Comparison
Consensus vs Elicit
Consensus: Search 200M+ scientific papers with AI and get real citations. Elicit: Research assistant that searches and extracts data from 138M papers.
| Consensus | Elicit | |
|---|---|---|
| Rating | 4.4 | 4.4 |
| Price | Freemium Free plan with unlimited searches and 10 Pro analyses/month. Pro $10/month. | Freemium Free Basic plan with 5,000 credits, unlimited searches and summaries. Plus $12/user/month, Pro $49, Team $79. |
| Free plan | ||
| API available | ||
| Open source | ||
| In Spanish | ||
| No watermark | — | — |
| Platforms | Web | Web |
Consensus or Elicit?
Both search scientific literature, but they solve different moments of a research process. Consensus answers a specific question and shows how much agreement exists between studies. Elicit is built for systematic reviews: it extracts data from dozens of papers — sample, method, result — into a comparison table.
Choose Consensus if…
You have a specific question and want to know what the scientific consensus says about it.
Choose Elicit if…
You are doing a review and need to compare the method and results of many papers.
Consensus
- Answers based on real papers, with verifiable citations
- Consensus meter: see how much scientific agreement there is on a topic
- Unlimited free searches; you can ask in Spanish
- Advanced analyses (Pro Analysis, Deep) have monthly quotas
- English interface, although it understands questions in Spanish
Elicit
- Extracts data from many papers at once into a comparison table
- Free plan with unlimited searches and summaries
- A base of more than 138 million scientific articles
- Big price jump between the free plan and Pro ($49/month)
- English-only interface
The differences that actually matter
Answering a question versus building a review
Consensus is built for asking something specific and seeing what the body of literature says, with a measure of agreement across studies. Elicit is oriented to building a review: it filters papers, extracts data into a table and lets you compare methodologies. One answers, the other organises.
How they present results
Consensus summarises in plain language and flags whether studies point the same way, which settles a question fast. Elicit produces tables with whatever variables you request from each paper, which is what you need when citing twenty works rather than two.
Who each is for
Consensus fits anyone wanting to ground a claim without being a researcher: journalists, science communicators, health professionals. Elicit fits someone doing actual research who needs traceability and volume.
Frequently asked questions
Do they replace reading the papers?
No, and that is worth being clear about. They help find, filter and summarise, which is where most of the time goes. But an automatic summary can miss methodological nuances that change the conclusion, so anything you are going to cite you have to read.
Do they cover Spanish-language literature well?
Unevenly. Both index mostly English-language scientific publishing, where the bulk of output is, and coverage of Spanish-language journals is thinner. For local or humanities topics, supplement with regional databases.