Last updated 08-22-2026
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Elicit
Elicit is a research assistant built for scientists, analysts, and policy teams who need cited answers from academic literature rather than generic chatbot summaries. It searches more than 138 million academic papers and 545,000 clinical trials, then returns evidence with sentence-level citations tied to the underlying sources. The platform covers paper search, research reports, systematic literature reviews, a research agent for multi-step workflows, a personal library, and alerts for new publications.
Where general AI chat tools guess at scientific claims, Elicit anchors every statement to a specific passage, table, or figure from the source material. Its semantic search finds relevant papers even when keyword overlap is thin, and it can screen and analyze up to 1,000 papers in a single workflow. That focus on traceable evidence over fluent prose is what separates it from tools like ChatGPT or Perplexity for high-stakes research decisions.
Elicit serves academic researchers, pharmaceutical teams, medical device companies, and government policy groups. Formation Bio, Oxford PharmaGenesis, and VDI/VDE have published case studies using Elicit for systematic reviews, data extraction, and literature screening at scale. The free Basic plan covers unlimited search and summaries, while paid tiers unlock systematic review workflows, API access, and team collaboration.
Semantic search across 138 million academic papers plus 545,000 clinical trials on ClinicalTrials.gov
Research Agent gathers evidence from papers, patents, regulatory databases, and uploaded documents
Analyzes up to 1,000 papers at once with transparent screening criteria you can audit
Systematic literature review workflow supports PRISMA 2020 with screening up to 5,000 papers on Pro
Research reports generate fully cited briefs inspired by systematic review methodology
API and MCP server let you search papers and generate reports inside your own agents
Free Basic plan includes unlimited search, summaries, and chat with full-text paper access
Every AI-generated claim links to a specific sentence, table, or figure in the source paper
Semantic search finds relevant papers even without exact keyword overlap
Free tier includes unlimited search across 138 million papers
Dedicated systematic review workflow supports PRISMA 2020 guidelines
Research Agent searches patents, regulatory databases, and clinical trials alongside papers
Research Agent and Research Reports have limited usage on the free Basic plan
Pro plan starts at $49 per user per month when billed annually
Enterprise features like SSO and 40,000-paper screening require custom pricing
Figure extraction and team collaboration require the Scale plan at $169 per month
Is Elicit free to use?
Yes. Elicit offers a free Basic plan with unlimited search across 138 million papers, unlimited summaries, and chat with full-text access. Research Agent and Research Reports have limited usage on the free tier. The Pro plan costs $49 per user per month when billed annually.
How many papers can Elicit search?
Elicit searches over 138 million academic papers from sources including PubMed, Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, and Springer. It also covers 545,000 clinical trials from ClinicalTrials.gov, plus patents, regulatory databases, and conference abstracts on paid plans.
What makes Elicit different from ChatGPT for research?
Elicit backs every claim with sentence-level citations from the underlying paper, table, or figure. It uses semantic search rather than keyword matching, screens up to 1,000 papers per query, and produces structured reports and systematic review outputs instead of conversational text.
Does Elicit support systematic literature reviews?
Yes. Elicit offers a dedicated Systematic Literature Review workflow built for PRISMA 2020 guidelines. The Pro plan can screen 5,000 papers, and the Enterprise plan supports screening up to 40,000 papers with PRISMA-grade extraction accuracy.
Can I upload my own papers to Elicit?
Yes. Elicit supports BYOData uploads in BibTeX, EndNote, Mendeley, PDF, and Zotero formats. You can also integrate company subscriptions to access more full-text papers beyond the public databases.
Does Elicit have an API?
Yes. Elicit provides an API and MCP server for searching its 138 million paper database and generating research reports programmatically. API access is included on the Pro plan and above, with unlimited API access on Enterprise.