Scite
Scite helps you find and verify research with Smart Citations. See 2026 pricing from Free to $50/month, MCP integration, and top alternatives.
About Scite
What is Scite (2026 update)
Scite is an AI-powered research platform that helps academics, students, and R&D teams find, read, and evaluate scientific literature using Smart Citations, which show how a paper has actually been cited by later work (supporting, contrasting, or simply mentioning it) rather than just a raw citation count.
What is new in 2026
Scite now connects to AI tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, Cursor, and Claude Code through the Model Context Protocol (MCP), so an assistant can search inside papers and pull citation context directly into a conversation. The platform expanded its data sources to include more than 90 million patent families through a new Patent Search feature, and its MCP now also covers medical-device and regulatory sources such as MHRA, MAUDE, and FDA 510(k) data. Scite also rolled out a Collections feature that works inside the MCP so users can build and manage curated paper sets without leaving their AI tool, plus AI-generated Report Summaries, DOI Summaries in Assistant, and a Boolean query generator that turns a plain-language description into a structured search query.
Key features
- Smart Citations that classify how a paper is cited (supporting, contrasting, or mentioning)
- Assistant and Search across 300M+ papers, with a chat interface for literature questions
- MCP server for using Scite data directly inside ChatGPT, Claude, and other AI tools
- Patent Search covering 90M+ patent families
- Collections for organizing and monitoring groups of papers over time
- Citation alerts and dashboards for tracking new activity on saved papers
- API access on higher tiers for integrating citation data into other software
Pricing in 2026
Scite offers four tiers, from a free MCP-only plan up to a custom Enterprise plan. Paid tiers are billed yearly at the discounted monthly-equivalent price shown below.
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Connect | Free | 25 MCP credits per month, MCP access from ChatGPT/Claude, no Assistant or Search access |
| Basic | $20/month (billed yearly) | Full Assistant and Search, 250 MCP credits, Smart Citation reports, Collections up to 1,000 papers, citation alerts |
| Pro | $50/month (billed yearly) | Everything in Basic plus API access, 2,500 MCP credits, Collections up to 10,000 papers, patent/clinical trial/grant datasets |
| Team & Enterprise | Custom | Institution-wide access, SSO, analytics, dedicated support, contact sales |
All paid plans include a 7-day free trial before billing starts.
Who should use it
Scite fits researchers, grad students, and academic librarians who need to check whether a claim in a paper actually holds up in later literature, and it also suits R&D and IP teams that want patent and academic data in one search. The free Connect tier is enough for occasional MCP lookups inside an existing AI assistant, while Basic or Pro make sense for anyone doing regular literature reviews or needing patent and clinical trial data. Medical and regulatory researchers get extra value in 2026 since the MCP now surfaces MHRA, MAUDE, and FDA 510(k) records alongside published papers, which is useful when checking device safety history during a literature review.
Teams that write a lot of grant applications or systematic reviews also benefit from Collections, since a shared set of papers can be built once and reused across multiple reports, with alerts firing whenever a new citation appears against a saved paper.
Limitations and alternatives
The free tier has no direct Assistant or Search access, only MCP credits, so casual browsing on the website itself requires a paid plan. MCP credits are also capped by tier, which can run out fast for heavy API-style use. Pricing for Team and Enterprise is not published, so check the official site for a quote. Alternatives worth comparing include Elicit for AI-assisted systematic reviews, Consensus for quick evidence-based answers pulled from papers, and Semantic Scholar for a free citation graph and paper search without a subscription.
Frequently asked questions
Is Scite free to use?
Scite has a free Connect plan with 25 MCP credits per month for use inside tools like ChatGPT or Claude, but it does not include direct Assistant or Search access on the Scite site itself.
What are Smart Citations?
Smart Citations are Scite's way of showing how a paper has been cited by later research, labeling each citation as supporting, contrasting, or simply mentioning the original claim.
Can I use Scite inside ChatGPT or Claude?
Yes, Scite added a Model Context Protocol (MCP) integration in 2026 that lets you search and cite papers directly from ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, Cursor, and other MCP-compatible tools.
Does Scite cover patents, not just academic papers?
Yes, as of 2026 Scite added Patent Search, covering more than 90 million patent families alongside its academic literature database.
Information last verified: September 2026.
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