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Semantic Scholar AI analyzes 220M+ scientific publications with semantic search, citation graphs, TL;DR summaries, and developer API.
Free tier (verified July 2026): Free unlimited research + developer API
How we checked: read directly from the vendor's own pricing page — source
Checked as part of the random sample and found accurate. Our paper count is conservative rather than inflated.
| What | What we found | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Free, AI-powered research tool based at Ai2; no paid subscription tiers shown | Confirmed |
| Corpus size | 237,827,078 papersWe publish '220M+', which is true but understates it. Erring low is the right direction, but it is worth updating. | Confirmed |
| Developer API | Available, with its own licence agreement for commercial terms | Confirmed |
| API cost | Free. The API product page states the API is free to use, and an API key is distributed by email at no charge.Read from https://www.semanticscholar.org/product/api on 2026-09-08. | Confirmed |
| API rate limits | Published: 1,000 requests per second shared across ALL unauthenticated users (so throttled at busy times), and an introductory 1 request per second on all endpoints with a key.The shared unauthenticated pool is the number that matters — it is not 1,000 RPS for you. | Confirmed |
| Authentication | Not required. Most endpoints are public without a key; a key is recommended for support and higher limits. | Confirmed |
Editor verification notes
Checked by the TheToolsVerse Verification Desk — by reading the vendor's own published pages, not by testing the product in an account. Semantic Scholar can change prices at any time without notice. The date above is the last time we looked; if it looks old, treat every figure here as unconfirmed and check Semantic Scholar directly before paying.
How we verify →Reviewed by Sohail Akhtar
Lead Editor & Founder
What we like
Limitations
✓ Free tier re-verified July 2026: Free unlimited research + developer API
| Plan | Details |
|---|---|
| Free | Free. Semantic Scholar is a research tool from Ai2 and shows no paid subscription tiers. Checked 6 September 2026. |
| Corpus | 237,827,078 papers at the time of our check. |
| Developer API | Available, under its own licence agreement for commercial terms. |
Free, with no paid subscription tiers shown — Semantic Scholar is a research tool from Ai2, searching a corpus of 237,827,078 papers at the time of our check on 6 September 2026. A developer API is available under its own licence agreement for commercial terms. We do not describe the access as unlimited: rate limits on a corpus API are ordinary, and we did not verify their absence.
Associated Tags
semantic scholar ai, 220m scientific papers, ai citation analysis, tldr paper summaries, semantic research search, topic modeling ai, citation graphs, research api free
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