Consensus vs The Lens
Consensus
consensus.appThe Lens
lens.orgSide by side
| Figure | Consensus | The Lens |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $20/mo | $83.33/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | — |
| Android | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 7 | 7 |
| Spec score · Research Paper Discovery Tools | 9.3 (#1) | 7.7 (#12) |
| Founded | 2021 | The Lens says it launched in 2001, while its predecessor Patent Lens work began in 1999. |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, California, United States | West End, Queensland, Australia |
| Privacy | Consensus says user content sent for AI processing is not used to train its models or third-party models, and it does not attach account identifiers to that content. | The privacy policy says registered users may opt out of search-history recording and web analytics, and guest use does not require providing an email address. |
| Support | The company offers support through in-product Support Chat and at [email protected]. | The Lens lists [email protected] and [email protected] as contact emails and provides a support request form. |
Plans
Consensus
- ProPriced on request
- DeepPriced on request
- Free TierFree
- Pro$20 a month
- Deep$65 a month
- EnterprisePriced on request
- TeamsPriced on request
The Lens
- Academic / non-commercial accessPriced on request
- Individual commercial use$1,000 a year
- Academic WorkspaceFree
- Anonymous accessFree
- API TrialFree
- Individual Professional Workspace$1,000 a year
- API Member | Custom AccessPriced 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.
The Lens
The Lens connects scholarly literature and patent records for discovery, analysis, decision-making, and partnering. Patent search offers Boolean, structured, biological, and classification queries, alongside filters and sorting. The Lens says its scholarly collection contains more than 200 million records and links scholarly works to patents through citations. PatSeq tools search, analyze, and share biological sequences disclosed in patents. Search results can be visualized in charts and dashboards, which users may save and share. Registered users can save collections and queries, add notes, and receive notifications when new indexed results match them. Lens Profiles combine author and inventor records and support ORCID linking and synchronization. Anonymous browsing is free, as is a non-commercial academic workspace for users with an academic institutional email. Individual commercial users need commercial-use permissions through a subscription or institution. The Individual Professional Workspace costs $1,000 a year. APIs support programmatic search and retrieval, subject to approved access and a token.