SciSpace

  • PubGenius Inc. / SciSpace, founded 2015–2016 as Typeset.io (Bengaluru → Milpitas CA), rebranded to SciSpace 2022, CEO Saikiran Chandha + Shanu Kumar, seed $850K (2017, Haresh Chawla), ~5M+ researchers. No acquisition, no sunset. Category ai-productivity-data, pipeline_stage=none. Edu/research-productivity lane — extra card, not in your original 11.Official site: https://scispace.com​

    Pricing: in-app (page behind WAF, confirm at checkout)

    Legacy formatting: typeset.io still resolves

    SciSpace — AI Research Workspace: Chat-With-PDF + 280M-Paper Discovery + Deep Review Agents + Citation-Backed Academic Writing

    Snapshot

    Field Value
    Status Active (Agent Gallery, Biomedical Agent Dec 2025, Deep Review, PRISMA SLR live Aug 2026)
    Origin Typeset.io 2015–16 (Bengaluru) → SciSpace 2022 (Milpitas CA entity PubGenius Inc.)
    Lane Full academic loop: discover → read/comprehend → review → write/cite (not single-paper-only)
    Corpus 200M–280M+ papers (AI Writer citation search 280M+, Copilot chat 200M+ across 250k topics)
    Agents SciSpace Agent, Biomedical Agent (Dec 2025), Deep Review, PRISMA Systematic Research, Agent Gallery
    Legacy 40,000+ journal formatting templates (Typeset DNA), 2,300+ citation styles
    Compliance GDPR, CCPA, SOC 2 Type II (Ent)
    Category ai-productivity-data / edu-research-productivity sublane

    Features (table)

    Layer Capability Notes
    Chat-with-PDF Upload PDF/DOI → highlight jargon/equation/table → in-context plain-English explain, follow-up Q&A, section summaries Context-grounded (≠ generic dictionary); explains regression coeffs, CI, effect sizes
    Multi-PDF / corpus Multi-PDF session Q&A, cross-paper comparison tables, Extract Data tool (tables/figures → CSV/XLSX) Systematic-review backbone
    Discovery Semantic search across 280M+ papers, related-work recommendations, filterable result tables Biased toward biomed/CS
    Agents Deep Review​ (autonomous lit-review report), Biomedical Agent​ (life-sci), PRISMA SLR​ mode, Agent Gallery specialized agents Credit-metered per query
    Writing AI Academic Writer (inline citation suggestions from corpus), paraphraser, AI humanizer, AI detector, summarizer Export Word/LaTeX
    Citations 2,300+ styles (APA/MLA/IEEE/Harvard/Chicago), BibTeX/RIS, Zotero/Mendeley sync
    Integrations Zotero, Mendeley, Notion, GitHub, OneDrive, Chrome Extension (explain on any web paper) No MCP server, no public REST API for devs (RecaTools lists “has API” ambiguously = Ref/legacy only)
    No No LMS/LTI, no SSO on consumer tiers, no Anki/flashcard output (≠ Scholarcy), no LIVE audio lecture ingest (≠ Coconote/Mindgrasp) Reading+writing, not study-flashcard, not coding

    Pricing (2026-09, USD — credit-metered, annual ≈ 40% off, sources conflict on Max existence)

    Tier Price Credits / highlights
    Free​ $0​ 100 credits/mo, standard model, 5 queries/paper, 5 papers/mo, limited lit search, basic chat
    Premium​ **20/mo monthly) 1,200 credits/mo, unlimited lit search, Pro model, 4 parallel agent queries, Biomedical Agent, unlimited exports
    Advanced​ **90/mo monthly) 10,000 credits, Expert model, 8 parallel queries, Deep Review​ access
    Max​ (unverified) $160/mo annual​ (cited by RecaTools/AIAgentIndex) 40,000 credits, priority support — some sources say unverified
    Teams​ $10–18/user/mo​ (annual) Shared lib, role mgmt, admin, dedicated support
    Enterprise​ Custom SSO/SAML, SOC 2 Type II, institutional SLAs, custom deploy

    starting_price=$0; first paid $12/mo​ (annual Premium). Credits do not roll over; cancelling revokes unused credits (Trustpilot complaint cluster).

    Reviews (2026)

    Source Signal
    AIToolsExplorer “VERIFIED”, TheAIIndex 4.4/5, Capterra 4.3/5 (80+), Trustpilot 4.3/5 (346) Best all-in-one academic loop (discover→read→review→write). Chat-with-PDF + Deep Review + 280M corpus unique combo
    RecaTools 7/10, AIStackChoice 5.5/10 Praised: equation/table explain, Extract Data tables, PRISMA mode, Zotero/Mendeley. Criticized: citations occasionally hallucinated​ (verify before bibliographic use), credit burn mid-month, Biomed/CS corpus skew, pricing page bot-walled, no MCP/REST for devs
    Common complaints Free 5-query/paper too tight, cancel revokes credits, oversimplifies nuanced stats, no collaborative annotation, slower on 40+pg PDFs, English-best
    Aggregate Pick if you want one workspace instead of PDF-chat + Zotero + Elicit + WriteTogether. Skip if you need bulletproof systematic-review audit trail (Elicit tighter) or free-forever (Explainpaper/Coconote freemium friendlier)

    Access / Integration (table)

    Method Supported
    Web scispace.com app
    Mobile iOS/Android app
    Browser Chrome Extension (explain any web paper)
    Import PDF upload, DOI link, Zotero/Mendeley/OneDrive/GitHub, web search
    Export Word, LaTeX, BibTeX, RIS, CSV/XLSX (review tables), Notion
    No No MCP, no developer REST (Ref Parser legacy only), no LMS/LTI, no SSO consumer

    Best For / Not For

    Best For Not For
    Grad students / postdocs doing lit reviews across 50–200 papers Teams needing PRISMA audit-grade extraction (→ Elicit)
    Researchers wanting discover+read+write+cite in one tab Casual one-paper readers (→ Explainpaper free)
    Biomed/CS fields (corpus strongest there) Non-native readers wanting flashcard drill (→ Scholarcy/Coconote)
    Thesis writers using AI Writer + inline citations Dev/eval/obs use (wrong lane)
    Labs running semi-autonomous Deep Review drafts Users who won’t verify AI citations (hallucination risk)

    Competitors (lane map)

    Lane Tool SciSpace edge / gap
    Paper explainer Explainpaper​ Explainpaper simpler/highlight-only/free-unlimited-highlights; SciSpace broader (corpus+review+write) but $12 floor
    Structured summary Scholarcy​ Scholarcy flashcards + Literature Matrix + cheaper ($5–9/mo); SciSpace deeper chat + agents
    Lit-review engine Elicit​ ($49/yr-mo) Elicit tighter PRISMA/evidence tables; SciSpace wider corpus + writing
    Claim verification Consensus​ ($9.99/mo) Consensus yes/no consensus meters; SciSpace single+papers+writing
    PDF chat ChatPDF, Humata​ Those are PDF-only; SciSpace adds 280M discovery
    General LLM ChatGPT Deep Research, Gemini Deep Research, Claude​ Cover broad research; SciSpace academic-citation-native
    In-list overlap Socratic (shutdown), Mindgrasp, Coconote, Scholarcy, Explainpaper Edu lane only

     

Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information Cookie Settings