Explainpaper vs Scite
Scite uniquely has 15 features · Explainpaper uniquely has 11 features.
| Explainpaper | Scite | |
|---|---|---|
| Company | ||
| Founded | 2022 | 2018 |
| HQ | San Francisco, USA | Henderson, NV USA |
| AI model | Advanced AI models (basic AI on free tier) | Proprietary (built on licensed scholarly database with AI assistant layer) |
| User base | 400,000+ | 2M+ |
| Platforms | Web | Web, Chrome Extension, Zotero Plugin, API, Claude/ChatGPT integrations (MCP) |
| Languages | 50+ | English primarily |
| Pricing | ||
| Pricing model | Freemium | Subscription |
| Free plan | Yes | No |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes |
| Starting price | $16/mo | $20/mo |
| Enterprise | Contact us | Contact us |
| Refund policy | 14-day money-back guarantee on initial Pro subscriptions | Non-refundable; users can cancel future renewals at any time |
| All plans | Free$0/moPro$16/moTeamsContact us | Basic$20/moPro$50/moTeam$50/seat/moEnterpriseContact us |
| Positioning | ||
| Best for | Professional research and academic paper comprehension | Individual researchers, labs, and small teams doing deep research |
| Differentiator | Math and figure explanations, Zotero import, whole-paper summaries, multilingual output | Scite's Smart Citations uniquely classify how later research has supported, contradicted, or mentioned a paper, grounding every AI-generated answer in verifiable sentence-level evidence from 1.6B+ indexed citations across 40+ licensed publisher agreements. |
| Competitors | Consensus, Elicit, SciSpace, ChatPDF, Semantic Scholar, Perplexity | Semantic Scholar, Elicit, Consensus, ResearchRabbit, Connected Papers |
| Features | ||
| Advanced AI Models | ✓ | — |
| Ask Follow Up Questions | ✓ | — |
| Chatgpt & Claude Integrations | — | ✓ |
| Citation Alerts | — | ✓ |
| Follow Up Questions | ✓ | — |
| Full Text Search | — | ✓ |
| Mcp Credits | — | ✓ |
| Math & Figure Explanations | ✓ | — |
| Patent, Clinical Trial & Grant Search | — | ✓ |
| Saved Highlights | ✓ | — |
| Saved Highlights & Explanations | ✓ | — |
| Smart Citations | — | ✓ |
| Smart Outlines & Key Point Extraction | ✓ | — |
| 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 | Zotero, Claude, ChatGPT, MCP-compatible assistants, API |
| Notion Integration | ✕ | — |
| Zotero Integration | ✓ | ✓ |