Quick answer
Consensus searches peer-reviewed papers, extracts findings, and shows a consensus meter for yes/no questions, with a free tier and Premium from about $9 a month. scite indexes citation statements and classifies each as supporting, contrasting, or mentioning, so you can see whether a claim replicated, and it flags retractions; from $20 a month after a trial. Consensus answers "what does the research say"; scite answers "did it hold up".
A paper with a thousand citations sounds authoritative until you learn that half of those citations are papers failing to replicate it. That distinction is invisible in ordinary search and in most AI research tools. It is the entire reason scite exists.
Consensus: findings, fast
Ask Consensus a question and it returns papers with the relevant finding pulled out, a summary, and for suitable questions a meter showing how many papers say yes, no, or possibly. It is quick, cheap, and well suited to orienting in a topic or checking a claim before a meeting. It does not tell you the quality or fate of the papers it cites.
scite: the fate of a claim
scite's Smart Citations show, for any paper, the sentences in later papers that cite it and whether each one supports, contrasts, or merely mentions the result. Its assistant answers questions using those citation statements as evidence, and its reference check scans a manuscript for retracted or heavily contradicted sources. For anyone writing something that will be reviewed, that is the tool that prevents embarrassment.
When to use which
- Quick orientation, students, and non-specialists: Consensus
- Vetting sources for a paper, grant, or article: scite
- Journalists checking a scientific claim: both, in that order
- Coverage: both depend on publisher access; niche fields may be thin in either
Bottom line
Consensus to find out what the research says. scite to find out whether it survived. Serious researchers end up with both; everyone else can start with Consensus.
