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Should I Use scite.ai?

scite.ai·Analyzed 1 week ago··Based on 12 sources

Scite searches 300M+ scholarly articles to give you citation-backed answers and show you how every claim is supported or disputed.

Verdict

Worth it

Buy if you're a researcher, grad student, or institution that regularly works through academic literature and needs claim-level citation checks.

Confidence: Medium

Skip it if you only occasionally look up papers — Perplexity and free library databases cover that.

Solid, cheap ($12/mo) citation-checked research assistant for academics; overkill for casual paper lookups.

Key stats

  • Value for money: 4/5

    Rating

  • $12/mo

    Starting price

  • 12

    Sources

  • Analyzed

  • Value for money: 4/5. $12/mo is cheap for citation-checked research
  • Ease of use: 4/5. G2 users praise ease of use
  • Feature depth: 4/5. 300M+ articles, Smart Citations, AI assistant, MCP integration
  • Support quality: 4/5. Trustpilot 'Excellent' at 4.4/5
  • Security posture: 4/5. Publishes security page; no known issues
  • 4.7/5 G2 rating 27 reviews
  • 4.4/5 Trustpilot Rated 'Excellent'
  • $12/mo Starting price Subscription model
  • $4M raised Funding ~$550K est. ARR

Pricing

Individual

$12/mo

  • Citation-backed AI Assistant
  • Smart Citations across 300M+ articles

Students

Discounted

  • Verified student discount via sales email

Institutions

Not disclosed

  • Institutional licensing
  • Library integrations
Best for and not for

Best for

  • Academics and grad students
  • Literature review workflows
  • Claim verification against citations
  • University libraries

Not for

  • Casual general-question askers
  • Occasional paper lookups — free tools suffice
  • Non-academic business research
  • Anyone wanting a general AI chatbot

Biggest gotcha

  • mediumFull-text access to some papers depends on publisher integrations like GetFTR
  • lowSubscription auto-renews; you cancel yourself in account settings per the terms12
  • lowStudent discount requires emailing sales, not self-serve checkout
  • lowInstitutional pricing hidden — requires a contact-sales conversation

Pros

  • Searches 300M+ scholarly articles; every answer cites real papers¹
  • Shows whether each claim is supported or disputed¹
  • G2 users praise ease of use and time savings⁴
  • Strong ratings: 4.7/5 G2, 4.4/5 Trustpilot⁴
  • Integrates with ChatGPT and Claude via MCP10

Cons

  • Only 27 G2 reviews — thin user base⁴
  • Small company: ~$550K ARR, $4M raised⁸
  • Acquired/merged ownership — roadmap direction may shift⁹
  • Subscription-only from $12/mo; no free tier in sources⁷

Security

No known vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.

What users say

Users praise scite's ease of use and time savings for literature work; ratings are strong but based on few reviews.

“scite.ai, a deep learning platform that evaluates the reliability of…”
Reddit, r/MachineLearning
“Users consistently praise the ease of use and time-savi…”
G2 reviews summary
“In our books, Scite does a good job of balancing c…”
AcademicHelp review

Alternatives

Compare scite.ai with each alternative.

  • Consensus

    Head-to-head competitor for evidence-backed answers from papers.

    scite.ai vs Consensus

  • SciSpace

    Broader AI paper-reading tool, frequently compared to Scite.

  • Perplexity

    Free general AI search; weaker academic citation rigor.

Companies that use it

  • Florida State University11
  • University of Delaware
  • Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
  • New York University
  • Missouri University of Science and Technology

Methodology

Based on 20+ public sources: G2/Trustpilot reviews, Reddit threads, university library guides, pricing comparisons, and security profiles.

Sources

  1. Scite: AI for Research (official)scite.ai
    official
  2. Scite Pricingscite.ai
    official
  3. Scite product security pagescite.ai
    security
  4. scite.ai Reviews — G2g2.com
    review
  5. scite.ai Trustpilot reviewstrustpilot.com
    review
  6. Scite AI Review 2026 — Effortless Academiceffortlessacademic.com
    review
  7. Scite.ai vs Consensus — The AI Agent Indextheaiagentindex.com
    review
  8. Scite Revenue & Funding — Getlatkagetlatka.com
    news
  9. Scite company profile — PitchBookpitchbook.com
    news
  10. Research Solutions Launches Scite MCPprnewswire.com
    news
  11. FSU Libraries Scite guideguides.lib.fsu.edu
    official
  12. Scite terms of servicescite.ai
    official

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