Elicit
5.9/10AI research assistant that searches, summarizes, and extracts data from more than 138 million academic papers, with workflows for systematic literature reviews.
Data last updated November 2026 · Our methodology
Overview
Elicit is an AI research assistant built for literature work. It runs semantic search over a corpus of more than 138 million academic papers plus clinical trial records. It summarizes papers, lets users chat with full texts, and pulls structured data into tables in which each claim links back to the sentence it came from. Paid plans add a guided systematic review workflow with editable screening and extraction, automated research reports, reusable Routines, and a Research Agent that runs multi-step research projects across literature, web sources, and uploaded internal data. Its main users are academic researchers, pharma and biotech teams, policy groups, and consultancies that need evidence synthesis. Pricing is per seat. A free Basic tier offers unlimited search and summaries. Pro costs 49 USD per user per month (588 USD per year) and adds the systematic review workflow, which screens up to 5,000 papers, 20 table columns, and API access. Scale costs 229 USD per user per month (2,748 USD per year) and adds five times the usage, real-time collaboration, figure extraction, and an admin panel. Enterprise pricing is custom and adds SSO, single-tenant deployments, and screening of up to 40,000 papers. Integrations are thin: Zotero import, CSV and report exports, and, since 2026, APIs and an MCP server for outside agents. The main limitation is recall. An independent 2025 evaluation found its searches far less sensitive than traditional database searching, and its searches cannot be exported as reproducible Boolean strings, which complicates PRISMA reporting.
Our Rating
Who Elicit is best for
Good fit
Built around academic literature search and reviews, and widely used by universities and researchers.
Indexes ClinicalTrials.gov and supports systematic reviews used in pharma and clinical research.
Less suited
Useful for evidence-backed research reports, but its coverage of grey literature and industry sources is weak.
The Enterprise plan offers SSO, single tenancy, a SOC 2 Type II report, and no training on customer data.
Policy researchers use it, but there are no specific public-sector certifications.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Claims in extraction tables link to the exact sentence in the source, so researchers can check every AI answer against the paper.
- The free tier includes unlimited semantic search, summaries, and full-text chat across the whole corpus.
- The guided systematic review workflow screens thousands of papers and can cut review time a lot for evidence synthesis teams.
- Elicit holds SOC 2 Type II, and the Enterprise plan offers single tenancy and no training on customer data.
Cons
- An independent 2025 study found average search sensitivity of about 38%, far below traditional database searching.
- Searches cannot be exported as reproducible Boolean strings, which makes PRISMA reporting harder.
- Coverage of grey literature, preprints, and industry reports is weak.
- Few integrations beyond Zotero import and manual exports.
- Real-time collaboration and admin tools require the 229 USD Scale plan.
Key Features
Not included
- Image Generation
- Voice and Audio
- Transcription
- Video Generation
Elicit Pricing
Basic
- Zotero import
- Unlimited search across 138M+ papers
- Limited Research Agent and Reports usage
- Unlimited summaries and chat with papers
Pro
or $588/user/year
- API access
- 20 table columns at a time
- Reports from up to 135 sources
- Routines and custom extractions
- Systematic review workflow, screening up to 5,000 papers
Scale
or $2,748/user/year
- 5x usage limits
- 30 table columns
- Figure extraction
- Real-time collaboration
- Reports from up to 200 sources
- Admin panel with usage tracking
Enterprise
- Custom usage limits
- Unlimited API access
- Single-tenant deployments
- Dedicated customer success
- SSO/SAML, 2FA, domain verification
- No training on your data by default
- Screening of 40,000 papers and 40 extraction columns
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. Basic is free, with unlimited search, summaries, and paper chat, but only limited use of reports and the Research Agent.
SSO/SAML, 2FA, and domain verification come only with the Enterprise plan.
Yes. In October 2025 Elicit announced SOC 2 Type II compliance. The report is available on request under an NDA.
Pro includes API access and Enterprise includes unlimited API access. In 2026 Elicit added Search, Reports, and Systematic Review APIs and an MCP server.
Up to 5,000 papers on Pro and up to 40,000 on Enterprise.
Independent testing suggests it should not. Its recall was well below traditional database searching, so it works better as an extra source than as a replacement.
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