Overview
ResearchRabbit reimagines the literature review as a visual map instead of a keyword list. You seed a collection with a handful of papers you already trust - imported from Zotero, uploaded as PDFs, or searched directly - and it draws an interactive network of earlier work they cite, later work that cites them, and similar papers by content and co-authorship. The ‘Spotify for papers’ metaphor fits: collections learn from what you add and keep suggesting adjacent lines of inquiry a Google Scholar query would miss. It indexes more than 280 million articles via open scholarly metadata, with author graphs, a timeline view to trace how a thread evolved, and two-way Zotero sync to pull references in and out. Living collections email weekly digests when new papers match, turning a one-time search into standing surveillance of a field. The team has committed to keeping a Free Forever tier with unlimited searches, collections, and collaboration; an optional RR+ tier adds deeper search for power users, with country-based pricing for global access. The clear limit is that ResearchRabbit discovers papers but does not read them - there is no summarization or data extraction, so pair it with a PDF-chat or extraction tool for the next step.
Key Features
- Interactive citation graphs - Visual maps of earlier, later, and similar work from a few seed papers.
- 280M+ articles indexed - Broad coverage across most scientific fields via open metadata.
- Living collections - Weekly email alerts when new papers match a collection you built.
- Author and timeline views - See collaborators, key players, and how a research thread developed.
- Two-way Zotero sync - Import seeds and export discovered references into your library.
- Free Forever tier - Unlimited searches, collections, and collaboration at no cost.
Pricing
| Plan | Price | For |
|---|---|---|
| Free Forever | $0 | Unlimited searches and collections; up to 50 seed papers per project |
| RR+ | $120/yr ($10/mo annual) or $12.50/mo | Power users wanting deeper search and multiple projects |
| Institution | Custom | Universities with LibKey integration and usage analytics |
Comparison
vs. Scite: Scite classifies how papers cite each other as supporting or contrasting - great for verifying sources. ResearchRabbit maps the field visually and keeps you updated, so use it to discover, then Scite to vet what you found.
vs. Elicit: Elicit extracts data and answers questions from papers for systematic reviews. ResearchRabbit is discovery-first and excels at the scoping phase before you dive into individual PDFs.
vs. Consensus: Consensus answers ‘what does the research say?’ with a confidence meter for fast yes/no checks. ResearchRabbit’s edge is the evolving knowledge graph you grow over months of a project.