Quick Verdict
Elicit is an AI research assistant that helps academics and researchers find, analyze, and synthesize scientific literature. Uses language models to search 200M+ papers, extract key findings, and identify themes across studies without traditional keyword searches.
Best for: Academic researchers, Graduate students, Systematic review authors, Research analysts
Elicit
Elicit is an AI research assistant that helps academics and researchers find, analyze, and synthesize scientific literature. Uses language models to search 200M+ papers, extract key findings, and identify themes across studies without traditional keyword searches.
Best for: Academic researchers • Graduate students • Systematic review authors • Research analysts
Key Features
- Semantic paper search
- Automatic data extraction
- Research synthesis
- Citation analysis
- PDF analysis
- Concept mapping
- Literature review automation
- Export to reference managers
Pros
- Finds relevant papers others miss
- Great for literature reviews
- Extracts data from papers
- Free tier available
- Academic-focused design
Cons
- Limited to academic papers
- Extraction accuracy varies
- Slower than keyword search
- Some features in beta
Pricing
| Plan | Details |
|---|---|
| Free | Yes - 5,000 credits |
| Pro | $12/mo |
| Enterprise | $65/user/mo |
138M+ papers
Tips & Best Practices
Formulate a structured PICO question and write it down before searching to anchor all later steps
Use Elicit as one search engine, then cross-check key terms in Scopus, Web of Science, or PubMed
Pilot extraction prompts on 5-10 papers until values match human-checked results at 85-90% accuracy
Be extremely explicit in prompts: specify units, formats, and which section to look in for each variable
Ask for supporting sentences with every extracted value to enable quick verification
Treat Elicit screening judgments as prioritization not ground truth - manually verify all inclusions
Document Elicit queries, dates searched, and prompt iterations for reproducibility and PRISMA compliance
Features
- Semantic paper search
- Automatic data extraction
- Research synthesis
- Citation analysis
- PDF analysis
- Concept mapping
- Literature review automation
- Export to reference managers
Best for: Academic researchers • Graduate students • Systematic review authors • Research analysts
Pros
- Finds relevant papers others miss
- Great for literature reviews
- Extracts data from papers
- Free tier available
- Academic-focused design
Cons
- Limited to academic papers
- Extraction accuracy varies
- Slower than keyword search
- Some features in beta
Final Recommendation
Elicit is a freemium AI tool best suited for Academic researchers and Graduate students.