Connected Papers

What is Connected Papers?

Connected Papers helps researchers get oriented in a field. You enter one paper and the tool builds a graph of related work, placing papers by similarity rather than by direct citation, so closely related papers sit near each other even if they never cite one another. To make each graph it analyzes about 50,000 papers and keeps the few dozen most strongly connected to your origin paper, using co-citation and bibliographic coupling as the similarity measure. Prior Works and Derivative Works views point to foundational papers, literature reviews and recent state-of-the-art follow-ups. Other features include multi-origin graphs, saved papers and graph history. Its data comes from the Semantic Scholar corpus, which covers hundreds of millions of papers across fields. The Free plan allows 5 graphs a month with every feature included. Academic and Business plans remove that cap, and group plans let an organization assign seats. Prices for those plans are not shown in the reviewed text.

Use cases

• Map papers related to a seed paper
• Find prior and derivative works
• Fill gaps in a thesis bibliography
• Spot recent work in a fast-moving field
• Build graphs from several origin papers
• Find literature reviews on a topic

Who it's for

• Researchers
• Graduate students
• Academics
• Industry scientists

Why use Connected Papers

• A visual map shows clusters, key works and gaps faster than scrolling search results.
• Similarity-based layout surfaces related papers that do not cite one another.
• The free tier includes every feature, so the only limit is graph count.
• A scholarship program offers discounted or free Premium access to researchers who cannot afford it.

Connected Papers features

• Similarity graph built from a single origin paper
• Layout based on co-citation and bibliographic coupling
• Prior Works view for ancestor papers
• Derivative Works view for reviews and recent follow-ups
• Multi-origin graphs
• Saved papers and graph history
• Semantic Scholar paper database
• Group accounts with seat assignment

Connected Papers integrations

• Semantic Scholar

How to get started with Connected Papers

1. Search for a paper you know well and choose it as the origin.
2. Connected Papers builds a graph of the most similar papers around it.
3. Click nodes to read details and see the path back to your origin paper.
4. Switch to Prior Works or Derivative Works to find ancestors and recent follow-ups.
5. Save papers and return to earlier graphs from your history.

Connected Papers limitations

• Free plan is limited to 5 graphs per month
• Graphs show similarity, not a citation tree
• Academic and Business plans are required for unlimited graphs

Connected Papers pricing

Yes, Connected Papers has a free plan.

Connected Papers plans

• Free

  $0

  • 5 graphs per month
  • All features included

• Academic

  Price on vendor site

  • Unlimited graphs
  • All features included
  • For academics, non-profits and personal use

• Business

  Price on vendor site

  • Unlimited graphs
  • All features included
  • For business and industry

Plans as listed on the official pricing page on 24 Oct 2026. Prices can change and may vary by country or exclude tax. Check the official pricing page.

Connected Papers alternatives

The main Connected Papers alternatives listed on Debuly are Litmaps, Semantic Scholar, Elicit, AMiner, Consensus and Keenious. The table compares pricing and platforms; order is A–Z.

1. AM

   AMiner

   AI academic search platform for finding papers, scholars and research trends, with AI reading and deep research tools.

   Research and searchWriting
   Visit AMiner (official site)
2. 

   Consensus

   AI search engine for research that answers questions from peer-reviewed papers, with every claim linked back to its source.

   Research and search
   FreemiumVisit Consensus (official site)
3. 

   Elicit

   AI research assistant that searches 138 million papers, extracts data into tables and runs systematic reviews and cited reports.

   Research and searchProductivityWriting
   FreemiumVisit Elicit (official site)
4. 

   Keenious

   Academic paper discovery tool with an AI companion and topic maps over about 174 million scholarly works, on the web, Word and Google Docs.

   Research and searchWritingProductivity
   FreemiumVisit Keenious (official site)
5. 

   Litmaps

   Literature review tool that maps related papers by their citations, with search, monitoring alerts, sharing and Zotero sync.

   Research and searchProductivityWriting
   FreemiumVisit Litmaps (official site)
6. 

   Semantic Scholar

   Free AI-powered academic search engine from Ai2 with paper TLDRs, citation insights, research feeds and a public API for developers.

   Research and searchProductivityDeveloper platforms
   FreeVisit Semantic Scholar (official site)

Connected Papers FAQ

Sources & verification

Facts on this page come from the official sources below, each with the date we read it. Written by Debuly; the vendor did not review this page.

Image credits

• Logo: from connectedpapers.com · fetched 23 Oct 2026 · Vendor trademark, used only to identify the product; removed on request
• Cover: none collected yet, so a generated tile is shown.

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