Scite Review: Features, Pricing & Alternatives
Research & EducationFreemiumAn AI research platform with Smart Citations: it classifies over a billion citation statements as supporting or contrasting so you can evaluate papers, not just count them.
What Is Scite?
This AI-powered research platform answers a question citation counts cannot: when paper B cites paper A, does it support the finding, contradict it, or simply mention it? The company has classified over 1.6 billion citation statements from more than 180 million papers, turning every reference list into a signal about reliability.
Founded in 2018 by Josh Nicholson and Yuri Gurevich, the platform has grown from a Smart Citations viewer into a fuller workflow: an AI Assistant for literature search, Reference Check for manuscripts, dashboards that score journal reliability, and integrations that bring citation context into ChatGPT, Claude, Zotero-style workflows, and any webpage via extension.
Pricing & Plans
7-day free trial; Basic $20/mo ($12/mo annual); Deep Research $50/mo; Team $50/seat/mo; Enterprise custom
Basic
Individual research with full Smart Citation access.
- Unlimited Assistant usage
- Full-text literature search
- Smart Citation Reports
- 250 MCP credits / month
- Collections up to 1,000 papers
Deep Research
For systematic reviews and deep evidence work.
- Everything in Basic
- 2,500 MCP credits / month
- Collections up to 10,000 papers
- Patent, clinical trial, and grant datasets
Team
Shared collections and analytics for labs.
- Everything in Deep Research per seat
- Shared Collections & Alerts
- User analytics and reporting
- Up to 15 seats
Enterprise
Institution-wide licensing with pooled usage.
- Unlimited users
- SSO and pooled credits
- Dedicated success manager
- Campus-wide deployment
Best For
Recommended use cases and scenarios where Scite shines.
Pros
- Supporting-versus-contrasting labels transform literature evaluation
- Assistant answers grounded in full-text search with citations
- Reference Check catches problematic citations pre-submission
- Browser extension brings citation context to any article page
Cons
- Coverage is strongest in STEM and thinner in humanities
- No permanent free tier beyond limited trial access
- MCP credits for external AI integrations are capped monthly
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about Scite, answered.
Is Scite free?
There is no permanent free tier. A 7-day trial unlocks premium features, and a browser extension offers limited public Smart Citation exploration afterward. Paid plans start at $20/month.
How much does Scite cost?
Basic is $20/mo monthly or $12/mo billed annually ($144/year). Deep Research is $50/mo, Team seats are $50 each, and Enterprise uses custom institutional pricing.
What are Smart Citations?
They are citation statements classified by AI as supporting, contrasting, or mentioning the cited claim, shown with the actual sentence from the citing paper so you can judge reliability instantly.
Does it integrate with ChatGPT or Claude?
Yes. Paid plans include monthly MCP credits that connect Scite's database and Assistant to ChatGPT and Claude, letting those assistants ground answers in classified citation data.
Is coverage good for humanities research?
Coverage is strongest in STEM, medicine, and social science. Humanities and some non-English literature have thinner classification, so test your field during the free trial first.
Reviews & Ratings
4.6
Based on 620 reviews
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Marcus Webb
Very capable tool. A couple of rough edges, but the team ships updates quickly.
Elena Petrova
Solid, but the free tier is quite limited. The paid plans are where it shines.
Alex Chen
Game changer for my daily workflow. The quality of output consistently surprises me.
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