# Elicit: what's new, verdict & setup

Canonical: https://theagenticweekly.com/tools/elicit · First covered by us (no vendor release date published): 2026-10-25 · Last verified: 2026-10-25 · Evidence: Reported (not run by us) · Vendor: Elicit · Official site: https://elicit.com/

> AI research assistant that searches academic papers, extracts data and drafts reports; free Basic tier with paid per-user plans.

## Verdict

**AI research assistant that searches academic papers, extracts data and drafts reports; free Basic tier with paid per-user plans.**

Good for:
- Researchers doing literature reviews
- Teams that need data extraction from papers

Skip if:
- You need general web search rather than academic sources

Status: Reported. Written from official release notes and docs; we have not run this release ourselves.

Pricing: Partly verified. Read from elicit.com/pricing on 2026-10-25; the page shows different prices depending on a toggle, so check the page for current figures. (checked 2026-10-25)

## Best for

- [Best AI tool for AI search and research](https://theagenticweekly.com/best/ai-search) (#-): AI research assistant that searches and synthesizes academic papers.

## Key facts

Elicit's site describes an AI tool that takes a research question, searches millions of academic papers and generates reports. Its pricing page lists a free Basic plan with limits, paid Plus, Pro and Scale per-user plans, and a custom Enterprise plan.

- License: Proprietary
- Platforms: Web
- Pricing model: Freemium
- Free tier: Basic: free with limits
- Paid plans: Paid per-user plans (Plus, Pro, Scale) billed monthly or yearly; figures differ between views on the page so we do not quote them; Enterprise custom
- How to start: Sign up at elicit.com and ask a research question; the Basic plan is free.
- Catalog entry: facts read from the vendor's pages on 2026-10-25. We do not track release notes for this entry.

## How to set it up: Get started with Elicit

These steps come from the vendor's own pages as read on 2026-10-25. We have not run Elicit.

1. **Get access.** Sign up at elicit.com and ask a research question; the Basic plan is free.
2. **Check the limits and costs first.** Basic: free with limits. Paid: Paid per-user plans (Plus, Pro, Scale) billed monthly or yearly; figures differ between views on the page so we do not quote them; Enterprise custom. Read from elicit.com/pricing on 2026-10-25; the page shows different prices depending on a toggle, so check the page for current figures.

## Pros and cons

Pros:
- Free tier with Zotero import
- Enterprise SSO and SAML

Cons:
- Prices vary across the page's views
- API access and extractions are on higher tiers

## Alternatives

- [Perplexity](https://theagenticweekly.com/tools/perplexity): AI search with citations in every answer; Pro is $20 a month ($17 billed annually) and Max is $200 ($167 billed annually).
- [You.com](https://theagenticweekly.com/tools/you-com): You.com now presents itself as search and inference infrastructure for AI: web search, answer and research APIs plus an inference router.

## FAQ

### What is Elicit?

Elicit's site describes an AI tool that takes a research question, searches millions of academic papers and generates reports. Its pricing page lists a free Basic plan with limits, paid Plus, Pro and Scale per-user plans, and a custom Enterprise plan.

### Is Elicit free?

Basic: free with limits. Paid: Paid per-user plans (Plus, Pro, Scale) billed monthly or yearly; figures differ between views on the page so we do not quote them; Enterprise custom. Read from elicit.com/pricing on 2026-10-25; the page shows different prices depending on a toggle, so check the page for current figures. Checked 2026-10-25; prices change, so confirm on the vendor's page.

### What license is Elicit under?

Its license: Proprietary. Read from the project's own pages on 2026-10-25.

## What we have not verified

- Release date (none published on the pages we read; the date shown is the day we first covered this entry)
- Exact paid prices
- Accuracy of extractions (not tested)

## Sources

- [Elicit](https://elicit.com/) (fetched 2026-10-25)
- [Elicit pricing](https://elicit.com/pricing) (fetched 2026-10-25)

## How to cite

Agentic Weekly, "Elicit: what's new, verdict & setup", last updated 2026-10-25, https://theagenticweekly.com/tools/elicit

Keep the Reported or Tested label when you quote the verdict.