Scite

What is Scite?

Scite is a research platform from Research Solutions that helps you judge scientific papers by looking at how later work cites them. Its Smart Citations show the sentence around each citation and classify it as supporting, contrasting or mentioning, so you see more than a raw citation count. The index covers more than 315 million scholarly articles drawn from over 41 million full-text sources. Around that data Scite offers Scite Assistant for research questions answered from the literature, Scite Search over citation statements, Collections that track new citations and retraction alerts, and Reference Check for manuscripts. Scite MCP lets AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Copilot, along with other MCP-compatible clients, draw on the same literature and citation data, and a REST API serves developers. Pricing: a free tier for public data, Basic at $20 monthly or $144 annually, Pro at $50 monthly or $480 annually, Team per user, and custom organization plans, with a 7-day free trial.

Use cases

• Check if a paper is supported
• Find contrasting evidence
• Run literature reviews
• Verify manuscript references
• Track new citations to papers
• Get cited answers to questions
• Feed citations to AI tools
• Monitor retractions and notices

Who it's for

• Researchers
• Students
• Academics
• Librarians
• Research institutions

Why use Scite

• Citation context shows how later papers treated a finding, which helps you judge credibility faster than counts alone.
• Collections alert you to retractions and editorial notices for papers you rely on.
• Assistant answers link back to cited literature, so claims can be checked.
• MCP lets your preferred AI tool pull verifiable papers and citation context.
• Reference Check scans a manuscript's reference list for retractions and contrasting evidence before submission.

Scite features

• Smart Citations that classify citations as supporting, contrasting or mentioning
• Citation context shown beside each statement
• Scite Assistant with answers linked to sources
• Scite Search across metadata and citation statements
• Collections with new-citation tracking and retraction alerts
• Reference Check for manuscripts
• Scite MCP server for ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Copilot
• REST API for publications, tallies, statements and search
• Patent, clinical trial and grant datasets on higher plans
• Zotero integration and browser extension

Scite integrations

• ChatGPT
• Claude
• Gemini
• Microsoft Copilot
• Zotero

How to get started with Scite

1. Create a Scite account, or start the 7-day free trial.
2. Search for a paper or topic, or ask Scite Assistant a research question.
3. Open a Smart Citation report to read the citing statements and their labels.
4. Save papers to a Collection to monitor new citations and alerts.
5. Connect Scite to ChatGPT, Claude or another MCP client, or create an API key on Pro.
6. Run Reference Check on a manuscript to flag retracted or disputed sources.

Scite limitations

• Basic does not include a self-service REST API key
• Pro API keys are for evaluation, with commercial or research use of Search needing a separate license
• Scite MCP needs a paid plan, an active trial or an enterprise license
• Dataset access in the API requires dataset-specific scopes

Scite pricing

Yes, Scite has a free plan. Paid plans start at $20 per month, according to the official pricing page on 24 Oct 2026.

Scite plans

• Free

  $0

  public data

  • Trying Scite
  • Public Papers and Tallies endpoints need no API key

• Basic

  $20 monthly or $144 annually

  $12 per month equivalent when billed annually

  • Full Scite platform
  • 250 MCP credits per month
  • Article Smart Citation reports
  • Collections up to 1,000 papers

• Pro

  $50 monthly or $480 annually

  $40 per month equivalent when billed annually

  • Everything in Basic
  • Self-service API access
  • 2,500 MCP credits per month
  • Collections up to 10,000 papers
  • Patent, clinical trial and grant datasets

• Team

  $50 per user monthly or $480 per user annually

  • Pro access under one subscription
  • 2,500 MCP credits per user per month

• Organization and Enterprise

  Custom

  Based on users and usage

  • Unlimited users with pooled usage
  • SSO, IP, domain or email access
  • Regulatory and safety datasets
  • Extended usage reports

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.

Scite alternatives

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

1. 

   Connected Papers

   Visual literature tool that builds a similarity graph of academic papers around one you choose, to explore a research field fast.

   Research and search
   FreemiumVisit Connected Papers (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. 

   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)
5. 

   Sourcely

   AI academic source finder that reads your pasted essay or paper, suggests credible papers, summarizes them and exports citations.

   Research and searchWritingProductivity
   PaidVisit Sourcely (official site)
6. 

   Undermind

   AI research assistant that searches scientific papers, follows citations and builds sourced reports on your topic.

   Research and searchProductivity
   FreemiumVisit Undermind (official site)

Scite 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 docs.scite.ai · 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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