Folio

Spec sheet

Product

Folio is an integrated workspace for discovering literature, reading, writing, citing and documenting authorship.Read 15 Oct 2026 · usefolio.co

Audience

Folio presents Scholar as a free plan for writing and proving work, Fellow for keeping up with a field, and Chair for supervisors and teams.Read 8 Oct 2026 · usefolio.co

Security

Folio says database row-level security enforces access and that it does not sell user data or train models on users’ writing.Read 8 Oct 2026 · usefolio.co

Compliance

Folio describes its posture as GDPR-aligned, offers a data-processing agreement on request and publishes a subprocessor register.Read 15 Oct 2026 · usefolio.co

Support

The Chair plan includes direct founder support.Read 8 Oct 2026 · usefolio.co

Academic search

Its search spans OpenAlex, Crossref, Semantic Scholar, arXiv, Europe PMC, DOAJ and other sources, with results saved directly to a library.Read 15 Oct 2026 · usefolio.co

AI assistant integration

Folio provides an MCP connector for Claude, ChatGPT, Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code, and other compliant clients.Read 8 Oct 2026 · usefolio.co

AI writing boundary

The product says its AI does not write into documents; it searches, checks citations, reviews arguments and proofreads instead.Read 15 Oct 2026 · usefolio.co

Browser extension

The free extension saves papers, pages and links, verifies page references and lets users ask questions about a page.Read 15 Oct 2026 · usefolio.co

Changelog news

The September 25, 2026 release added clearer failed-search messages, safer BibTeX and Chicago exports, Qualtrics import, Prolific completion handling, scheduled retraction checks and video submission receipts.Read 15 Oct 2026 · usefolio.co

Chrome extension coverage

The extension listing says it supports sources including arXiv, Nature, Science, PubMed, IEEE, books, government pages, YouTube and general web pages.Read 15 Oct 2026 · chromewebstore.google.com

Chrome extension details

The listing identifies version 1.4.3, updated July 18, 2026, with a 174 KiB package and developer Tarek Gara.Read 15 Oct 2026 · chromewebstore.google.com

Chrome privacy disclosure

The Chrome listing says the extension handles personally identifiable information, authentication information and website content.Read 15 Oct 2026 · chromewebstore.google.com

Classroom

Folio Classroom is free for individual instructors and attaches a verifiable writing-process record to each student submission.Read 15 Oct 2026 · usefolio.co

Company facts

The opened official and founder pages do not state a legal entity name, headquarters location or founding year.Read 15 Oct 2026 · usefolio.co

Data control

Users can export their data in machine-readable formats or permanently delete their account from settings.Read 8 Oct 2026 · usefolio.co

Discovery synthesis

Discovery follows citation links and can assemble a structured synthesis matrix whose cells link back to sources.Read 15 Oct 2026 · usefolio.co

Documentation

The help center lists 126 articles covering account setup, imports, citations, audits, surveys, institutions and technical integrations.Read 15 Oct 2026 · usefolio.co

Export formats

Library exports include BibTeX, RIS and CSL-JSON, while documents can be exported as DOCX, PDF, LaTeX or web pages.Read 15 Oct 2026 · usefolio.co

Founder

Tarek Gara identifies himself as building Folio and provides a usefolio.co contact address on his personal site.Read 15 Oct 2026 · tarekgara.com

Identity integrations

Institution single sign-on supports OpenID Connect and SAML 2.0, with SCIM provisioning.Read 15 Oct 2026 · usefolio.co

Imports

Folio supports importing libraries from Zotero and reference files in BibTeX, RIS, CSL-JSON, MODS, and EndNote XML formats.Read 8 Oct 2026 · usefolio.co

Inline citations

The editor inserts library citations through a double-bracket picker and resolves them inline.Read 15 Oct 2026 · usefolio.co

Institution API

The institution console provides signed webhooks and a read API, plus JSON and CSV record exports.Read 15 Oct 2026 · usefolio.co

Institution LMS integration

Institution deployments launch from existing learning platforms through LTI 1.3 and import accounts and rosters through SCIM 2.0 and OneRoster 1.1.Read 15 Oct 2026 · usefolio.co

Integrity reports

Folio produces authorship reports and certificates, checks references, flags retractions and matches quotations to source pages.Read 15 Oct 2026 · usefolio.co

Limit: desktop app

The help center lists a native Mac and Windows offline app as a feature request, indicating it is not currently available.Read 15 Oct 2026 · usefolio.co

Limit: inline AI writing

Folio explicitly says it chose not to build inline AI writing suggestions and that its AI never writes into documents.Read 15 Oct 2026 · usefolio.co

Limit: mobile app

A native iOS and Android app is listed as a feature request rather than an available product.Read 15 Oct 2026 · usefolio.co

Limit: Zotero sync

Two-way Zotero synchronization is listed as a requested feature; current documentation describes one-time Zotero import.Read 15 Oct 2026 · usefolio.co

MCP clients

The connector works with Claude, ChatGPT, Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code and other MCP-compliant clients.Read 15 Oct 2026 · usefolio.co

MCP endpoint

Folio exposes a Streamable HTTP MCP server at https://www.usefolio.co/api/mcp using JSON-RPC 2.0.Read 15 Oct 2026 · usefolio.co

MCP security

MCP authentication uses OAuth 2.1 with PKCE and scopes for library, document and survey access.Read 15 Oct 2026 · usefolio.co

MCP tools

Available tools include library search, citation formatting, source retrieval, reference verification, document search, claim checks and survey results.Read 15 Oct 2026 · usefolio.co

Mobile availability

Folio says native iOS and Android apps are not available yet, though its web app is laid out for small screens.Read 8 Oct 2026 · usefolio.co

Privacy posture

The company says it does not sell user data or train models on user writing, and account data can be exported or deleted.Read 15 Oct 2026 · usefolio.co

Rating on Chrome Web Store

Save to Folio is rated 5 out of 5 from 1 rating.Read 15 Oct 2026 · chromewebstore.google.com

Research Radar

Radar tracks topics, authors, journals, citations, news and RSS feeds and sends scheduled digests explaining retained items.Read 15 Oct 2026 · usefolio.co

Research tools

Folio Search fans one query across papers, books, the web, and video, and its Synthesizer cites retrieved results.Read 8 Oct 2026 · usefolio.co

Residency limit

Regional data residency is not available yet; the institutions page says EU hosting is planned.Read 15 Oct 2026 · usefolio.co

Reviewer

Folio Reviewer uses Methods, Clarity and Skeptic panels to return paragraph-anchored feedback in a provenance-stamped report.Read 15 Oct 2026 · usefolio.co

Security controls

Folio says database row-level security isolates records, content is encrypted, and Integrity Certificates use a signed cryptographic edit-history chain.Read 15 Oct 2026 · usefolio.co

Surveyor

Surveyor supports validated scales, distribution, Delphi rounds, translation and themed response analysis.Read 15 Oct 2026 · usefolio.co

Writing and citations

Folio lets users insert citations from their source library while writing and automatically builds the bibliography.Read 8 Oct 2026 · usefolio.co

Plans and prices

Every Folio plan and price →

Where Specifiction places it

• AI Research Assistants#4 of 289.1