Elicit alternatives
Pick by the job you used Elicit for. To find papers for free, use Semantic Scholar or Google Scholar; Consensus is another paper search. For reading and extracting from your own PDFs, try Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM). For open-source screening, use ASReview. Elicit itself keeps a free Basic plan, so check whether you need to switch at all.
Which Elicit job do you need?
Elicit does three things: finds papers, pulls data out of them into tables, and supports systematic-review workflows. Free alternatives exist for each job, but none we cover does all three. The table sorts them by job and quotes the weak spot our dossier records. It is not a ranking.
Undermind and Ai2 Asta also search papers, and SciSpace builds literature tables. We name them only until their dossiers are public.
| Job and tool | Free / paid | Watch out for (from our dossier) |
|---|---|---|
| Reference: ElicitDossierSource 1 | Free Basic plan with “Unlimited search across more than 138 million papers”. Academic Plus from $11 per user per month, billed yearly (academic label checked 13 October 2026). | Pricing jumps quickly from free to Pro/Scale |
| Find papers: Semantic ScholarDossierSource 1 | Free. | TLDRs can hide methods/caveats |
| Find papers: ConsensusDossier | See dossier. | AI summaries can over-compress uncertainty |
| Find papers: Google ScholarDossier | Free. | Coverage broad but opaque |
| Find papers by citation map: Research RabbitDossierSource 1 | “Free $0, Forever!”; RR+ is $10 a month in the US price group, discounted in many other countries. | Citation maps can imply completeness |
| Extract from your own PDFs: Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM)DossierSource 1 | Higher limits on Google AI plans. See dossier. | Works only on the sources you add. Click every chip before paraphrasing into graded writing. |
| Screening, with AI PICO extraction on Advanced: RayyanDossierSource 1 | Free: 3 active reviews. Paid tiers $8.33 and $13.33 per month, billed quarterly; “Extract PICO data with AI” is on the $13.33 Advanced tier. | Free tier caps active reviews and collaborators |
| Open-source screening: ASReview LABDossierSource 1Source 2 | Free, Apache-2.0 licence; after installation it opens in your browser at localhost. | A run of irrelevant records does not prove there are no relevant studies left. Stopping is your decision. |
What you lose by switching
Search, extraction tables and review workflow in one place. Splitting them means more exports and more places where a record can drop out. No open-source tool that does Elicit-style extraction has been verified for this page, so we don't list one.
Questions this guide answers
Every answer below is assembled from the dated fields on this page. Nothing is written separately for search.
Is there a free alternative to Elicit?
For finding papers, Semantic Scholar and Google Scholar are free, and Research Rabbit has a free tier. For extraction from your own PDFs, try Gemini Notebook; see its dossier for plans. None replaces every Elicit job.
Is Elicit free for students?
Elicit's Basic plan is free for everyone. Paid academic pricing started at $11 per user per month, billed yearly, for Plus when we checked on 13 October 2026.
Is there an open-source Elicit alternative?
For screening, yes: ASReview LAB is open source under Apache-2.0. For Elicit-style extraction, we have not verified an open-source tool.
Elicit or Consensus?
Both search papers. Elicit adds extraction tables; Consensus focuses on cited answers to a question. See our side-by-side compare.