Elicit

Elicit is an AI research assistant designed for systematic literature review — the process of comprehensively finding, evaluating, and extracting information from academic papers on a specific research question. It is used by over 2 million researchers and has become a standard tool for academic and professional research workflows.

Elicit's core workflow is more structured than a search engine: users define a research question, Elicit finds relevant papers, and then allows users to extract specific columns of information from each paper (methodology, population, outcomes, limitations). This turns a literature review into a structured table rather than a pile of links — enabling rapid synthesis across dozens or hundreds of papers.

Key capabilities include semantic search across 100M+ papers, structured data extraction into tables, AI paper summaries, PDF upload and analysis, citation export (RIS, BibTeX), multiple evidence extraction columns (methodology, sample size, findings), automation for recurring reviews, and API for research workflow integration.

Pricing: Free plan provides 2 research reports per month and limited features. Plus at approximately $10 per month provides 15 reports per month and full data extraction. Pro at approximately $42 per month provides 50 reports per month, automation, and API access. Team plans at approximately $79 per month add collaboration features.

Limitations: Elicit's structured extraction is powerful for quantitative research but less useful for qualitative analysis where insights are contextual rather than extractable. Report limits on lower tiers constrain usage for high-volume researchers. The platform is best for empirical research — humanities and social science literature is less well-served.

Best suited for academic researchers, graduate students, and evidence-based professionals who need to conduct or update systematic literature reviews efficiently.