Comparison table
| Tool | Price from | Free plan | Category |
|---|---|---|---|
 Semantic Scholar | not listed | yes | Research & science |
 NotebookLM | 23,99 PLN/mo | ? | Research & science |
 SciSpace | 12 USD/mo | ? | Research & science |
 Connected Papers | 3 USD/mo | yes | Research & science |
 ResearchRabbit | 10 USD/mo | yes | Research & science |
 Scite | 20 USD/mo | trial | Research & science |
 AlphaSense | not listed | trial | Research & science |
 Elicit | 11 USD/mo | yes | Research & science |
 Wolfram|Alpha | 4,50 GBP/mo | ? | Research & science |
 Perplexity | not listed | yes | AI search engines |
How to choose
- Start with a tool that has a free plan and test it on your real task, not on the demo example.
- Compare prices in the same currency and billing period - annual plans are usually cheaper per month.
- For commercial work, check the license - free plans often do not grant commercial rights.
More tools (60)
DeepSeek
Chinese AI lab offering open-source large language models (DeepSeek-V4, R1) via a chat app, web interface and developer API.
Explainpaper
AI reader that highlights confusing parts of research papers and explains them in simple language, for researchers and students.
genei
AI research assistant that summarises articles and PDFs, extracts keywords and organises reading for students and researchers.
GetPaperFast
Turns academic PDFs into structured summaries (background, methods, results, limitations) for researchers and students.
Litmaps
Literature review assistant that finds relevant academic papers and shows them as visual citation maps for researchers and students.
Undermind
AI research assistant that searches the scientific literature, reads full texts and figures, and cites sources, for researchers and R&D teams.
Jenni AI
AI academic writing and research workspace for students and researchers, with citations traceable to source PDFs.
ASReview
Open-source AI tool that helps researchers screen large sets of records for systematic reviews, cutting screening workload.
ChatPDF
Chat with PDFs and other documents to get summaries, answers and cited passages - for students, researchers and professionals.
ZoomMate
AI teammate inside Zoom that analyzes conversations, finds decisions in meetings and apps, and completes work such as agendas, slides and follow-ups.
Consensus
AI academic search engine that finds, summarizes and analyzes peer-reviewed research papers for students, researchers and clinicians.
Scribbr
Academic writing platform offering plagiarism and AI-content checks, proofreading, citation generation and writing tools for students.
Artificial Analysis
Independent benchmarks and comparisons of AI models and API providers on quality, price, speed and latency, for choosing a model.
Turnitin
Academic integrity platform that detects plagiarism and AI-generated writing and supports grading and feedback for schools and universities.
FigureLabs
Generates publication-ready scientific illustrations, flowcharts and plots from text or sketches, for researchers preparing papers and grants.
Rayyan
AI-assisted platform that speeds up systematic and literature reviews for researchers, covering screening, deduplication and data extraction.
Sourcely
AI academic source finder that turns pasted text or essays into relevant papers, summaries and citations, for students and researchers.
Mapify
Turns PDFs, YouTube videos, webpages, audio and text into structured, editable mind maps for students, researchers and knowledge workers.
Apify
Marketplace of ready-to-run tools (Actors) for web scraping, data collection and automation, for developers and businesses building AI agents and apps.
Browserbase
Cloud browser infrastructure that lets AI agents use the web like a human - logins, forms, portals - for developers and teams building browser agents.
Exa
Search API that gives AI agents real-time web, people, and company data plus deep research, from one endpoint.
Readwise Reader
Read-it-later app with advanced highlighting, RSS, PDF and newsletter support, for people who read a lot and want to remember it.
Tavily
Real-time web search and content extraction API that gives AI agents and LLMs fresh, structured web data.
You.com
Web search, content extraction and research APIs that give AI agents and LLMs live, grounded web data for developers and enterprises.
Heidi
AI care partner that handles clinical documentation (scribe), evidence lookup and admin tasks for clinicians and healthcare teams.
Jan
Open-source desktop app to run open AI models locally or connect to cloud models like ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini, for private and flexible chat.
Jungle Scout
Amazon market intelligence platform giving brands and sellers sales estimates, pricing, benchmarking and product research data.
Paperpal
AI writing and research assistant for academics, covering grammar, plagiarism, paraphrasing, citations and journal submission checks.
Opera Neon
Agentic browser from Opera that reads pages, manages tabs and carries out tasks for you, aimed at people doing research and multi-step web work.
Lexis+ with Protégé
Legal AI for drafting, legal research and document analysis, built on LexisNexis authoritative sources, for legal professionals.
FAQ
What is the best AI for research?
Most popular choices: Semantic Scholar, NotebookLM, SciSpace. The ranking is based on popularity and free plan availability - affiliate links do not change it.
Is there a free AI for research?
Yes: Semantic Scholar, Connected Papers, ResearchRabbit, Elicit, Perplexity have a free plan.