Elicit vs Keenious
Elicit scores 7.8 to Keenious's 5.1 among the literature search tools we rate, and is the better pick for 3 of the 5 kinds of buyer below.
Elicit wins, 7.8 to 5.1
Keenious starts at $10 a month, billed annually; Elicit's academic plan is $19 a month. Keenious answers back with a Word and Google Docs add-in for finding sources as you write, something Elicit does not offer. Elicit goes much further otherwise: it screens papers for a systematic review, deduplicates references automatically, summarizes papers, and reads figures and tables, none of which Keenious does, since Keenious is built to find sources rather than summarize or analyze them for you.
Pick Elicit if you need systematic review screening, summaries and dedup.
Pick Keenious if you want a Word or Docs add-in while you write.
Best for
Who each one suits, decided on the criteria that matter to that buyer and the checked facts where the two differ.
- Alerts for new papers: Elicit yes, Keenious no
- Map of connected papers: Keenious yes, Elicit no
- Pulls data from many papers into a table: Elicit yes, Keenious no
- Summarises papers: Elicit yes, Keenious no
- Reads tables and figures: Elicit yes, Keenious no
- Screening with include and exclude decisions: Elicit yes, Keenious no
- AI help with screening: Elicit yes, Keenious no
- Removes duplicate references: Elicit yes, Keenious no
- Monthly price, cheapest paid plan: $10 against $19
- Browser extension: Elicit yes, Keenious no
- Shared projects with your team: Elicit yes, Keenious no
- API: Elicit yes, Keenious no
- But Keenious leads on word or Google Docs add-in: Keenious yes, Elicit no
How they score
Both are scored the same way, against the other literature search tools we rate, from facts on each vendor's own pages. Elicit leads on 4 of 6 criteria.
Where they differ
Every point where the two vendors' published facts disagree, with a link to where each fact was read. "Not published" means the vendor does not say either way.
Published by only one of them
Where they match (9)
Pricing, plan by plan
Every plan each vendor publishes, monthly and yearly where both are offered.
Elicit
Keenious
Pros and cons
From each tool's full review, written from the same checked facts.
Elicit
- Semantic search across 138 million academic papers means users don't need exact keyword phrasing to find relevant literature.
- Built specifically for rigorous, citation-dependent research workflows rather than general-purpose AI use.
- Integrates clinical trial data with around 545,000 trials searchable alongside academic papers.
- Research Agent can analyze up to 20,000 data points and synthesize findings across up to 200 sources.
- Curated academic database ensures results are limited to credible sources rather than open web noise.
- Rooted in Ought's nonprofit AI research background, with a strong emphasis on accuracy and transparency over speed.
- Users who adopt it for serious literature review work tend to stick with it long-term, indicating high retention among target users.
- Structured extraction tables and report generation streamline systematic review workflows that would otherwise take weeks manually.
- Not designed for general-purpose AI queries, so users expecting quick answers or tidy summaries will be disappointed.
- Has no meaningful presence on G2 or Capterra, making third-party social proof and peer reviews difficult to find.
- Limited to a curated academic database rather than live web search, which may frustrate users needing current or non-academic sources.
- Niche positioning means the learning curve may be steep for researchers unfamiliar with systematic review workflows.
- Community feedback is scattered across Reddit, Twitter, and Product Hunt rather than consolidated review platforms, making evaluation harder.
- Relies on a mix of Claude from Anthropic and proprietary models, meaning output quality is partly dependent on third-party AI performance.
Keenious
- Field map visualization shows how different research clusters relate to each other, offering a genuinely unique spatial view of academic literature.
- Combines visual research mapping with conversational AI in a way that competitors like Elicit and Consensus do not replicate.
- AI-assisted explanation provides actual comprehension support rather than simple abstract retrieval, helping users understand unfamiliar fields.
- Runs on a proprietary AI model rather than a wrapped commercial LLM, giving it a distinct technical foundation.
- Available as both a Microsoft Word and Google Docs add-in, integrating directly into common academic writing workflows.
- Citation export in RIS and BibTeX formats on the Plus plan makes it compatible with reference managers like Zotero.
- Particularly useful for students entering a new field, with library communities noting its value for building vocabulary and orientation.
- Free tier document upload is capped at 3 MB, which is too small for many dense academic PDFs.
- No mobile app is available, limiting access for researchers who work across devices.
- The proprietary AI model may be a limitation for users who expect the capabilities of leading commercial LLMs.
- Research is based on cross-referenced user reports rather than hands-on testing, meaning some limitations may not be fully captured.
- Does not fit neatly into established AI research tool categories, which may cause confusion about its core use case.
- Plus plan is required for the 20 MB upload limit, gating a basic research necessity behind a paid tier.
Elicit vs Keenious: common questions
Which is better, Elicit or Keenious?
Elicit scores 7.8 and Keenious 5.1 out of 10 among the literature search tools we rate. Elicit is ahead on reading and analysing papers, systematic reviews, citing and writing and access, teams and privacy. Keenious is ahead on pricing.
Is Elicit or Keenious cheaper?
Elicit's cheapest paid plan is $19/mo academic plan ($75/mo industry plan) and Keenious's is $10/mo. Compare what each plan includes below before going on price alone.
What can Elicit do that Keenious cannot?
On the facts both vendors publish: alerts for new papers, pulls data from many papers into a table, summarises papers, reads tables and figures, writes a literature review for you, screening with include and exclude decisions, aI help with screening, removes duplicate references, pRISMA flow diagram, browser extension, shared projects with your team and aPI.
What can Keenious do that Elicit cannot?
On the facts both vendors publish: map of connected papers, word or Google Docs add-in and works in languages other than English.
