AI answer engine with real-time web search and cited sources.
Scite
AI Research & StudyScite is a research platform built on Smart Citations, which classify how papers have been cited: supporting, contrasting or mentioning. It adds an AI Assistant that answers questions with references, Reference Check for auditing a manuscript's bibliography, and extensions for browsers and Zotero. Researchers, librarians and publishers use it to assess the reliability of sources.
Pricing
Scite pricing
Free plan: no (trial). Paid from ~$12/mo billed annually (Personal); $20/mo monthly
Last checked September 2026 · Confirm on scite.ai
Features
What Scite does
- Smart Citations showing supporting, contrasting and mentioning citation contexts
- AI Assistant that answers questions with cited academic sources
- Reference Check for auditing a manuscript's references, including retractions
- Browser extension for Chrome, Firefox, Edge and Safari
- Zotero plug-in and Zotero/Mendeley library sync
- Custom dashboards and alerts for tracking papers
Pros
- Citation context reveals whether later work supports a finding
- Flags retractions and editorial notices in reference lists
- Works inside Zotero and on publisher sites via extensions
- Many universities provide institutional access
Cons
- No permanent free plan, only a trial
- Citation classification is automated and can misread context
- Coverage depends on access to full-text papers, so some fields are thinner
- No drafting editor or general web search
Fit
Who Scite is for
Look elsewhere if: Casual users wanting general web answers or writing help will find Perplexity or a writing assistant more useful.
For teams & enterprise
Enterprise readiness
Organization/institutional licenses with SAML SSO, IP or proxy access at no extra cost; aimed at universities and publishers.
- Business / enterprise plan
- Yes
- SSO (SAML / OIDC)
- Institutional license
- SCIM user provisioning
- —
- SOC 2
- —
- ISO 27001
- —
- HIPAA (BAA available)
- —
- GDPR DPA
- —
- Data residency options
- —
- No training on your data
- —
- Audit logs
- —
- Admin controls
- Yes
- Deployment
- Cloud
From the vendor's own security documentation. "—" = not confirmed. Verify during your security review. Compare all tools.
| Research & Study feature checklist | |
|---|---|
| Answers with citations | Yes |
| Searches academic papers | Yes |
| Upload & chat with PDFs | Limited |
| AI content detection | No |
| Rewrites / humanizes text | No |
| Citation formatting | Limited |
| Browser extension | Yes |
| Writing editor | No |
Scite compared
- Scite vs Perplexity
- Scite vs Consensus
- Scite vs Monica
- Scite vs Merlin AI
- Scite vs Jenni AI
- Scite vs Originality.ai
- Scite vs StealthGPT
- Scite vs Undetectable AI
- Scite vs Elicit
Buying guides
Alternatives
All research & study tools →Best Scite alternatives
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AI academic writing assistant with citations, PDF chat and research tools.
AI content detector, plagiarism checker and fact checker for publishers and writers.