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Elicit

An AI research assistant built specifically for academic literature search, summarization, and systematic review workflows across a large database of scholarly papers.

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What it does

Elicit is an AI research assistant purpose-built for academic work: it searches over 138 million papers using semantic matching rather than simple keyword search, summarizes and lets users “chat with” individual papers, and supports structured data extraction across many papers into a table. Its Systematic Review Workflow can screen thousands of candidate papers against inclusion criteria, making it particularly suited to formal literature reviews and meta-analyses rather than casual, one-off questions.

Ideal users

  • Academic researchers and graduate students conducting literature reviews
  • Teams running systematic reviews or meta-analyses
  • R&D and evidence-synthesis teams in industry
  • Anyone needing structured data extraction across many papers at once

Who should avoid it

  • You need general web search or current-events information — Elicit isn't built for that
  • You're a casual user with a single quick question — the tool is built for depth, not speed
  • You need visual consensus scoring across studies — Consensus is more visual for that

Key features

  • Semantic search across 138M+ academic papers and 545,000+ clinical trials via Semantic Scholar
  • Chat with individual papers using full-text access
  • Systematic Review Workflow that can screen thousands of papers
  • Custom data-extraction table columns
  • Personalized research alerts for new matching papers
  • Export to CSV and BibTeX, with Zotero import
  • API access for embedding Elicit's search and report generation into other tools

Pros

  • Purpose-built for rigorous, structured literature review rather than casual search
  • Genuinely usable free tier — unlimited search, summaries, and paper chat
  • Strong data-extraction and export tooling for systematic reviews
  • Large, academic-specific corpus rather than general web content

Cons

  • Not designed for non-academic or general-knowledge questions
  • Higher-tier plans are priced for serious or institutional use, not casual users
  • AI-extracted data and summaries still require verification against the original paper
  • Learning curve for the full systematic-review workflow compared to a simple search box

Pricing

Free — $12/month (Plus; ~$10/month billed annually)

Free (Basic) includes unlimited search, summaries, and paper chat but limited Research Agent usage; Pro ($49/month) adds a dedicated 5,000-paper screening workflow; Scale/Team ($169/month) adds figure extraction and real-time collaboration; Enterprise is custom-priced.

Typical workflows

  • A researcher searches a review question, gets a ranked list of relevant papers with AI-generated summaries, then builds a table extracting specific data points across dozens of papers at once.
  • For a formal systematic review, a team uses the Systematic Review Workflow to screen thousands of candidate papers against inclusion and exclusion criteria, then exports the final extraction table to CSV or BibTeX.

Integrations

  • Zotero (import)
  • CSV/BibTeX export
  • API access

Privacy & security notes

Elicit's search and chat results link directly back to the source papers, so claims are generally traceable, but AI-generated summaries and extracted table data can still misstate what a paper actually found, so verification against the original text is recommended for anything used in a publication.

Frequently asked questions

How many papers does Elicit search?

Over 138 million academic papers plus 545,000+ clinical trials, via Semantic Scholar's index.

Can I use Elicit for a formal systematic review?

Yes — its Systematic Review Workflow can screen up to 5,000 papers on Pro (40,000 on Enterprise) against inclusion and exclusion criteria, with structured data extraction.

Is the free plan enough for a casual literature search?

Yes — Basic includes unlimited search, unlimited summaries, and unlimited paper chat; paid tiers add higher usage of the Research Agent, systematic review tools, and more table columns.

How accurate are Elicit's extracted data points?

Generally reliable but not perfect — extracted data should be spot-checked against the source paper before being used in a review or publication.

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