Elicit vs Consensus
Elicit is aI research assistant that searches and summarises academic papers. Consensus is aI search engine for peer-reviewed research papers. Here is how they compare on price, free plan, platforms and the jobs each does best, from each vendor's own pages.
| Elicit | Consensus | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | AI research assistant that searches and summarises academic papers | AI search engine for peer-reviewed research papers |
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Cheapest paid plan | $49/user/mo (Pro) | $12/mo (Pro) |
| Free trial | None stated | None stated |
| Platforms | Web, API | Web, API |
| Integrations (vendor's figure) | Not stated | Not stated |
| Open source | No | No |
| Made by | Elicit | Consensus |
Choose Elicit if…
- The job is finding and summarising studies on a topic.
- The job is pulling key figures from many papers into one table.
Choose Consensus if…
- The job is checking what published studies say about a question.
- The job is starting a literature review for coursework or a report.
What Elicit does
- Search across 138M+ academic papers
- Paper summaries and chat with papers
- Data extraction into tables with custom columns
- Research Agent and Research Reports
- Systematic literature reviews with paper screening
- Research alerts and Zotero import
Watch out for
- The free plan has limited Research Agent and report usage
- Pro screens up to 5,000 papers and extracts up to 20 table columns
- Paid plans are shown with annual billing only
What Consensus does
- Search across 220M+ peer-reviewed papers
- Cited AI analysis of research
- Deep reviews for longer literature reviews
- Citation graph and other research tools on paid plans
- API and MCP access on paid plans
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
Questions
Is Elicit or Consensus cheaper?
On published entry prices, Consensus is cheaper: $49/user/mo (Pro) for Elicit against $12/mo (Pro) for Consensus. What each plan includes differs, so compare the limits too.
Do Elicit and Consensus have free plans?
Both do. Elicit: Unlimited search across 138M+ papers, unlimited summaries and chat with papers, Zotero import; limited Research Agent and Research Reports usage. Consensus: Basic paper search, 10 Pro messages per month, up to 3 Deep reviews per month.