Research
Best AI tools for research
4 tools for non-technical professionals. Filter by what you're willing to pay.
Our shortlist for research is Perplexity, Elicit, Gemini Notebook and Consensus. All 4 have a free plan or free tier, and we checked 3 of the 4 free-tier notes against official pricing pages or other official pages. If you want to start for free, try Gemini Notebook first.
4 tools for research
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- Limited free tierPricing checked · Oct 21, 2026 · source for Perplexity's pricing (opens in a new tab)$17/mo Pro billed annually
- Limited free tierPricing checked · Oct 13, 2026 · source for Elicit's pricing (opens in a new tab)Price unverified
Gemini Notebook (opens in a new tab)
Google's AI notebook grounded in your sources (formerly NotebookLM)
Your tool? Get a badgeGenerous free tierPricing checked · Oct 14, 2026 · source for Gemini Notebook's pricing (opens in a new tab)Price unverified- Limited free tierPricing unverifiedPrice unverified
How to choose
Start with what you're willing to pay. Gemini Notebook is tagged free or generous free tier. Perplexity, Elicit and Consensus have a limited free tier.
Where we could read a price on an official page, the lowest paid plans start at: Perplexity $17/mo Pro billed annually. Prices change often, and we don't always know whether a figure is billed monthly or annually, so confirm on the tool's site.
- Perplexity is the pick for quick cited answers: answer engine with cited sources. Free tier: free plan (sign up free); Pro adds deep research, top models and expanded Computer access. The page doesn't list Free limits.
- Elicit is for literature review: AI research assistant for papers. Free tier: basic free: unlimited paper search, limited Research Agent and Reports.
- Gemini Notebook is for studying your own documents: Google's AI notebook grounded in your sources (formerly NotebookLM). Free tier: free with a Google account: standard chat and Audio Overview/Slides limits, up to 50 sources per notebook; Google AI Plus doubles limits.
- Consensus is for looking up research evidence: AI search over research papers. Free tier: free plan with limited Pro searches (not yet checked).
Free tiers last checked Oct 21, 2026 against each tool's official pricing page, or another official page (linked on each tool). Prices change often, so confirm on the tool's site.
Questions
- Which AI tools for research are free?
- Perplexity (limited free tier), Elicit (limited free tier), Gemini Notebook (generous free tier) and Consensus (limited free tier).
- Which has the cheapest paid plan?
- Of the prices we could read on official pages, Perplexity starts lowest at $17/mo Pro billed annually. We couldn't verify a price for Elicit, Gemini Notebook and Consensus.
- How did you check these free tiers?
- We compared 3 of the 4 free-tier notes on this page against each tool's official pricing page, or another official page, most recently on Oct 21, 2026. The other 1 is marked unverified. Each checked tool links to the page we used.
- Which tool should I pick?
- Perplexity is the pick for quick cited answers. Elicit is for literature review. Gemini Notebook is for studying your own documents. See the full list below.
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