Semantic Scholar
AI-powered academic search engine by Allen Institute
What is Semantic Scholar?
Semantic Scholar is a free AI-powered academic search engine developed by the Allen Institute for AI. It indexes over 200 million academic papers and uses AI to extract key figures, provide TLDR summaries, identify influential citations, and surface highly relevant results. The Semantic Reader provides AI-generated explanations of complex terms and inline citation contexts. Researchers love it for discovering papers they'd miss on Google Scholar, understanding citation networks, and getting quick paper summaries before diving in.
Key Features
✓ Pros
- Completely free
- AI summaries are useful
- Huge paper database
- Citation analysis is powerful
✗ Cons
- Not all papers indexed
- TLDR can oversimplify
- Less familiar interface than Google Scholar
Starting from
$0
Free
We may earn a commission at no cost to you
Quick Info
- Category
- Research & Knowledge
- Pricing Model
- Free
- Starting Price
- $0
- Editor's Score
- 4.4/5
- Added
- 2026-02-13
⚖️ Compare Semantic Scholar
Side-by-side with alternatives
Similar Tools in Research & Knowledge
NotebookLM
Research & Knowledge
Google's AI research assistant that understands your documents
Scholarcy
Research & Knowledge
AI-powered research paper summarizer
Scite.ai
Research & Knowledge
AI citation analysis — see how papers are cited
Never miss the next big AI tool
Get our curated picks of the best new AI tools, tips, and deals delivered to your inbox every Thursday.
No spam, ever. Unsubscribe anytime.