Our verdict
Being tested. An editor is using Elicit hands-on; the verdict and score appear here once they sign it off.
What it does
Elicit is an AI research assistant for academic papers. Ask a research question and it finds relevant papers, summarises their findings and can pull details such as methods, sample sizes and results into a table you can compare.
It suits students, researchers and analysts who need to get through a lot of published research. It works from academic papers rather than the general web.
Why use it
- It finds relevant papers from a question in plain English, not just keywords.
- It summarises each paper’s findings, so you can decide what to read in full.
- It pulls details from many papers into one table to compare.
How it works
- Sign up on the Elicit website.
- Type your research question in plain English.
- Read the summaries of the papers it finds, and open the ones that matter.
- Add columns to pull out the details you want to compare.
- Check important details against the original papers.
How hard is it to use?
Intermediate Some set-up, or a little practice, to get good results.
Searching is simple, but judging research papers takes some background, which is why we rate it Intermediate.
What it costs
Free plan; paid plans. The free Basic plan includes unlimited searches, with limits on reports and tables. Paid plans (Plus, Pro and Scale) raise the limits and add features for heavier research, such as systematic reviews.
Prices change often, so check Elicit’s own site before you pay.
Watch out for
- Summaries can miss nuance or get details wrong, so check anything you quote against the paper.
- It only finds papers in the sources it searches, so it can miss relevant work.
Your data
Check Elicit’s privacy policy for how it stores your searches and any files you upload before you include unpublished or confidential work.
We haven’t confirmed that Elicit can keep your data in the UK, so check where it keeps your data before you share anything private or about other people.