Consensus
AI search engine for peer-reviewed research across 200M+ scientific papers
FREEMIUM Verified JUN 11, 2026
Scite
Smart Citations show whether later papers support or contrast a finding, with an AI Assistant grounded in full-text literature
Scite indexes 1.6B+ Smart Citations — citation statements classified as supporting, contrasting, or mentioning — across 280M+ articles, so you can see whether a finding held up rather than just how often it was cited. There is no free plan: Basic is $20/month, Pro is $50/month, Team is $50/seat/month up to 15 seats, and Enterprise is quote-based. Best for researchers running literature reviews who need evidence signals rather than summaries.
Verified JUL 18, 2026 PAID Live
What is Scite?
Scite is a research platform built on Smart Citations: instead of reporting that a paper has been cited 400 times, it pulls the actual citation statements out of the full text of every citing paper and classifies each one as supporting, contrasting, or mentioning. That turns a citation count into an evidence signal — you can see whether later work reproduced a finding, failed to reproduce it, or just name-checked it in a literature review. Scite reports an index of 1.6B+ classified citation statements drawn from 280M+ indexed articles, of which 32M+ are full-text sources.
The full-text layer is what separates Scite from tools that only read abstracts. Direct agreements with 30+ publishers, including Wiley and SAGE, let it index inside paywalled papers, and the Scite Assistant answers questions against that corpus with every claim linked back to the specific sentence in the specific source. Around that core sit Search (matching on citation statements rather than titles and keywords), Reports (a full citation breakdown for any indexed paper), Collections (Zotero, Mendeley, or CSV imports with retraction and new-citation alerts), and Reference Check (upload a manuscript PDF and audit its entire bibliography). Scite was acquired by Research Solutions, Inc. in a deal announced in November 2023 and still runs as its own branded product with independent pricing and checkout.
Who is it for?
Scite is aimed at people who cite for a living and carry real downside risk if a cited claim turns out to have been contradicted. There is no permanent free plan — a 7-day trial converts into the tier chosen at signup — so it suits users with recurring literature work rather than one-off lookups. Anyone who mainly wants fast paper summaries or a free entry point will get further with consensus or notebooklm; Scite earns its price when the question is whether the evidence actually holds.
- Academic researchers and PhD students writing manuscripts, grant applications, or theses who need to confirm that key references have not been contradicted or retracted before submission.
- Systematic reviewers and evidence synthesists who need full-text search over citation statements and collections that alert them when new supporting or contrasting work appears.
- Journal editors and peer reviewers using Reference Check to audit a submitted manuscript’s whole bibliography for retractions and editorial notices in one pass.
- Corporate R&D, regulatory, and medical affairs teams who need patents, clinical trials, and grants alongside papers — available on Pro — plus the safety datasets and SSO that sit on the Enterprise tier.
- Research librarians and institutions buying platform-wide access, where domain, IP, or email-based authentication and usage reporting matter more than individual seats.
How much does Scite cost?
Starting price: $20/mo · Free tier: no · Model: paid
Pricing verified JUL 18, 2026
Price history tracked from June 2026
| Plan | Price | Includes |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | $20/mo | Unlimited Assistant queries · Full-Text Search · Smart Citation Reports · Citation Alerts · Claude and ChatGPT connectors · 250 MCP credits/month · 1,000-paper Collections |
| Pro | $50/mo | All Basic features · 2,500 MCP credits/month · 10,000-paper Collections · Patents, clinical trials, and grants |
| Team | $50/seat/mo | All Pro features, 1 user included · 2,500 MCP credits/month/user · Shared Collections and Alerts · User analytics and reporting · Add up to 15 seats at the same per-seat rate |
| Enterprise | Custom | Unlimited users and flexible pooled usage · API access · Regulatory and safety datasets (FAERS, MAUDE, 510(k), MHRA) · Access via domain, IP, or email · SAML/SSO and extended usage reports · Dedicated customer success manager |
What are Scite's key features?
- Smart Citations — a deep learning model classifies 1.6B+ citation statements as supporting, contrasting, or mentioning
- Scite Assistant — AI answers drawn from 280M+ full-text articles, each linked back to its source paper
- Full-text search across citation statements, with filters by section, type, and journal, plus saved-search alerts
- Scite Reports — quantitative and qualitative breakdowns of every citation a paper has received
- Collections built from Zotero, Mendeley, or a CSV of DOIs, with retraction flags and citation alerts
- Reference Check — upload a manuscript PDF and see how every reference has been cited by others
- MCP server for Claude, ChatGPT, and other MCP-compatible assistants, metered in monthly credits
- Free browser extension and embeddable Smart Citation badge that work without a subscription
What people use Scite for
- 01 Checking whether a paper you plan to cite has been supported or contradicted by later research before it goes into a manuscript
- 02 Running a literature review where the Assistant answers are traceable back to the specific sentence in the specific source paper
- 03 Searching inside full text rather than abstracts to find methods, findings, and claims that never appear in metadata
- 04 Auditing an entire manuscript bibliography for retractions, editorial notices, and contrasting citations before submission
- 05 Monitoring a research area or your own publications over time with collections that alert on new supporting or contrasting citations
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Smart Citations answer a question raw citation counts cannot: whether the citing papers agreed, disagreed, or merely name-checked the work | No permanent free tier — the only free access is a 7-day trial that auto-converts into the plan selected at signup unless cancelled first |
| Full-text coverage reaches inside paywalled papers through direct agreements with 30+ publishers including Wiley and SAGE, rather than stopping at abstracts | Coverage is a subset of all published literature (280M+ indexed articles, 32M+ full-text sources), so an empty supporting or contrasting tally can mean 'outside the index' rather than 'never challenged' |
| Every Assistant claim links to the exact sentence in the exact paper, so answers are checkable in one click instead of needing re-verification | API access is listed only on the Enterprise tier; Basic and Pro subscribers get metered MCP credits instead (250/month and 2,500/month respectively) |
| Free browser extension, free embeddable badge, a Zotero plugin, and an MCP server mean it slots into existing workflows without switching tools | Pro at $50/month is roughly double several general-purpose research assistants, and Team caps at 15 seats before an Enterprise quote is required |
| Reference Check audits an entire bibliography for retractions and contrasting findings from a single PDF upload | Student and academic discounts are not self-serve — the published route is emailing an institutional recommendation to get a code, with no discount percentage stated |
| An annual billing toggle is offered, but the discounted annual figure is not present in the published page source, so the yearly saving could not be verified |
What are the best Scite alternatives?
Elicit
AI research assistant that searches, summarizes and extracts data from 138 million academic papers
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SciSpace
AI research assistant (formerly Typeset) to chat with PDFs, run literature reviews across 280M+ papers, and synthesize findings
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NotebookLM
Google's AI research assistant that answers questions grounded in your own uploaded sources
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Perplexity
AI-powered answer engine that searches the live web and cites every source
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Head-to-head comparisons
How people make money with Scite
- Offer systematic-review and evidence-mapping support to labs, agencies, and consultancies, billed per project, using supporting and contrasting tallies to show which findings have actually been challenged
- Run manuscript reference-audit services for journals, editors, and independent authors on a flat per-manuscript fee, flagging retracted or contested citations before submission
Frequently asked questions
Does Scite have a free plan?
No. The pricing page lists only paid plans: Basic, Pro, Team, and Enterprise. New users get a 7-day free trial of premium features, and that trial rolls into the plan selected at signup unless cancelled first. A few pieces stay free without a subscription, specifically the browser extension and the embeddable Smart Citation badge, but search, Assistant, and Reports require a paid seat.
How much does Scite cost?
Basic is $20 per month and includes unlimited Assistant queries, full-text search, Smart Citation Reports, citation alerts, and 250 MCP credits monthly. Pro is $50 per month and adds 2,500 MCP credits, 10,000-paper collections, and coverage of patents, clinical trials, and grants. Team is $50 per seat per month for up to 15 seats. Enterprise pricing is quote-based.
What are Smart Citations?
Smart Citations are citation statements extracted from the full text of citing papers and classified by a deep learning model as supporting, contrasting, or mentioning. Instead of a raw citation count, you see the actual sentence each citing author wrote and whether their result backed up or challenged the original finding. Scite reports an index of more than 1.6 billion classified citation statements.
Who owns Scite?
Research Solutions, Inc. acquired Scite in a deal announced on November 27, 2023. Scite still operates as its own branded platform with a separate pricing page, its own checkout, and an active roadmap, and it appears as one of Research Solutions' named products alongside Article Galaxy and References. The Scite site footer identifies the entity as Scite LLC, part of the Research Solutions family.
Does Scite offer an API?
Yes. Scite publishes API documentation covering endpoints for papers, tallies, citations, search, reference check, and Assistant. On the published plan table, API access sits on the Enterprise tier, so individual Basic and Pro subscribers cannot call it directly. Scite also ships an MCP server that works with Claude, ChatGPT, and other MCP-compatible assistants, metered through the MCP credits bundled with each paid tier.
How much literature does Scite cover?
Scite reports 280 million or more indexed articles, 32 million or more full-text sources, and agreements with 30 or more publisher partners including Wiley and SAGE. That full-text layer is what lets Smart Citations read inside paywalled papers. Coverage is still a subset of all published literature, so a claim showing no supporting or contrasting tallies may simply fall outside the index.
Are student or academic discounts available?
Scite states that discounts exist for students and academics, but the published route is indirect: you recommend Scite to your institution by email and copy both Scite sales and Research Solutions customer support, who then issue a discount code. There is no self-serve student rate on the pricing page and no published discount percentage, so the actual saving is not stated in advance.