Comparison
Consensus vs Perplexity
Consensus: Search 200M+ scientific papers with AI and get real citations. Perplexity: The AI search engine that answers with cited sources.
| Consensus | Perplexity | |
|---|---|---|
| Rating | 4.4 | 4.4 |
| Price | Freemium Free plan with unlimited searches and 10 Pro analyses/month. Pro $10/month. | Freemium Pro from $20/month. Generous free plan. |
| Free plan | ||
| API available | ||
| Open source | ||
| In Spanish | ||
| No watermark | — | — |
| Platforms | Web | Web · Windows · Mac · iOS · Android |
Consensus or Perplexity?
Both cite their sources, but they do not draw from the same place. Consensus answers only from peer-reviewed scientific literature and shows how much agreement exists between studies. Perplexity searches the whole web, which makes it far more versatile but less rigorous when what you need is scientific evidence.
Choose Consensus if…
You need answers grounded in science: health, nutrition, psychology or any topic backed by studies.
Choose Perplexity if…
You research general topics, current affairs or products, and need information from across the web.
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
Perplexity
- Answers with verifiable sources
- Real-time information
- Good free plan
- Less capable than ChatGPT/Claude on creative tasks
- The sources are not always the best ones
The differences that actually matter
Scientific literature versus the whole web
Consensus searches peer-reviewed papers and nothing else. Perplexity searches the whole internet: press, blogs, forums and papers too. For a medical or scientific question, restricting the source is an enormous advantage, because it filters the noise before summarising.
Measuring agreement across studies
Consensus indicates whether the works it found point the same way or contradict each other, which is information a general search engine does not give you. When the honest answer is "the evidence is divided", knowing that is worth more than any summary.
Which questions each serves
For "what does the science say about X", Consensus. For "how much does X cost", "what happened this week" or "how do I do Y", Perplexity, because that information is not in scientific journals. Using the specialist for everything is as poor a call as never using it.
Frequently asked questions
Which do I use for a health question?
Consensus gives a better starting point because it only looks at peer-reviewed literature. That said, neither replaces a healthcare professional: they are for arriving at the appointment informed, not for deciding instead of one.
Can I cite what they say in academic work?
You cite the original paper, never the tool or its summary. Both link the source precisely for that. Citing an automatic summary as if it were the source is a mistake caught on the first review.