials without needing exact keywords.

Research Reports

Generate customizable research briefs based on a process inspired by systematic reviews.

Systematic Review

Automate screening and data extraction for systematic literature reviews with strict criteria support.

Paper Library

Store and organize sources you find for easy reuse across future research projects.

Research Alerts

Get notified when new relevant research is published without cluttering your inbox.

Citation Transparency

Every AI-generated claim is backed by sentence-level citations from underlying source papers.

Strict Screening

Mark critical criteria as strict to automatically exclude papers that don't meet them.

Data Extraction

Extract structured data points from papers at scale for analysis and comparison.

What's Great

  • Searches 138 million papers and 545,000 clinical trials with semantic search
  • Provides sentence-level citations for all AI-generated claims, enabling verification
  • Can analyze up to 20,000 data points and find up to 1,000 relevant papers at once
  • Researchers report up to 80% time savings on systematic reviews
  • Customizable reports beyond simple chat-based Q&A

Things to Know

  • Pro tier at $49/month may be expensive for individual graduate students
  • Limited to academic papers and clinical trials — not suited for non-scientific research
  • Systematic Review features restricted to paid Pro, Teams, and Enterprise tiers

Pricing Plans

All Elicit pricing tiers and features

Monthly and yearly billing available

Free

Free
Most Popular

Pro

$49/mo
Systematic Review features
Strict screening criteria
80-paper reports(Up to 80 papers)

Teams

$169/mo
Systematic Review features
Strict screening criteria
80-paper reports(Up to 80 papers)
Enterprise

Enterprise

Contact Sales
All Teams features

Real Cost Breakdown

Solo User
$49/mo
Team of 5
$845/mo

Hidden Costs

  • Usage limits on free tier are not specified but likely restrict the number of searches and analyses

Cost Saving Tips

  • Use the free tier for basic searches before committing to Pro
  • Annual billing may offer savings compared to monthly

At $49/month for Pro, Elicit is competitively priced for professional researchers who conduct frequent literature reviews, though casual users may find the free tier sufficient.

Price Comparison

Compare Elicit with similar tools

Elicit is the premium choice in this category, priced 91% above the category average of $26/mo.

Arc Browser
Arc Browser
free
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0
Consensus
Consensus
freemium
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Algolia
Algolia
freemium
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SciSpace
SciSpace
freemium
$8
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Perplexity
Perplexity
freemium
$20
/month
Elicit
ElicitYOU
freemium
$49
/month
Bar length shows relative price — longer bars mean higher prices. Tools are sorted from most affordable to most expensive.
Free / Open Source
Freemium
Paid
Enterprise

Best For

Academic researchers and scientists conducting literature reviews and systematic reviews

Who Should NOT Use This

  • Non-academic researchers or market analystsElicit is focused exclusively on scientific papers and clinical trials, not business data, news, or market reports.
  • Researchers needing full-text PDF managementElicit is primarily an analysis and synthesis tool, not a reference manager like Zotero or Mendeley.
  • Students just needing quick homework answersElicit is designed for in-depth literature review workflows, not casual question-answering — simpler AI chatbots would suffice.
  • Teams needing collaborative real-time document editingElicit focuses on research discovery and analysis, not collaborative writing or document editing.

Competitive Position

Elicit combines systematic review automation with sentence-level citation transparency at a scale of 138M+ papers, going beyond simple search to structured data extraction and customizable reports.

When to Choose Elicit

  • You need to conduct systematic literature reviews with automated screening and data extraction
  • You want AI-generated research summaries with verifiable sentence-level citations
  • You need to search and analyze hundreds of papers at scale rather than one at a time
  • You value accuracy and transparency over conversational AI chat

When to Look Elsewhere

  • You need general-purpose AI assistance beyond scientific literature
  • You need a full reference manager with PDF annotation and organization
  • You're looking for a free tool with unlimited usage
  • You need collaborative writing features alongside research

Strongest alternative: Consensus (consensus.app)

Learning Curve

Easy
Time to basic use
15-30 minutes
Time to proficiency
1-2 weeks

Prerequisites

Basic understanding of academic research and literature review processes

Common Challenges

  • Understanding how to formulate effective research questions for semantic search
  • Learning to configure screening criteria for systematic reviews
  • Knowing when to trust AI-extracted data vs. manually verifying sources

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about Elicit

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