Quick answer
All three search academic literature with AI and cite their sources. Elicit is built for systematic reviews: it extracts specific data from dozens of papers into a table. Consensus is built for quick evidence checks: ask a question, see where the studies lean. SciSpace is built for understanding: highlight a dense paragraph and get it explained. Pricing is similar — free tiers, paid plans around $12/month — so choose by job, not price.
General chatbots are bad research assistants because they invent citations. These three exist to fix that: every claim links to a real paper. But they solve different parts of the research problem, and people who pick the wrong one tend to conclude AI research tools do not work.
Elicit — for extraction and reviews
- Searches over 125 million papers with semantic search
- Extracts fields you define — sample size, method, effect size — from many papers into a comparable table
- Systematic-review screening workflows and CSV export
- Free credits, then Plus from $12/mo; heavy extraction burns credits fast
- Best for graduate students, academics, and analysts doing literature reviews
Consensus — for quick evidence checks
- Ask a yes/no or how-much question and get a Consensus Meter showing how studies lean
- Cited summaries of individual papers with quality indicators
- Fast to orient in an unfamiliar field before deciding what to read
- Best for anyone who needs a sourced answer quickly — journalists, clinicians, students
SciSpace — for understanding
- Highlight any passage, equation, or table and get a plain-English explanation
- Chat across your own PDF library and generate literature-review matrices
- Broad coverage across disciplines; Premium from $12/mo
- Best for students reading outside their field and early-stage researchers
Caveats that apply to all three
- Coverage skews toward open-access papers; paywalled work may be summarised from abstracts only
- AI summaries can flatten nuance — always read the papers that matter
- None replaces a librarian or a domain expert for study design questions
Related reading
Bottom line
Consensus to orient, Elicit to do the work, SciSpace to understand what you found. Many researchers use all three, and the free tiers make that affordable.
