Semantic Scholar
by Ai2 (Allen Institute for AI)
Visit official siteBest for
Students and researchers who want to find and follow scientific papers without paying anything.
Verified on October 22, 2026 · Official source
About
Free scientific literature search engine from Ai2, with over 200 million papers, AI-generated TLDR summaries, recommendations of new papers (Research Feeds) and a reader that shows citation details inline in the text.
Why it ranks #5
It's completely free and covers over 200 million papers, always linked to the source, but it doesn't generate synthesized answers like Elicit and Consensus, the official site doesn't mention uploading your own PDFs and the focus is on English-language publications.
Criteria used for Research and study
Citation reliability, source coverage (web or scientific papers), ability to work with your own documents and free tier.
Pricing
- Has a free plan
On the free plan
Free: the maker describes Semantic Scholar as a free AI-powered research tool; creating an account enables the library and Research Feeds.
Verified on October 22, 2026 · Official source
Prices change often; check the official site.
Pros / Cons
Pros
- Completely free, run by the non-profit Ai2
- Indexes over 200 million academic papers
- Research Feeds recommend new papers based on your library
Verified on October 22, 2026 · Official source
Cons
- Focus on publications primarily in English
- TLDR summaries are limited to computer science and biomedical papers
- The official FAQ doesn't mention uploading your own PDFs
Verified on October 22, 2026 · Official source
FAQ
- Is Semantic Scholar paid?
- No. The maker describes it as a free AI-powered search and discovery tool.
- What is a TLDR?
- It's an AI-generated summary of a scientific paper; per the FAQ, it currently exists only for computer science and biomedical papers.
- Does it find papers in Portuguese?
- The FAQ says the current focus is on publications primarily in English.
Verified on October 22, 2026 · Official source
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