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Tech riderRev. 30 Sept 2026

OpenAlex

Ch 057.1of 33 Academic Research Databases
  1. 1Runs onAPI, Browser, self-hosted, Web
  2. 2CostsFree plan · paid from $416.67/mo
  3. 3Full-text accessYes
  4. 4Advanced searchYes
  5. 5Subject coveragemultidisciplinary
  6. 6Content typesjournal articles, conference papers, books, book chapters, datasets, dissertations, preprints
  7. 7Theses and dissertationsYes
  8. 8Conference proceedingsYes
8 lines stated Written from the maker's own pages: openalex.org, help.openalex.org
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Overview

OpenAlex is ranked #5 of 33 in academic research databases on Specifiction. It runs on API, Browser extension, Self-hosted, Web. There is a free plan. Paid plans start at $416.67/mo.

OpenAlex plans and pricing

All plans
Free Free $1 per day API key · no payment method · budget resets midnight UTC help.openalex.org · 30 Sept 2026
Pay as you go $1 once $1 increments Prepaid usage · drawn after free daily budget · expires 3 months after most recent purchase help.openalex.org · 30 Sept 2026
Member $5,000/yr $5,000/year $20/day API budget · admin dashboard · community support · academic/government affiliation editor and Unsub access help.openalex.org · 30 Sept 2026
Member+ $10,000/yr $10,000/year $100/day API budget · daily snapshot and sync filters · critical API bug support help.openalex.org · 30 Sept 2026
Partner $20,000/yr starting at $20,000/year $200+/day API budget · full ticket support · academic/government: 3 power-user accounts and 5 consulting hours/year help.openalex.org · 30 Sept 2026

Compared on academic research databases

Free plan
Yesopenalex.org
Full-text access
Yesopenalex.org
Advanced search
Yesopenalex.org
Subject coverage
multidisciplinaryopenalex.org
Content types
journal articles, conference papers, books, book chapters, datasets, dissertations, preprintsopenalex.org
Theses and dissertations
Yesopenalex.org
Conference proceedings
Yesopenalex.org
Institutional access
Yesopenalex.org

Facts

Product
OpenAlex is a free and open catalog of the world's scholarly research system.explore.openalex.org · 30 Sept 2026
API
The REST API is a connected graph of works, authors, sources, institutions, topics, and more, with list, filter, search, sort, group, page, field selection, and single-entity queries.help.openalex.org · 30 Sept 2026
Website
The website supports search, filtering, and exporting result lists without coding.help.openalex.org · 30 Sept 2026
Snapshot
The complete database snapshot is free to download from Amazon S3 without an AWS account.help.openalex.org · 30 Sept 2026
Data license
OpenAlex data is released under the CC0 public-domain license.help.openalex.org · 30 Sept 2026
CLI
The official CLI handles parallel downloads, checkpointing, rate limiting, retries, and resume for bulk terminal workflows.help.openalex.org · 30 Sept 2026
Full text
The full-text service provides PDFs and machine-readable TEI XML, with per-file downloads priced at $0.01 each.help.openalex.org · 30 Sept 2026
Integrations
Website exports support CSV, RIS for EndNote or Zotero, and TXT, while VOSviewer connects directly through the API.help.openalex.org · 30 Sept 2026
Unpaywall
Unpaywall is OpenAlex's legacy-format open-access API surface, including a browser extension and integrations with SFX, EBSCO Discovery Service, and 360 Link.help.openalex.org · 30 Sept 2026
Security guidance
OpenAlex passes externally sourced text fields through without sanitizing them and advises users to escape output and follow OWASP XSS-prevention practices.help.openalex.org · 30 Sept 2026
Support
Member includes community support, Member+ includes ticket-based help for critical API bugs, and Partner includes full ticket-based support for API and data issues.help.openalex.org · 30 Sept 2026
Organization
OpenAlex is operated by a US 501(c)(3) nonprofit and all code is open source.help.openalex.org · 30 Sept 2026

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Where it ranks on Specifiction

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