Consensus
Consensus is an AI research tool that searches peer-reviewed literature and summarizes findings with links to source papers. Built to find relevant studies, screen evidence, and check citations for literature reviews.
#9 in AI AssistantsAI Research ToolsFree plan
Who it's for
Best for
PhD students building a literature review who need real, cited papers fast
Students who need peer-reviewed sources and paper summaries for course essays
Not for
Writers who need paywalled full texts or ready-to-paste review drafts
Heavy searchers who will use up the monthly allowance in one session
Free plan$0
Pro$12/mo
Deep$45/mo
Features
AI search for research papers
Consensus is positioned as an AI tool for research, with a search that starts from a research question and looks across scientific papers.
Deep reviews
Deep reviews go beyond basic paper search; the free plan permits up to three each month, while paid plans raise the monthly allowance to fifteen or two hundred.
Sources and filters
The home page navigation lists Sources, Skills and Deep Filter next to the main search entry, giving several ways to narrow a research question.
API and MCP usage
Paid plans bundle a monthly allowance of API and MCP uses, with additional uses charged per use beyond the included amount up to a set cap.
University and organization plans
The site lists separate paths for universities and organizations alongside individual plans, pointing institutions to distinct deployment options.
What users say
Pros
- Answers link to real, checkable peer-reviewed papers.
- Shortens the hunt for relevant papers during literature reviews and replaces slow Boolean searching.
- Serves as a reading companion for individual papers, helping clarify studies outside unfamiliar research fields.
- Used to check what published research says about health questions such as cholesterol, injuries, or MS treatments.
Cons
- Some searches produced fabricated article citations, and real studies already in a dissertation were declared nonexistent.
- Deep Search sometimes misses relevant work and cannot reach paywalled full texts, leaving gaps in coverage.
- The monthly search limit ran out during one literature search, leaving nothing for the rest of the month.
A selection of the review sources we used:
Real citations, no hallucinations, for a thesis literature review- Fake article citations appeared while checking PhD sources
Checking berberine and injury advice against peer-reviewed papers
Deep Search found nothing on OpenAlex versus gold-standard papers
Quota gone in one literature search; paywalled studies missing
Summarized from public user reviews and community discussions. View details
Global Traffic Rank
Top 50k
Alternatives
Rank#9 in category#7 in category#11 in category#16 in category
Free planYesYesYesYes
ProReal citations, faster literature search, paper reading helpClear, current answers backed by sourcesSurfaces relevant papers, cited summaries, and quality rankingscited answers, book summaries, audio overviews, quick onboarding
Better forScreening papers and extracting structured data into tables for systematic reviewsGenerating audio overviews, podcasts, and study guides from uploaded documents
Weaker atAffordable paid plans, with entry tiers starting at $75 a month instead of $12Searching external academic literature, as queries are limited to uploaded files