How much does scite cost?
- Free plan
- Not stated
- Free trial
- 7-day free trial; auto-enrolls in the selected plan after it ends unless cancelled
- Enterprise
- Contact sales
In your favor
- Free trial. 7-day free trial; auto-enrolls in the selected plan after it ends unless cancelled
- Notice before price changes. At least 30 days notice, may be by email
Watch out for
- No refunds on a long commitment. Fees are non-refundable
- Their pages disagree: user count. "Over 2,000,000 researchers, students, and industry experts trust Scite" vs "Used by 3M+ researchers from the world's leading organizations"
- Their pages disagree: citations indexed. "1.7B+Smart Citations" vs "Scite has indexed 1.6B+ citations"
How you buy and get started
- Sign up
- Create an account and start a 7-day free trial or buy a plan directly "Click on the "Start Free Trial" button to enjoy a 7-day trial of our premium features. You'll need to create an account to get started."
- Setup
- Not stated
- When sales steps in
- Enterprise plan requires contacting sales "If you're interested in an enterprise plan, please contact our sales team at sales@scite.ai to discuss your requirements and initiate the setup process."
- Support
- Email support "For any questions or assistance with your subscription, please contact us at"
What scite does
Scite offers an Assistant and full-text Search over 323M+ scholarly articles, using Smart Citations that classify how later papers cite a finding. It also provides collections, an API, an MCP server, a Zotero plugin and a browser extension.
- Good for
- Researchers, students, universities and organizations that need citation-grounded literature search and verification.
- Channels
- Web app, MCP server, API, Zotero plugin, Browser extension, Embeddable badge
- Main product
- Scite Assistant and Search
- Also includes
- Assistant and Search access, Smart Citation reports, Collections, Citation alerts and dashboards, MCP credits, API access (Pro)
- Connects to
- ChatGPT, Claude, Zotero, Google Scholar, PubMed, Institutional library holdings
- Public API
- Yes
- MCP server
- Yes
- Inline source citations
Every claim Scite's AI makes links back to the specific sentence in the specific paper it came from.
- Multi-step deep research reportsNot stated
- Academic paper database search
Search across 300M+ articles, preprints, books, patents, and datasets
- Upload and query own documentsNot stated
- Connects to internal appsNot stated
- Shared team workspace
Buying for a team?Add seats. Everyone gets Pro on one bill.
- SSO and enterprise security
Access via SSO, IP, domain, or email
- No training on customer data
we do not use Customer Data to train, fine-tune, retrain, or otherwise improve any large language models or ot
- Export reports and tablesNot stated
- API access
API access
The same 10 checks appear on every tool in AI research assistants. Each tick quotes the vendor's own site.
Security and your data
| Question | Their answer | Where it says so |
|---|---|---|
| Trains AI on your data? | no | "the Company does not use Customer Data (defined as any data, content, or information submitted, uploaded, input, or otherwise provided by or on behalf of a user in connection with "terms |
| HIPAA (signs a BAA) | Not stated | |
| SOC 2 | Not stated | |
| GDPR | Not stated | |
| CCPA | Not stated | |
| PCI | Not stated | |
| ISO 27001 | Not stated | |
| Single sign-on | Enterprise | "Access via SSO, IP, domain, or email"pricing |
| Trust center | Not stated |
Security answers are the vendor's own claims, quoted. We don't audit them.
Every plan
| Plan | Monthly | Billed yearly | Included | Over the allowance | Where it says so |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic/ month | – | $12per month | 250 MCP credits/monthCollections up to 1,000 papers | – | "$12" |
| Pro/ month | – | $40per month | 2500 MCP credits/monthCollections up to 10,000 papers | – | "$40" |
| Enterprise | Quote | – | UnlimitedCollections up to 50,000 papers | – | "Custom Pricing" |
Fine print
- Billing increment
- Not stated
- Billed beyond usage
- Not stated
- Contract
- Subscription continues until cancelled; cancel at least 30 days before the next month to avoid the charge "TO NOT BE CHARGED FOR YOUR SUBSCRIPTION FOR THE FOLLOWING SUBSCRIPTION MONTH, YOU MUST CANCEL YOUR SUBSCRIPTION AT LEAST THIRTY (30) DAYS PRIOR TO THAT MONTH"
- Refunds
- Fees are non-refundable "All fees must be paid in U.S. dollars (or such other currency(ies) which may be accepted by Company from time to time, as indicated at the time of payment) and are non-refundable."
- Auto renew
- Yes, charged monthly until cancelled "your payment method will be authorized for up to a month and on a monthly basis thereafter until you cancel the subscription."
- Price change notice
- At least 30 days notice, may be by email "pursuant to notice (which may be given via e-mail) provided by us at least thirty (30) days in advance of the payment date for which the modification would be effective."
"Not stated" means we read their pricing page and terms and they don't say.
About the company
- Legal name
- Scite LLC, a Research Solutions Company
- Address
- 10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614, Henderson, NV 89052, USA
- Online since
- Feb 21, 2018 Domain registration date
- Customers
- "Over 2,000,000 researchers, students, and industry experts" their claim
- Backing
- "Part of Research Solutions" their words
scite alternatives
Claude (Research)$17 /moFree plan · checked Oct 29, 2026
Elicit$11 /moFree plan · checked Oct 29, 2026
Gemini Deep Research$4.99 /moFree plan · checked Oct 29, 2026
Dust$24 /moFree plan · checked Oct 29, 2026
ResearchRabbit$10 /moFree plan · checked Oct 29, 2026
AlphaSenseQuotechecked Oct 29, 2026Reviews elsewhere
We link to reviews instead of copying ratings: those sites don't allow reuse, and we don't test products ourselves.
Questions
Is scite free?
There's no free plan. Free trial: 7-day free trial; auto-enrolls in the selected plan after it ends unless cancelled.
How much does scite cost?
Paid plans start at $12 per month billed yearly.
Does scite train AI on your data?
No, according to scite: "the Company does not use Customer Data (defined as any data, content, or information submitted, uploaded, input, or otherwise provided by or"