AI research tools: pricing and free plans
Each profile lists what the vendor says the tool does, what it costs, who it suits, and who should look elsewhere.
Compare plans at a glance
| Tool | Free plan | Cheapest paid plan, billed monthly | Cheapest paid plan, billed annually | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paperpal Academic writing assistant | Yes | Not verified | $6/mo (Prime) | 5 October 2026 |
| Consensus AI academic search | Yes | $20/mo (Pro) | $12/mo (Pro) | 5 October 2026 |
| ResearchCollab AI research workspace | Yes | $9.99/mo (Starter) | Not verified | 5 October 2026 |
| Elicit AI research assistant | Yes | $75/mo (Pro) | $49/mo (Pro) | 5 October 2026 |
| Jenni AI AI academic writing editor | Yes | $30/mo (Plus) | $12/mo (Plus) | 5 October 2026 |
| Anara AI research workspace | Yes | $10/mo (Plus) | $8/mo (Plus) | 5 October 2026 |
| Litmaps Citation-based paper discovery | Yes | Not verified | Not verified | 5 October 2026 |
All profiles
- Paperpal
An academic writing assistant for grammar, paraphrasing, citations and pre-submission checks, working inside Word, Google Docs and the browser.
Best for: Researchers polishing a manuscript who want language and tone suggestions inside Word or Google Docs.
- Consensus
An AI search engine over peer-reviewed papers that returns synthesized answers with links to the studies behind them.
Best for: Quickly seeing what published studies say about a focused yes/no or "does X affect Y" question.
- ResearchCollab
An AI research workspace that maps a topic, supports literature review steps such as PRISMA flow diagrams, and links claims to source paragraphs.
Best for: Students and researchers who want one workspace for topic mapping, literature review tracking and drafting with citations.
- Elicit
An AI research assistant for finding papers, summarising them and running systematic-review style screening and data extraction into tables.
Best for: Researchers who want a dedicated systematic review workflow with screening and extraction into table columns.
- Jenni AI
A writing editor for academic text with source-grounded suggestions, citations, and chat across the PDFs you upload.
Best for: Writers who want an editor with AI suggestions drawn from sources they upload, plus citations.
- Anara
A research workspace for asking questions across your uploaded papers and getting answers linked to the passages they come from.
Best for: Researchers with a pile of PDFs who want to ask questions across them and see the linked passage.
- Litmaps
A literature discovery tool that builds visual maps of related papers from citation links and alerts you to new ones.
Best for: Researchers who want to explore a field by following citations visually, starting from papers they already know.