Consensus vs Elicit vs scite vs Perplexity

Written head to head: Elicit vs Consensus, with when to choose each side.

Compared on	Consensus Free plan · from $12/mo VisitRemove	Elicit Free plan · from $49/user/mo VisitRemove	scite Free trial · from $12/mo VisitRemove	Perplexity Free plan · from $17/mo VisitRemove
What it is	AI search engine for peer-reviewed research papers	AI research assistant that searches and summarises academic papers	Research tool that shows how papers have been cited, with an AI assistant	AI answer engine that replies with cited sources from the web
Free plan	Basic paper search, 10 Pro messages per month, up to 3 Deep reviews per month	Limited Research Agent and Research Reports usage; unlimited search across 138M+ papers, summaries and chat with papers; Zotero import; 20MB PDF limit	No	Limited daily usage, basic AI models and citations in every answer; limited web answers, file uploads and asset generation; no video generation, app connectors or Computer credits
Cheapest paid plan	$12/mo billed annually (Pro)Consensus pricing	$49/user/mo billed annually (Pro)Elicit pricing	$12/mo billed annually (Basic)scite pricing	$17/mo billed annually (Pro)Perplexity pricing
What it covers	$144 billed annually; the monthly-billing price is behind a toggle and was not captured. Students, faculty and US clinicians can get up to 40% off.	Billed $588 a year on annual billing; academic users can choose discounted plans, from Plus at $11 per user a month billed annually.	$144 billed yearly; the pricing page says yearly billing saves $96.	$200 a year on annual billing; the developer API is billed separately, per token and per request.
Free trial	None stated	None stated	7-day free trial of Basic or Pro; you are enrolled in the plan chosen at the start unless you cancel before it ends	None stated
Platforms	Web, API	Web, API	Web, API	Web, API
Integrations (vendor's figure)	Not stated	Not stated	Not stated	400+ app connectors
Open source	No	No	No	No
Good for	Checking what published studies say about a question Starting a literature review for coursework or a report Finding peer-reviewed sources to cite	Finding and summarising studies on a topic Pulling key figures from many papers into one table Running a structured literature review	Checking how a paper has been cited before relying on it Finding research to support a report or grant application Tracking new citations of key papers	Getting a sourced answer to a factual question Researching a market or competitor with cited sources Comparing products or prices across the web
Watch out for	The free plan includes 10 Pro messages and 3 Deep reviews per month Pro includes 15 Deep reviews per month API and MCP use beyond the included amount costs $0.05 per use, with monthly caps	The free plan has limited Research Agent and report usage One monthly usage pool per plan; unused usage does not roll over Pro screens up to 5,000 papers in a systematic review	No free plan on the pricing page, and since October 2026 free accounts get no MCP credits MCP access from ChatGPT, Claude and other tools needs a paid plan or the free trial API access requires the Pro plan	The Free plan has limited daily usage and basic models Among individual plans, monthly Computer credits (10,000) are included only in Max Individual plans are for personal use only
Made by	Consensus	Elicit	Research Solutions	Perplexity AI

Entry prices are the cheapest paid plan, as each vendor publishes it; “What it covers” says what that price is per (a user, a channel, a brand, a number of contacts). The sources are listed on each tool's page.

Every tool in AI research tools and AI assistants and chatbots is on their category pages, with the written head-to-heads on Compare.