Research assistants: AI tools compared (15)

What research assistants tools are for

Research assistants help you find scientific publications, understand papers and organise evidence for a literature review. They suit researchers, students and professionals who need to examine published findings. Depending on the service, you can search a research question, ask about a document or extract information into a table. Previously, comparing methods across papers meant reading each text and manually recording the relevant details. With Elicit, you can prepare a structured extraction and then check the entries against the original publications. Consensus supports finding studies and filtering papers by method. ASReview helps prioritise publications using the researcher’s own screening decisions. These approaches support different stages of research rather than a single interchangeable workflow. You still need a clearly defined question, suitable inclusion criteria and a critical reading of the evidence before using the output in a report or publication.

Example uses:

• Find publications related to a research question before establishing the criteria for your literature screening.
• Compare methods reported across papers while checking extracted details against the wording of the original articles.
• Ask about a paper to locate its protocol, findings and the limitations acknowledged by its authors.
• Build a reading table containing the study characteristics relevant to your own analysis of the literature.
• Prioritise references by likely relevance while retaining responsibility for the final decisions about inclusion and exclusion.

Our picks by need

These picks follow simple rules applied to the verified data, with no partnership or affiliate link:

• Best scored : Consensus. 81/100 on our access and transparency grid.
• Cheapest paid option : Rayyan. First plan at $4.99 per month.
• To keep data in Europe : ASReview. Processing on your device.

The main tools at a glance

Consensus 81/100

Consensus searches scientific publications and synthesizes findings from multiple studies. It serves people who want to filter papers by method, organize references or export results to a reference manager. Features: Search for scientific publications; Synthesize findings from multiple studies; Filter papers by their method. Entry price: $144 per year, with a free tier. Runs on: web browser, iPhone and iPad, Android, and API. Data hosting: United States.

AMiner 78/100

AMiner lets people conducting research find scientific publications, ask questions about documents, and explore researcher profiles. It produces research reports with sources and turns reports into presentations. Features: Search for scientific publications; Ask questions about documents; Explore researcher profiles. Entry price: CN¥0.01 pay as you go, with a free tier. Runs on: web browser and API. Data hosting: China.

ASReview 78/100

ASReview helps researchers screen literature by ranking publications according to their likely relevance. It learns from researchers’ decisions, simulates screening processes and allows comparisons of the performance of multiple models. Features: Rank publications by their likely relevance; Learn from the researcher’s decisions; Simulate a literature screening process. Free tier available. Runs on: web browser, Windows, macOS, and Linux. Data hosting: On device.

Elicit 75/100

Elicit helps people conducting scientific research find and summarize publications. It supports asking questions about articles, extracting information into tables, preparing systematic reviews and producing reports with their sources. Features: Search for scientific publications; Summarize articles; Extract information into tables. Entry price: $132 per year, with a free tier. Runs on: web browser and API. Data hosting: United States.

Ai2 Asta 73/100

Ai2 Asta helps people conducting research find scientific papers and write summaries with citations. It also analyzes datasets using natural language and produces visualizations and statistical tests. Features: Search for scientific papers; Write a synthesis of publications with citations; Analyze a dataset using natural language. Free tier available. Runs on: web browser and API. Data hosting: United States.

SciSpace 71/100

SciSpace supports people searching and comparing scientific publications. It allows questions about articles and PDFs, comparisons across studies, data extraction into tables, and assistance with writing referenced text. Features: Search for scientific publications; Ask questions about articles and PDFs; Compare findings from several studies. Entry price: $12 per month, with a free tier. Runs on: web browser and browser extension. Data hosting: United States.

Rayyan 68/100

Rayyan helps research teams screen systematic review references, detect duplicates and estimate article relevance. It also supports data extraction from full texts, collaboration on inclusion decisions and production of a PRISMA diagram. Features: Screen references for a systematic review; Detect duplicate references; Estimate article relevance. Entry price: $4.99 per month, with a free tier. Runs on: web browser, iPhone and iPad, and API.

genei 61/100

genei lets people working with documents summarize PDFs and web pages and search for answers across documents. It also supports project organization, notes, annotations, keyword extraction, and bibliographic references. Features: Summarize PDFs and web pages; Extract important words from a document; Search for answers across multiple documents. Entry price: £3.99 per month, with a free tier. Runs on: web browser, browser extension, and API.

alphaXiv 56/100

alphaXiv lets people reading scientific publications discover papers based on their interests and ask questions about them. It also provides illustrated explanations, library organization, annotations, and comments on publications. Features: Discover scientific papers based on your interests; Ask questions about a publication; Get illustrated explanations. Free tier available. Runs on: web browser, iPhone and iPad, and API.

Semantic Scholar 55/100

Semantic Scholar lets people searching for scientific publications explore an article's references and citations. It also supports exporting bibliographic references and retrieving scientific metadata through an API. Features: Search for scientific publications; Explore an article's references and citations; Export bibliographic references. Free tier available. Runs on: web browser and API.

The category in figures

Of the 15 tools in the category, 13 (87%) offer a free tier, 67% have a public API and 0 have a French interface. The median entry price, per month, is $12 (across 9 tools with a published price). 6 disclose where data is hosted, 1 of them in Europe or on device.

Also useful

These tools belong to another category but also cover this need:

• Gemini Notebook Gemini Notebook helps people study collections of documents. It retrieves passages supporting answers, produce
• Caktus AI Caktus AI supports users with essay writing, mathematics, and studying. It searches for publications, prepares
• Jenni Jenni helps people write texts using research documents. It completes text during writing, inserts citations,
• HyperWrite HyperWrite helps people write texts through suggestions while typing and passage rewrites. It can also find pu
• GPT Researcher GPT Researcher lets users conducting research break down questions and consult web sources or local documents.
• Nexus AI Nexus AI supports writing and academic work. It lets users find references, ask questions about imported files
• Yomu AI Yomu AI helps people writing texts and working with references. It suggests continuations, rephrases or shorte

Choosing well and avoiding pitfalls

Start with the research stage you need to support: discovery, reading, extraction or screening. Test disciplinary coverage using publications you already know. Check French search support when relevant, multilingual document handling and access to passages supporting answers. Review citation exports, reusable tables and links to article identifiers. For a structured review, look for records of screening decisions and applied criteria. Examine the conditions for uploading confidential manuscripts or licensed documents. Finally, compare charging methods with the analysis and extraction tasks you expect to perform, including the formats needed by your existing research workflow.

A synthesis may confuse association with causation, combine unlike study populations or omit methodological qualifications. Coverage can leave out relevant work, and references require checking. Read the papers supporting your conclusion, check for corrections or retractions and distinguish published findings from the assistant’s interpretation. Document your criteria and screening decisions when conducting a review. Respect document licences and avoid uploading confidential manuscripts without authorisation, even when the task appears limited to summarising or extracting information.

To compare with the cost of using an AI model directly, see the API price calculator.

Free or paid?

Free access generally lets you explore paper discovery, summaries or selected document questions. Restrictions may affect extraction, exports and work across a collection of papers. Paying becomes useful when you conduct recurring literature work, need reusable evidence tables or require collaboration and decision records that fit your research method. Check the exact functions included before choosing.

Tools in the category with a free tier: Consensus, AMiner, ASReview, Elicit, Ai2 Asta, SciSpace, Rayyan, and genei.

For which jobs?

The profiles that use these tools most, based on the use cases documented by publishers: students, researchers, teachers, content writers, data analysts, and healthcare professionals.