scite LLC’s Smart Citations platform. Citation contexts in its 1.6 billion-plus citation index are classified as Supporting, Contrasting, or Mentioning based on the text surrounding the reference in the citing paper. The Assistant layers AI Q&A on top of that classified research corpus.
Pricing: Basic $20/mo, Pro $50/mo, Organization and Developer custom. Scite offers a 7-day free trial.
System Verdict
Pick Scite if you need to know whether a paper’s claims are supported or contested, not just how many times it was cited. The Supporting/Contrasting/Mentioning split is the only at-scale citation-context classification on the market and transforms citation counts from a popularity metric into an evidence signal.
Skip it if your field is lightly covered or your budget is zero. Biomedical and social sciences have dense coverage. Engineering, computer science, arts, and humanities thin out fast. For free discovery, Semantic Scholar covers the basics. For conversational research Q&A, Consensus is faster and cheaper.
Who pays which tier: Basic $20/mo for regular individual literature work, Pro $50/mo for power researchers who need patents and broader MCP datasets, Organization for university/company access, and Developer for API/MCP integrations.
Key Facts
| Classified citations indexed | 1.6B+ citations |
| Search corpus | 280M+ scholarly sources on the home page; 200M+ sources shown on the pricing page |
| Classification labels | Supporting, Contrasting, Mentioning |
| Signature feature | Citation-context classification via trained NLP |
| Scite Assistant | AI Q&A grounded in classified citation contexts |
| Reference Check | Audits a draft’s bibliography for retracted or contested sources |
| Analytics | Journal-level and author-level supporting-to-contrasting ratios |
| API access | Organization and Developer paths; contact Scite |
| Student/academic discount | Available when recommending Scite to an institution, per Scite pricing FAQ |
| Coverage strength | Biomedical, social sciences |
| Coverage weakness | Engineering, CS, humanities |
What it actually is
One product with three surfaces: the citation database, the Assistant, and Reference Check. Researchers search for a paper, see a classified citation dashboard (how many cite it, how many support, how many contrast), and drill into specific citation contexts.
The Assistant accepts natural-language research questions and returns answers synthesized from classified citation contexts, not abstracts alone. This is the structural difference from Consensus, which synthesizes from abstracts.
The moat is the classified database itself. Building it required years of NLP training on researcher-labeled citation contexts. No other tool at this scale has replicated the dataset.
When to pick Scite
- You are evaluating a paper before citing it. Seeing 200 contrasting citations against a high-count paper changes how you frame it in your own work.
- You are running a systematic review. The classification surfaces contested claims that citation counts alone would hide.
- You are a journal editor or peer reviewer. Quickly assess whether a submitted paper’s cited sources have been replicated or disputed.
- You fact-check science coverage. Journalists get a direct signal on whether a viral study has held up.
- You need the Assistant grounded in primary-source context. Unlike generalist chatbots, answers tie back to classified citations with source links.
When to pick something else
- Free discovery and TLDR summaries: Semantic Scholar. 200M+ papers, no cost, unmatched value for a starting point.
- Research question Q&A with a consensus meter: Consensus. Faster and cheaper at $10.99/mo Premium.
- Structured extraction tables for meta-analysis: Elicit. Different output, different workflow.
- Visual paper graph from a seed reference: Connected Papers. Explores conceptual neighborhood, not citation sentiment.
- Humanities or sparse-coverage fields: Google Scholar or a subject-specific database. Scite’s coverage is thin outside STEM and social sciences.
Pricing
Subscription pricing via scite.ai/pricing, verified May 13, 2026.
| Plan | Price | Key Access |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | $20/mo | Scite Assistant, Full-Text Search, dashboards, paper citation reports, alerts, 250 MCP credits/month |
| Pro | $50/mo | Basic plus patents in Search and Assistant, more MCP datasets, 2,500 MCP credits/month |
| Organization | Custom | Domain/IP/email access, API and MCP access, volume pricing, analytics, SSO, exports, support |
| Developer | Custom | Credit-based API and MCP access, with tiered pricing for high-volume usage |
Prices verified 2026-05-13 via scite.ai/pricing. Scite says new users can start a 7-day free trial. Organization and Developer pricing require contacting Scite.
Against the alternatives
| Scite | Consensus | Semantic Scholar | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Primary signal | Citation sentiment (Support/Contrast) | Consensus meter from abstracts | Citation counts + influential citations |
| Q&A interface | Assistant (classified-context grounded) | Yes (abstract-grounded) | No native Q&A |
| Database size | 1.6B+ citations; 280M+ scholarly sources claimed on Scite home page | 200M+ papers | 200M+ papers |
| Free tier usefulness | 7-day trial, then paid individual plans | Generous monthly | Fully free, forever |
| Price floor (paid) | $20/mo Basic | $10.99/mo Premium | $0 |
| Best viewed as | Credibility checker | Research question answerer | Free discovery engine |
Failure modes
- Classification is NLP, not ground truth. Nuanced or sarcastic citation contexts get misclassified. Verify high-stakes classifications manually.
- Trial is not a long-term workflow. Anyone evaluating Scite seriously should budget for Basic, Pro, or an institution-provided seat.
- Coverage gaps outside STEM and social sciences. Engineering, CS, humanities, and arts have sparse citation-context data. Check your field before subscribing.
- No offline access. All features require internet and an active session.
- Assistant inherits classification error rates. If the underlying citation context was misclassified, the Assistant’s synthesized answer carries the error forward.
- $20-$50/mo feels steep without institutional backing. Independent academics and hobbyists will feel it. Systematic reviewers and institution-backed researchers may not.
- API access is a sales motion. Programmatic use requires Organization or Developer contact, not a simple self-serve key.
Methodology
This page was produced by the aipedia.wiki editorial pipeline, an automated system that ingests vendor documentation, verifies pricing and feature details against primary sources, and generates the analysis above. No individual human wrote this review. Scoring follows the four-dimension rubric at /about/scoring/ (Utility × Value × Moat × Longevity, unweighted average). Last verified 2026-05-13 against scite.ai and scite pricing.
FAQ
What makes Scite different from Google Scholar? Google Scholar counts citations. Scite classifies them. Knowing a paper has 500 citations is less useful than knowing 150 of them explicitly contest its findings.
Is Scite worth $20/month? For active researchers running regular literature reviews, yes. Basic is $20/month and the Supporting/Contrasting split can save hours and flag contested science. For occasional academic work, Semantic Scholar is free and covers basic needs.
How accurate is citation classification? Scite uses trained NLP models and publishes confidence levels per classification. High-stakes citations should still be manually verified, particularly in nuanced or critical contexts.
Scite vs Consensus: what is the difference? Scite grounds answers in classified citation contexts. Consensus grounds answers in paper abstracts with a consensus meter across studies. Scite answers “is this paper supported or contested?” Consensus answers “what does the literature say about X?”
Does Scite work for humanities research? Coverage is thinnest outside STEM and social sciences. Humanities researchers will find sparse citation-context data for most fields.
Can I integrate Scite into my institution’s research tools? Yes, via Organization or Developer access. Scite’s pricing page says API and MCP access are available through custom-priced paths.
Sources
- scite.ai: product overview, Smart Citations, corpus claims, publisher partnerships
- scite.ai pricing: current Basic, Pro, Organization, and Developer packaging
Related
- Category: AI Research
- Comparisons: Scite vs Consensus | Scite vs Semantic Scholar | Elicit vs Scite | Connected Papers vs Scite | ChatGPT vs Scite
