OpenAlex vs Scite
OpenAlex
openalex.org
Scite
scite.aiSide by side
| Figure | OpenAlex | Scite |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $1/mo | $14/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 9 | 4 |
| Spec score · Research Paper Discovery Tools | 8.9 (#2) | 7.8 (#11) |
| Founded | OpenAlex's transparency page says Impactstory incorporated in North Carolina in 2012. | 2018 |
| Integrations | Website exports support CSV, RIS for EndNote or Zotero, and TXT, while VOSviewer connects directly through the API. | Scite lists MCP connections for ChatGPT and Claude, an API, institutional holdings, a Zotero plugin, and a browser extension. |
| 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. | Scite lists [email protected] for subscription questions and assistance. |
Plans
OpenAlex
- Pay as you go$1 a month
- Member$5,000 a year
- Member+$10,000 a year
- Partner$20,000 a year
- FreeFree
- Pay as you go$1, paid once
- Member$5,000 a year
- Member+$10,000 a year
- Partner$20,000 a year
In their own words
OpenAlex
OpenAlex is a free and open catalog of scholarly research, with a REST API for querying connected records such as works, authors, sources, institutions, and topics. API users can search, filter, sort, group, page through results, select fields, and retrieve individual entities. The complete database snapshot can be downloaded from Amazon S3 without an AWS account, and the data is released under the CC0 public-domain license. An official command-line tool supports bulk downloads with parallel transfers, checkpoints, rate limiting, retries, and resume. Full-text access provides PDFs and machine-readable TEI XML; each file download costs $0.01. Website exports include CSV, RIS, and TXT, while VOSviewer connects through the API. OpenAlex also offers Unpaywall's legacy-format open-access API, including a browser extension and integrations with SFX, EBSCO Discovery Service, and 360 Link. Its coverage includes journal articles, conference papers, books, chapters, datasets, dissertations, and preprints. OpenAlex is operated by a US 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and its code is open source.
Scite
Scite helps researchers discover and assess scientific literature through citation context. Its Smart Citations classify later citation statements as supporting, contrasting with, or mentioning a paper. Scite Search matches citation statements extracted from full text and supports citation chaining, filters, and alerts. Reference reports display citation text with filters for classification, section, year, or source type. Scite Assistant answers from peer-reviewed literature and links each answer to its source, while Reference Check examines manuscript references for citation context, retractions, editorial notices, and contrasting findings. Collections can import papers from Zotero, Mendeley, DOI CSV files, or search results and alert users to new citations and retractions. Integrations include an API, Zotero plugin, browser extension, institutional holdings, and MCP connections for ChatGPT and Claude. Scite reports indexing 317M+ articles and extracting 1.6B+ Smart Citations. It offers web, API, and extension access, with a free plan and paid plans from 20 /mo annually.