Is Elicit free? Basic is free; Pro from $49/user/mo
AI research assistant that searches and summarises academic papers
What is Elicit?
Elicit is an AI research assistant for academic literature. It searches more than 138 million papers, summarises them, lets users chat with papers and extracts data into tables. Paid plans add more Research Agent and report usage, systematic literature reviews with paper screening and API access, with discounted prices for academic users.
Good for
- Finding and summarising studies on a topic
- Pulling key figures from many papers into one table
- Running a structured literature review
Key features
- 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
- Import from Zotero
Limitations to know about
- 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
Elicit pricing
Elicit has a free plan. Pro and Scale cost $49 and $169 per user a month billed annually, or $75 and $279 billed monthly. Enterprise is priced on request.
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | $0 | Limited Research Agent and Reports usage; unlimited search, summaries and chat with papers; Zotero import |
| Pro | $75/user/month, or $49/user/month billed annually | Systematic reviews screening 5,000 papers; 20 table columns; reports from 135 sources; Routines |
| Scale | $279/user/month, or $169/user/month billed annually | 5x usage; figure extraction; real-time collaboration; 30 table columns; admin panel |
| Enterprise | Custom pricing | Custom usage; screen 40,000 papers and extract 40 columns; no training on your data by default |
| Plus (academic) | $19/user/month, or $11/user/month billed annually | Academic price list. Exports to RIS, CSV, BIB, PDF and DOCX; 5 table columns; search of 500k+ clinical trials |
| Pro (academic) | $69/user/month, or $39/user/month billed annually | Academic price list. Systematic reviews screening 5,000 papers; 20 table columns |
| Scale (academic) | $149/user/month, or $89/user/month billed annually | Academic price list. Figure extraction; real-time collaboration; admin panel |
Free plan limits: Limited Research Agent and Research Reports usage; unlimited search across 138M+ papers, summaries and chat with papers; Zotero import; 20MB PDF limit
What a team pays: For a team of five on Pro: $245 a month billed annually ($2,940 a year), or $375 billed monthly.
Costs on top of a plan
- Extra usage on Pro and Scale: Billed in $100 steps, up to a monthly limit you set (usage does not roll over to the next month)
Elicit alternatives
Consensus
AI search engine for peer-reviewed research papers
scite
Research tool that shows how papers have been cited, with an AI assistant
Gemini Notebook
Google's source-grounded research notebook, renamed Gemini Notebook in 2026
Perplexity
AI answer engine that replies with cited sources from the web
Julius AI
AI workspace for analysing data and turning it into charts, reports and slides
Compare Elicit with these side by side
Head to head: Elicit vs Consensus
Frequently asked questions
Is Elicit free?
Elicit has a free plan. Limited Research Agent and Research Reports usage; unlimited search across 138M+ papers, summaries and chat with papers; Zotero import; 20MB PDF limit. Paid plans start at $49/user/mo billed annually.
How much does Elicit cost?
Pro and Scale cost $49 and $169 per user a month billed annually, or $75 and $279 billed monthly. Enterprise is priced on request. There is also a free plan. On Pro: billed $588 a year on annual billing; academic users can choose discounted plans, from Plus at $11 per user a month billed annually. Prices as published on Elicit's pricing page on 16 October 2026.
What does Elicit's free Basic plan include?
Basic is Elicit's free plan, described as for casual exploration. It includes limited usage of the Research Agent and Research Reports, unlimited search across more than 138 million papers, unlimited summaries, unlimited chat with papers with full-text access, sources shown for answers, and import from Zotero. You choose it by skipping the plan step at sign-up.
Does Elicit have academic pricing?
Yes. Elicit's pricing page has an Academic option in its plan dropdown with discounted plans: Plus at $19 per user a month, or $11 billed annually; Pro at $69, or $39 annually; and Scale at $149, or $89 annually. Elicit's help centre says there is no complimentary access for academics and no separate nonprofit discount.
What is Elicit used for?
Elicit is an AI research assistant for academic literature. People use it for finding and summarising studies on a topic, pulling key figures from many papers into one table and running a structured literature review.
What are the alternatives to Elicit?
Tools that do a similar job include Consensus, scite, Gemini Notebook, Perplexity and Julius AI. Each has its own page here with its plans, limits and prices.
Who makes Elicit?
Elicit is made by Elicit.
Sources
Every fact on this page comes from Elicit's own pages, read on the dates shown.
- elicit.com/pricing (plans, prices (monthly, annual, Industry and Academic), features, limits) read 16 October 2026
- elicit.com/ (product description) read 23 September 2026
- support.elicit.com/en/articles/15646622-usage-limits-in-elicit (usage pool, extra usage pricing, no rollover) read 16 October 2026
- support.elicit.com/en/articles/16631472-academic-and-nonprofit-pricing (academic pricing, no free academic access) read 16 October 2026
- support.elicit.com/en/articles/15113352-manage-your-plan-and-billing (plan tiers, free Basic plan at sign-up) read 16 October 2026
- support.elicit.com/en/articles/14744256-troubleshooting-errors-when-uploading-pdfs (PDF size limits by plan) read 16 October 2026
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