Consensus vs Semantic Scholar
Consensus
consensus.app
Semantic Scholar
semanticscholar.orgSide by side
| Figure | Consensus | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $20/mo | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | — |
| Android | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 7 | 1 |
| Spec score · Research Paper Discovery Tools | 9.3 (#1) | 7.5 (#19) |
| Spec score · AI Search Engines | 9.4 (#1) | 7.5 (#21) |
| Spec score · Ai Search Tools | 9.5 (#1) | 7.5 (#16) |
| Founded | 2021 | 2015 |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, California, United States | Seattle, Washington, United States |
| Research corpus | The service says its database contains more than 220 million peer-reviewed research papers. | Its Academic Graph API page lists 214 million papers, 2.49 billion citations, and 79 million authors. |
| Support | The company offers support through in-product Support Chat and at [email protected]. | The librarian resources page directs users to the FAQ, a Contact Us form, and tutorial videos for help. |
Plans
Consensus
- ProPriced on request
- DeepPriced on request
- Free TierFree
- Pro$20 a month
- Deep$65 a month
- EnterprisePriced on request
- TeamsPriced on request
In their own words
Consensus
Consensus is an AI workspace and academic search engine for scientific research, available on web, Android, iOS, and as an extension. It searches more than 220 million peer-reviewed papers, with the database updated weekly, and offers filters for publication date, access, citations, journal rank, study design, population, sample size, and other paper details. Its Research Agent plans multi-step searches, uses tools such as citation crawling and DOI lookup, and returns citation-backed answers. Consensus says citations in its AI summaries correspond to exact paper quotes, with the relevant section identified and PDF text highlighted when available. Medical Mode searches a selected collection of about 8 million papers and 50,000 clinical guidelines from the top 1,000 medical journals. Users can import Zotero libraries and export CSV or RIS files for reference managers. Consensus also works in ChatGPT, Claude, and Microsoft 365 Copilot; API and MCP calls share a monthly allowance. The Free Tier costs nothing. Pro is $20 a month, or $144/year billed annually; Deep is $65 a month, or $540/year billed annually.
Semantic Scholar
Semantic Scholar has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.