Best AI research tools
Research AI helps you find relevant papers, extract findings and check how a claim is supported, with links back to the sources. Some tools search the scientific literature, others work only with documents you upload.
Gemini Notebook (NotebookLM)
Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM) is Google's AI research assistant that grounds its answers in your own uploaded sources, with citations back to the original text. Following a July 2026 rename, it also offers a secure cloud computer for code execution, Audio and Video Overviews, and exports to PDF, PowerPoint, Excel, and CSV/JSON.
Free AI-powered academic search engine from the Allen Institute for AI with 235M+ papers. AI-generated TLDR summaries, semantic search, and Semantic Reader tools. Completely free including the API.
Consensus is an AI research engine that searches academic and scientific literature to answer questions with cited evidence; it now positions itself as an AI workspace for scientific research, adding features like Skills, a Research Gaps Matrix, and integrations with ChatGPT, Claude, and Microsoft 365 Copilot.
Elicit is an AI research platform that searches across 138M+ academic papers and 545,000+ clinical trials, extracts structured data, and runs literature reviews. It now centers on the Elicit Research Agent and Routines, with an API and MCP server for integrating search and extraction into other tools.
Scite is an AI research assistant built around Smart Citations, which show whether later papers support or contradict a claim. Its database spans 300M+ scholarly sources and 1.6B+ citations, with an MCP integration that connects Scite to ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot and other MCP-compatible AI tools.
AI tool for asking questions about PDF documents, research papers, and long files. Plans range from a free tier with 60 pages per month to paid tiers with higher included page allowances and per-page overage pricing.
Comparisons
Your task is different? Describe it in your own words and we'll pick 3 tools for exactly that.