What is Consensus?
Consensus is an AI-powered search engine for scientific literature: rather than generating free-form answers, it draws responses directly from peer-reviewed studies and displays evidence with sources. The free tier allows a limited number of Pro analyses per month; Premium removes these limits.
The underlying database covers over 200 million scientific papers. When you ask a question, Consensus summarises the current state of research and, for many questions, shows a "Consensus Meter" that roughly indicates how clear-cut the evidence is. Every statement is linked to the source it comes from, so claims can be traced back to the original study — an important difference from general chatbots, which cite evidence only loosely or not at all.
Consensus: Strengths and weaknesses
The biggest strength is its grounding in real peer-reviewed literature: answers are sourced, verifiable, and far less prone to "hallucinations" than free-form AIs. The Consensus Meter and compact study summaries save a lot of reading time, especially on contested questions.
Weaknesses: Consensus is built for scientific questions — for general research or creative tasks it's the wrong tool. The state of research is presented in simplified form, which can blur methodological nuance, so a critical look at the original sources is still required. And if you want to extract data systematically across many papers, you'll hit limits sooner than with the more table-oriented Elicit.
Pricing and plans
Consensus is built as a freemium service. The free tier allows unlimited searches but only a limited number of AI-powered Pro analyses (such as summaries and the Consensus Meter) per month. The Premium plan starts at around $9 per month (billed annually) and removes these limits, with full access to the AI features. For research teams and institutions there are additional Enterprise options. It's best to check the exact terms on the current pricing page.
Who is Consensus for?
Consensus suits anyone working in an evidence-based way: students, researchers, clinicians, journalists, and fact-checkers who need solid, sourced answers rather than generic AI prose. For pure paper discovery and free AI summaries, it's also worth looking at Semantic Scholar; if you're planning systematic reviews and data extraction into tables, Elicit is often the better fit. For quick, well-sourced answers to scientific questions, though, Consensus is one of the most accessible tools around.
