What is Elicit?
Elicit is an AI research tool that searches, analyzes, and synthesizes academic literature. It gives researchers access to 138 million academic papers and 545,000 clinical trial registrations through semantic search — meaning relevant results surface without exact keyword matching. The AI research tool targets anyone running literature reviews, evidence synthesis, or ongoing research monitoring, from graduate students to industry scientists.
Features & Benefits
- Semantic academic search – Search over 138 million papers and 545,000 clinical trials using meaning-based queries rather than exact keyword matching.
- Research reports – Generate customizable research briefs based on systematic review methodology, with control over which papers and data points are included.
- Systematic literature review automation – Automate paper screening and data extraction for systematic reviews, with reported time savings of up to 80%.
- Figure extraction and interpretation – Extract and interpret data from figures within research papers (Scale plan and above).
- Custom data extraction from uploaded papers – Pull specific information from papers you upload directly into Elicit.
- Interactive data tables – Organize extracted information across papers into structured tables with up to 40 extractable columns per paper at enterprise level.
- Multi-step research workflows – Move through search, screening, extraction, and reporting in a connected workflow rather than isolated steps.
- Paper library – Store and organize sources found during research for reuse across future projects.
- Chat with papers – Ask questions directly of full-text papers using conversational prompts.
- Research alerts – Set up personalized alerts for new papers matching defined topics, delivered without inbox overload.
- Real-time collaboration – Edit reports and work with team members simultaneously (Scale plan and above).
- Sentence-level citations – Every AI-generated claim links back to the specific sentence in the source document.
- Zotero import – Bring existing reference libraries into Elicit directly.
- Metadata filters and screening criteria – Narrow results by study type, publication date, journal, citation count, and other parameters.
- Explanations for AI answers – View reasoning behind extracted or generated content (Pro plan and above).
- Admin panel with usage tracking – Monitor seat usage and team activity (Scale plan and above).
- Analysis scale – Find up to 1,000 relevant papers and process up to 20,000 data points in a single session.
Real-World Applications
A pharmaceutical researcher tracking efficacy data across hundreds of clinical trials might use this AI research tool to automate the screening and extraction phases of a systematic review. Instead of manually reading abstracts, they can set screening criteria, let Elicit filter the paper pool, and extract structured data into a table — cutting weeks off the review timeline.
A policy analyst building an evidence base for regulatory decisions can use Elicit to run broad searches without knowing the exact terminology used across different disciplines. Because the AI research tool uses semantic search, it can surface relevant studies from adjacent fields that keyword-based searches would miss. Research reports can then be customized to focus only on the evidence most relevant to the policy question.
Graduate students and academic researchers working on literature reviews may use Elicit to manage the early-stage problem of not knowing what exists. The tool can identify up to 1,000 relevant papers per query, which helps researchers map a field before narrowing focus. The library feature lets them save and organize sources as the project develops over weeks or months.
Teams in medical device development or consumer goods R&D might use the AI research tool collaboratively — running shared searches, building joint extraction tables, and editing reports in real time. Research alerts keep the team current on new publications without requiring manual database checks, which is useful when product timelines depend on emerging findings.
