Scite review

Scite answers a question the other tools mostly skip: what did later researchers say about this paper? Its Smart Citations show how later research has supported, challenged or discussed a paper, so you can judge whether a finding held up. Scite says its index covers more than 1.6 billion citations and 300 million scholarly sources. Basic, at $12 per month billed yearly, includes the AI Assistant, full-text search, Smart Citation reports, collections of up to 1,000 papers and citation alerts. Pro, at $40 per month billed yearly, adds API access, collections of up to 10,000 papers and patent, clinical trial and grant datasets. A Zotero plugin and browser extension bring citation badges into the tools you already use. There is no permanent free plan, only a 7-day trial, and the interface is denser than Consensus. For a researcher checking whether a key finding has held up, though, nothing else on this list does the job as directly.

Who it is for

Researchers who need to check how a paper has been cited before relying on it.

Price

No free plan; 7-day free trial; Basic $12 per month billed yearly; Pro $40 per month billed yearly.

Basic For the full Scite platform $12 / month Billed yearly
Quoted from the vendor pricing page on November 10, 2026.

Key features

• Smart Citation reports for each article
• AI Assistant and full-text citation search
• Collections up to 1,000 papers on Basic and 10,000 on Pro
• Citation alerts and dashboards
• Zotero plugin, browser extension, MCP and API

Strengths and weaknesses

• Strength: Shows how a paper was cited, not only how often
• Strength: Index of 1.6B+ citations and 300M+ scholarly sources
• Strength: Citation alerts help keep a reading list current
• Weakness: No permanent free plan, only a 7-day trial
• Weakness: API access and larger collections need Pro at $40 per month billed yearly
• Weakness: Less focused on writing up summaries than Consensus or Elicit

Key facts

• Free trial: 7 days
• Index: 1.6B+ citations, 300M+ scholarly sources
• Integrations: Zotero, browser extension, MCP, API

Where it ranks

Scite is No. 8 in our Best AI Research Assistants verdict.