What is Elicit?
Elicit is an AI research assistant built to help people work through academic literature and make evidence-based decisions. According to its homepage, it covers evidence synthesis, mapping the state of a field, designing programs and experiments, drafting proposals and weighing tradeoffs. The pricing page describes search across more than 138 million papers, summaries and chat with full-text papers, as well as clinical trial search across more than 500 thousand trials.
In practice, you enter a research question, get a list of relevant papers, and can ask questions of the papers or extract structured data from them into tables. Higher tiers add the Research Agent, Research Reports, systematic review workflows that can screen thousands of papers, custom column extraction, figure interpretation and team collaboration features.
Key features
- Semantic search across more than 138 million academic papers
- Summaries and chat with paper full text, with sources shown for answers
- Structured data extraction from papers into customizable table columns
- Research Agent and auto-generated Research Reports
- Systematic literature review workflow with screening of up to 5,000 papers (Pro)
- Import from Zotero and export to RIS, CSV, BIB, PDF and DOCX
- Search API access (Pro and Enterprise)
Who is it for
- Researchers and academics
- Pharmaceutical and life sciences R&D teams
- Analysts doing systematic reviews
- Students writing literature reviews
How to get started with Elicit
- Go to the Elicit website and create a free Basic account.
- Type your research question into the search field.
- Review the paper summaries and check sources behind the answers.
- You conduct research and need to quickly search scientific literature.
- You want to ask questions directly to full-text articles with visible sources.
- You plan a systematic literature review and need a workflow for many papers.
- You need a Polish-language interface, which is not available.
- You want heavy use of Research Agent and Research Reports without limits on the free plan.
Pros and cons
- Unlimited search and summaries on the free Basic plan
- Sources are shown for answers and Zotero import is supported
- Free plan usage for the Research Agent and Research Reports is limited
- Higher-tier features such as systematic review workflows and API access require paid plans
Elicit pricing
| Plan | Price | Includes |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | 0 USD | Limited Research Agent and Research Reports usage |
| Plus | 11 USD / month | Per user/month, billed as 132 USD annually; standard Research Agent usage, export to RIS/CSV/BIB/PDF/DOCX, 5 table columns added at a time, clinical trial search across 500 thousand trials |
| Pro | 39 USD / month | Per user/month, billed as 468 USD annually; 5x usage, systematic review workflow screening 5,000 papers, 20 columns at a time, reports from up to 135 data sources, API access |
| Scale | 89 USD / month | Per user/month, billed as 1,068 USD annually; 9x usage, figure extraction, real-time collaboration, up to 200 data sources, admin panel |
Prices copied from Elicit pricing, checked October 12, 2026. Currency as shown by the vendor; taxes may apply.
Is Elicit free?
Yes, there is a free plan. Basic plan: limited usage for Research Agent and Research Reports, unlimited search across 138 million papers, unlimited summaries and chat with papers with full-text access, source viewing and Zotero import.
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Elicit alternatives
| Tool | Price from | Free plan | Category |
|---|---|---|---|
 Wolfram|Alpha | 4,50 GBP/mo | ? | Research & science |
 AlphaSense | not listed | trial | Research & science |
 NotebookLM | 23,99 PLN/mo | ? | Research & science |
 Semantic Scholar | not listed | yes | Research & science |
 SciSpace | 12 USD/mo | ? | Research & science |
 genei | 4.99 GBP/mo | trial | Research & science |
Comparisons
FAQ
What is Elicit used for?
AI research assistant that searches, summarizes and extracts data from academic papers, for researchers, analysts and R&D teams.
Is Elicit free?
Yes, there is a free plan. Basic plan: limited usage for Research Agent and Research Reports, unlimited search across 138 million papers, unlimited summaries and chat with papers with full-text access, source viewing and Zotero import.
How much does Elicit cost?
The cheapest paid plan is 11 USD/mo (vendor pricing, October 12, 2026).
What are the best Elicit alternatives?
Closest alternatives: Wolfram|Alpha, AlphaSense, NotebookLM, Semantic Scholar, SciSpace.
Data checked October 12, 2026 on the vendor website (elicit.com).