Connected Papers is a visual tool for finding academic papers: you enter one paper and it draws a graph of related work, clustered by how much the papers share in citations and references. It has no AI features, so what decides whether it suits you is whether you want a map of a field to explore by eye rather than an assistant that reads and summarizes papers.
What is Connected Papers?
Connected Papers is a literature discovery tool that runs in the browser. Its database is connected to the Semantic Scholar Paper Corpus, and every graph is built from that citation data. There is no browser extension and no iOS or Android app.
It does one job. Connected Papers builds similarity graphs from citations; it does not read, answer questions about, summarize or write anything, and you cannot upload your own documents. The free tier includes every feature, so the paid plans differ from it in the number of graphs you can build each month.
Finding papers with Connected Papers
Building a graph. You search for an origin paper, and Connected Papers analyzes around 50,000 papers to find the few dozen most connected to it. Its similarity measure rests on co-citation and bibliographic coupling: two papers count as close when they are cited together or cite the same work. A force-directed graph then places the papers so that similar ones cluster together.
The graph comes from citation links, not from the text of the papers. You can also build multi-origin graphs from several starting papers, on every plan.
Looking back and forward. The Prior Works view shows the older papers your graph draws on, the ancestors of the field, and the Derivative Works view shows later papers that build on it. Together they help you find the papers to read for a literature review, though Connected Papers does not write the review.
Reading a result. Clicking a paper opens a panel with the paper's own details. There are no AI summaries, and the graph shows how similar papers are by shared citations, not whether one paper supports or contradicts another.
What it does not do. There is no chat with a PDF, no data extraction, no figure analysis, no screening workflow, no PRISMA support, no reference deduplication and no study quality assessment. There are no alerts for new papers either; the mailing list sends product updates only.
Working with other people
Single graphs can be shared by link. Group plans let an administrator assign premium seats to members at the same per-seat prices, but there are no shared projects or libraries.
For universities, the Academic Library license is an institution-wide plan with unlimited graphs for all students and staff, priced by quote, with access by email, IP address or single sign-on. There is no API and no Word or Google Docs add-in.
Connected Papers pricing: what each plan gives
The free tier includes every feature and gives you 5 graphs a month. Paid plans unlock unlimited graphs, and the shortest term sold is a quarter; there is no month-to-month option.
- Academic: $10 a month, billed $30 quarterly, or $6 a month billed $72 a year. For people at academic institutions, non-profits and anyone using Connected Papers for personal use.
- Business: $30 a month, billed $90 quarterly, or $20 a month billed $240 a year. For commercial use.
- Academic Library: priced by quote for whole institutions.
Academic and Business include the same features, and Academic costs a third of Business on quarterly billing. Paying yearly works out 40% cheaper than quarterly on Academic and 33% cheaper on Business. Plans renew automatically and can be cancelled at any time. A scholarship program offers discounted or free Premium access to researchers who cannot afford it.
Who Connected Papers suits
Connected Papers suits students and researchers starting on an unfamiliar topic who want to see the shape of a field from one known paper, find its foundational work and spot the newer papers that build on it. The free tier's 5 graphs a month cover occasional use, and the Academic plan is inexpensive for anyone who works this way every week. Libraries can open it to all their students and staff through the Academic Library license, with sign-in by email, IP address or single sign-on, and individual researchers who cannot afford a plan can apply to the scholarship program.
It suits less well anyone who wants AI help reading papers, extracting data or writing, since none of that is offered. Teams that need shared libraries, an API or a systematic review workflow will need other tools, and buyers who want to pay month by month cannot, since the shortest term is a quarter.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does Connected Papers cost?
The free tier gives 5 graphs a month with every feature. Academic costs $10 a month billed quarterly or $6 a month billed yearly, and Business costs $30 a month billed quarterly or $20 a month billed yearly. Institution-wide licenses are priced by quote.
Does Connected Papers use AI?
No. Connected Papers builds similarity graphs from citation data using co-citation and bibliographic coupling. It has no AI reading, answering, summarizing or writing features.
Where does Connected Papers get its papers?
Its database is connected to the Semantic Scholar Paper Corpus. You cannot upload your own documents; every graph starts from a paper in that corpus.
Who can buy the Academic plan?
The Academic plan is for people at academic institutions and non-profits, and for anyone using Connected Papers for personal use. Commercial use needs the Business plan.
