Connected Papers
Connected Papers is a research tool that maps academic papers into a visual graph of related work. It is used to find and explore the literature around a topic or a starting paper.
#20 in AI AssistantsAI Research ToolsFree plan
Who it's for
Best for
Students mapping the literature around a topic for coursework and reading lists.
Researchers who want to see follow-up work branching from a known paper.
Not for
- Readers tracking papers published in the last week or month.
Free users who need to check retraction status before citing a paper.
Free plan$0
Academic$6/moBilled annually
Business$20/moBilled annually
Features
Academic paper discovery
The site presents itself as a place to find and explore academic papers, and paper discovery is the stated focus of the product.
Saved papers
Saved papers are listed among the inclusions for every plan, including the free tier.
Graph history
Graph history is listed alongside saved papers as an inclusion on all plans shown on the pricing page.
Free plan graphs
The free tier covers five graphs per month and states that all features are included with it.
Unlimited graphs on paid plans
The Academic and Business plans list unlimited graphs, removing the monthly cap that applies to the free tier.
What users say
Pros
- Reliably supports extensive literature mapping throughout demanding university coursework.
- Stays handy after years of continuous use and is well known in industry and research circles.
- Starting from one known paper led straight to three new PDFs of follow-up work.
Cons
- Free plan caps graphs at five a month, too few for in-depth exploration.
- Checking whether a paper is retracted required a paid account, even for basic browsing.
- Papers surfaced were far older than the last week or month, making it useless for tracking new publications.
A selection of the review sources we used:
Summarized from public user reviews and community discussions. View details
Global Traffic Rank
Top 500k
Alternatives
Rank#20 in category#7 in category#9 in category#11 in category
Free planYesYesYesYes
ProUniversity workhorse, years of research use, new leads per paperClear, current answers backed by sourcesReal citations, faster literature search, paper reading helpSurfaces relevant papers, cited summaries, and quality rankings
Better forAnswering research and health questions with cited summaries of peer-reviewed studies.Generating cited research reports and automating screening and data extraction for systematic reviews.
Weaker atMapping visual citation graphs of related and follow-up work around a known starting paper.Mapping related papers into a visual citation graph around a starting paper.