What Elicit does
Elicit is an AI research assistant for finding and analyzing academic papers. It searches more than 138 million papers, summarizes them, and lets you chat with full texts, with answers tied to sentence-level citations. Its main strength is structured work: it builds tables that extract data from many papers at once, writes research reports, and runs a dedicated systematic literature review workflow that automates screening and extraction. Routines keep a topic current by finding new evidence over time.
Best for
- Academics running systematic literature reviews
- Pharma and medical teams reviewing clinical evidence
- Students finding and summarizing papers
- Policy analysts weighing research evidence
Key features
Paper search
Searches over 138 million academic papers and returns sourced answers, unlimited on every plan.
Data extraction tables
Pull the same data points from many papers into columns, with citations for each value.
Systematic reviews
A workflow that screens papers and extracts data, handling 5,000 papers on Pro.
Research Agent and Reports
Runs multi-step research and writes briefs whose sources and content you can adjust.
Routines
Re-run a research question over time to surface new evidence.
API and MCP
Pro and above include API access, and an MCP server connects Elicit to agents and other tools.
Elicit pricing
Elicit has a free plan. Basic includes unlimited paper search, summaries and chat with papers, plus limited Research Agent and Reports use. Paid plans start at $49/user/month. Annual billing saves about 35–39%. Exact usage caps for Research Agent and Reports are not published. Prices checked on the official site on Nov 9, 2026.
| Basic | $0 | |
|---|---|---|
| Pro | $49/user/month | $588/user billed annually |
| Scale | $229/user/month | $2,748/user billed annually; 5x usage, team collaboration |
| Enterprise | Contact sales | Custom; contact sales |
Source: Elicit pricing page
Pros and cons
What it does well
- Search, summaries and chat with papers are unlimited even on the free plan.
- Extraction tables save time when comparing many studies.
- Answers cite specific sentences in the source papers.
Know before you sign up
- The systematic review workflow requires the $49/month Pro plan.
- Research Agent and Report usage is capped on every plan, but the exact limits are not stated.
- It covers academic papers rather than general web sources, and no mobile app is mentioned.
Alternatives to Elicit
ConsensusSearch academic papers with AI support.
ResearchRabbitExplore connections between academic papers.
SciSpaceSearch papers and work with research PDFs.
HumataAsk questions across an internal knowledge base.
PerplexityAsk questions and follow cited sources into deeper research.
SemrushResearch search and AI-answer visibility.
Questions about Elicit
What is Elicit?
Elicit is an AI research assistant for finding and analyzing academic papers. It searches more than 138 million papers, summarizes them, and lets you chat with full texts, with answers tied to sentence-level citations. Its main strength is structured work: it builds tables that extract data from many papers at once, writes research reports, and runs a dedicated systematic literature review workflow that automates screening and extraction. Routines keep a topic current by finding new evidence over time.
Is Elicit free?
Elicit has a free plan. Basic includes unlimited paper search, summaries and chat with papers, plus limited Research Agent and Reports use. Paid plans start at $49/user/month. Annual billing saves about 35–39%. Exact usage caps for Research Agent and Reports are not published. Prices checked on the official site on Nov 9, 2026.
How much does Elicit cost?
Paid plans start at $49/user/month; plans listed on the official pricing page: Basic ($0), Pro ($49/user/month), Scale ($229/user/month), Enterprise. Annual billing saves about 35–39%. Exact usage caps for Research Agent and Reports are not published.
Who is Elicit best for?
Academics running systematic literature reviews, Pharma and medical teams reviewing clinical evidence, Students finding and summarizing papers and Policy analysts weighing research evidence.
Where can I use Elicit?
Elicit is available on Web and API, according to its official site.
What are some alternatives to Elicit?
Similar research tools include Consensus, ResearchRabbit, SciSpace and Humata. Compare them on the Research page.