Elicit vs Explainpaper
Elicit uniquely has 12 features · Explainpaper uniquely has 10 features.
| Elicit | Explainpaper | |
|---|---|---|
| Company | ||
| Founded | 2021 | 2022 |
| HQ | San Francisco, USA | San Francisco, USA |
| AI model | Claude (Anthropic) + proprietary models | Advanced AI models (basic AI on free tier) |
| User base | 5M+ | 400,000+ |
| Platforms | Web | Web |
| Languages | English primarily | 50+ |
| Pricing | ||
| Pricing model | Freemium | Freemium |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | No | Yes |
| Starting price | $19/mo | $16/mo |
| Enterprise | Custom | Contact us |
| Refund policy | — | 14-day money-back guarantee on initial Pro subscriptions |
| All plans | BasicFreePlus (Academic)$19/moPro (Academic and Industry)$69/moScale (Academic and Industry)$149/moEnterprise (Academic and Industry)Custom | Free$0/moPro$16/moTeamsContact us |
| Positioning | ||
| Best for | Systematic literature reviews and academic research | Professional research and academic paper comprehension |
| Differentiator | Dedicated Systematic Review Workflow screening up to 5,000 papers; nonprofit mission focused on scaling good reasoning and trustworthy AI-assisted research | Math and figure explanations, Zotero import, whole-paper summaries, multilingual output |
| Competitors | Consensus, Semantic Scholar, Research Rabbit, Scite, Perplexity, SciSpace | Consensus, Elicit, SciSpace, ChatPDF, Semantic Scholar, Perplexity |
| Features | ||
| 138m+ Paper Search | ✓ | — |
| Advanced AI Models | — | ✓ |
| Ask Follow Up Questions | — | ✓ |
| Export to Ris/Csv/Bib/PDF/Docx | ✓ | — |
| Extract From Figures in Papers | ✓ | — |
| Follow Up Questions | — | ✓ |
| Math & Figure Explanations | — | ✓ |
| Real Time Collaboration | ✓ | — |
| Saved Highlights | — | ✓ |
| Saved Highlights & Explanations | — | ✓ |
| Smart Outlines & Key Point Extraction | — | ✓ |
| Systematic Review Workflow | ✓ | — |
| Unlimited Paper Alerts | ✓ | — |
| Whole Paper Summaries | — | ✓ |
| Zotero Import | — | ✓ |
| Zotero Library Import | — | ✓ |
| Academic Search | ✓ | ✕ |
| AI Summarization | ✓ | ✓ |
| API Access | ✓ | ✕ |
| Browser Extension | ✕ | ✕ |
| Citation Generation | ✓ | ✓ |
| Data Privacy | ✓ | — |
| Document Upload | ✓ | ✓ |
| Fact Checking | ✓ | ✕ |
| Follow Up Questions | ✓ | ✓ |
| Mobile App | ✕ | ✕ |
| Multi Source Synthesis | ✓ | ✕ |
| Team Collaboration | ✓ | ✓ |
| Web Search | ✕ | ✕ |
| Integrations | ||
| API Access | ✓ | ✕ |
| Browser Extension | ✕ | ✕ |
| Google Docs Export | — | ✕ |
| Key Integrations | Zotero import, Elicit API, MCP server for agent/workflow integration, custom data sources (Enterprise) | Zotero |
| Notion Integration | — | ✕ |
| Zotero Integration | ✓ | ✓ |