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Consensus: plans, prices, strengths and limits
Consensus AI is free for unlimited paper searches, with 10 Pro messages and 3 Deep reviews a month. Pro costs $20 a month for unlimited Pro messages and 15 Deep reviews, and Deep costs $65 a month for 200 Deep reviews.
Prices for United States, before sales tax Data release 2026.11.07-2, Nov 7, 2026 Rules 2.5.0
- Made by
- Consensus NLP, Inc.
- Individual plans
- 3, one free
- Paid plans
- $20 to $65 a month
- Facts checked
- Nov 4, 2026
Quick verdict
Consensus is an academic search engine: it searches over 220 million peer-reviewed papers and writes AI summaries and literature reviews with citations to them. Free gives unlimited paper searches, 10 Pro messages (cited AI summaries of up to 20 papers) and up to 3 Deep reviews a month. Pro is $20 a month, or $12 a month billed yearly, $144 a year paid up front, with unlimited Pro messages, 15 Deep reviews a month and unlimited Study Snapshots. Deep is $65 a month, or $45 a month billed yearly, $540 a year paid up front, with 200 Deep reviews a month. Consensus does not say whether prices include tax.
Data handling is the clearest part of Consensus's documentation. Its privacy policy says your queries, content and personal information are never used to train AI models, its own or any third party's, and its help center says it does not partner with advertisers. Ownership is less clear: Consensus's Terms allow copying site content "for personal use only", and no page states your rights to use AI answers commercially, so commercial use is not verified.
Consensus answers only from the scientific literature. It describes itself as unlike general AI tools, and live web search is not documented. This verdict rests on what Consensus documents, not on our tests, which we have not run yet.
Strengths and limits
Strengths
- Unlimited paper search on every planFree, Pro and Deep all include unlimited searches across over 220 million peer-reviewed papers. Medical Mode narrows a search to medical literature.
- Deep reviews with set limitsA Deep review breaks your question into sub-questions, runs up to 20 targeted searches and analyzes typically 50 and up to 100 papers. You get 3 a month on Free, 15 on Pro and 200 on Deep, and reviews may include charts, tables and Mermaid diagrams.
- No training on your data and no adsConsensus's privacy policy says "Your queries, content, and personal information are never used to train AI models". Its help center says Consensus is subscription-based and does not partner with advertisers.
- Answers you can take elsewhereYou can copy or export Pro answers, download a Deep analysis as a formatted PDF with inline citations, and export citations as CSV, RIS or BibTeX. Papers import from Zotero.
- Consensus inside other AI toolsThe Consensus MCP and API connect it to ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Cursor and others. Calls included a month: 30 on Free, 500 on Pro and 2,000 on Deep, then $0.05 a call up to 1,000 on Pro or 10,000 on Deep.
Limits
- Commercial use not verifiedNot verified. Consensus's Terms say you may download or copy site content "for personal use only, with no transfer of rights, title, or interest". No page states whether you may use AI answers commercially.
- Free allowance is small for AI answersPlan limit. Free has 10 Pro messages, 3 Deep reviews and 10 Study Snapshots a month. Its own pricing card describes basic paper search "without any AI analysis" while listing those allowances, so check what your account shows.
- Research papers onlyScope limit. Consensus says that, unlike general AI tools, it searches the scientific literature first, and it is documented as not offering a general assistant. Live web search and voice are not documented.
- Deep review size: Consensus's pages differConflict. A Pro help article says Deep reviews cover up to 50 papers, while the FAQ says up to 100. The Deep review article says typically 50, up to 100.
- No native mobile app confirmedConflict. A help article says Consensus will develop a native mobile app in the future and shows how to add the web app to a phone home screen, while the privacy policy mentions Consensus mobile applications. We found no App Store link on official pages.
Based on what Consensus NLP, Inc. documents for each plan, not on our tests.
Who it suits
A good fit if you
- Finding peer-reviewed papers on a question and reading a cited summary
- Literature reviews with a fixed monthly number of Deep reviews
- Researchers and clinicians who run many reviews, on the Deep plan
- Using Consensus from ChatGPT, Claude or Cursor through its MCP connector
- Keeping your queries out of AI training without changing a setting
Look elsewhere if you
- Commercial publishing of AI answers: rights are not stated
- General everyday questions: Consensus answers from research papers only
- Current news or web pages: live web search is not documented
- A native phone app: not confirmed
Plans and prices
| Plan | Monthly | Yearly | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|
| Consensus Free | Free | Nov 4, 2026 | |
| Consensus ProAnnual toggle shows $12/mo, $144 annually (Saving $96/yr). | $20 a month | $144 a year | Nov 4, 2026 Source |
| Consensus DeepAnnual toggle shows $45/mo, $540 annually (Saving $240/yr). | $65 a month | $540 a year | Nov 4, 2026 Source |
Prices for United States, before sales tax unless a plan says otherwise. A yearly plan is paid up front and is not cancel-any-time.
Features by plan
What Consensus NLP, Inc. documents for each plan. A hatched mark means we could not verify it, which is not the same as "not offered".
| Feature | Consensus Free | Consensus Pro | Consensus Deep |
|---|---|---|---|
| Models and limits | |||
| Top models included | Unclear | Unclear | Unclear |
| Context window | Unclear | Unclear | Unclear |
| Models from several companies | Unclear | Unclear | Unclear |
| General-purpose assistant | No | No | No |
| Research and sources | |||
| Web search with sources | Unclear | Unclear | Unclear |
| Deep research reports | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Research paper search | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Files and data | |||
| File and document uploads | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Spreadsheet and data analysis | Unclear | Unclear | Unclear |
| Coding | |||
| Coding agent | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable |
| Works in your code editor | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable |
| Code completions as you type | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable |
| Background coding agent | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable |
| Pull request review | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable |
| Images, video and voice | |||
| Image generation | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable |
| Video generation | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable |
| Real-time voice | Unclear | Unclear | Unclear |
| Image editing and design | |||
| Photo editing | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable |
| Background removal | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable |
| Text inside images | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable |
| Logo maker | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable |
| Vector (SVG) files | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable |
| Upscaling | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable |
| Diagrams from text | Unclear | Unclear | Unclear |
| Video editing and presenters | |||
| Photo to video | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable |
| Footage editing | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable |
| Avatar presenters | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable |
| Lip sync | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable |
| Automatic captions | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable |
| Clips from long videos | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable |
| Exports without a watermark | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable |
| App building and hosting | |||
| Apps from a description | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable |
| Hosting and publishing | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable |
| Custom domain | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable |
| Database and sign-in | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable |
| Code export | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable |
| Music, voice and transcription | |||
| Songs with vocals | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable |
| Instrumental music | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable |
| Separate stems | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable |
| Voiceover from text | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable |
| Voice cloning | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable |
| Dubbing into other languages | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable |
| Sound effects | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable |
| Transcription | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable |
| Meeting notes | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable |
| Dictation into any app | Unclear | Unclear | Unclear |
| Writing and slides | |||
| Slides from a prompt | Unclear | Unclear | Unclear |
| Grammar and spelling checks | Unclear | Unclear | Unclear |
| Paraphrasing and tone changes | Unclear | Unclear | Unclear |
| Projects and memory | |||
| Projects | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Custom assistants | Unclear | Unclear | Unclear |
| Memory across chats | Unclear | Unclear | Unclear |
| Integrations and agents | |||
| Connectors to other apps | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Inside Gmail | Unclear | Unclear | Unclear |
| Inside Google Docs | Unclear | Unclear | Unclear |
| Inside Google Sheets | Unclear | Unclear | Unclear |
| Inside Word | Unclear | Unclear | Unclear |
| Inside Excel | Unclear | Unclear | Unclear |
| Inside PowerPoint | Unclear | Unclear | Unclear |
| Inside Outlook | Unclear | Unclear | Unclear |
| Browser agent | Unclear | Unclear | Unclear |
| Privacy and control | |||
| Opt out of model training | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Export your data | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Shows ads | No | No | No |
| Rights and licensing | |||
| Commercial use of outputs | Unclear | Unclear | Unclear |
| Apps and extras | |||
| Cloud storage included | Unclear | Unclear | Unclear |
| Apps | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Usage included | Yes | Yes | Yes |
The details and sources of every row are in Compare two AIs and the data release.
What it documents for each use
- Research & Search Get a research report from many sources · Find and read research papers
- Business & Productivity Connect AI to the apps I already use
A use is listed when at least one plan documents every feature a task needs. Answer quality is a separate question: see below.
Using it day to day
Consensus runs on the web, and a help article shows how to add it to a phone home screen. You can upload up to 20 PDFs at a time, 50 MB each, to My Library, where uploads stay private; you can search your documents, chat across them, and organize papers, uploads and searches into Collections that you can share. Skills are ready-made Deep workflows: Literature Review, Citation Snowballing, Reverse Citation Search and Verify Citations, which checks whether sources support claims in a draft. Making your own assistant is not documented.
Usage is counted per month. Free has 10 Pro messages, 3 Deep reviews, 10 Study Snapshots and 30 API and MCP calls. Pro has unlimited Pro messages, 15 Deep reviews, unlimited Study Snapshots and 500 calls. Deep has 200 Deep reviews and 2,000 calls. Pro messages use OpenAI models, and the privacy policy names OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Baseten as model providers; no page names the models per plan. Students, faculty and US clinicians can get up to 40% off.
Privacy, data and ads
Consensus says your queries, content and personal information are never used to train AI models, its own or any third party's, so there is nothing to opt out of. It says it does not sell data or partner with advertisers. Uploaded PDFs are private. You can export answers, Deep analyses and citations, and Settings lets you clear your history or delete your account.
Read the vendor's own page: Consensus privacy and data controls. We make no legal or compliance claim.
Test results
We have not tested Consensus yet, so this page makes no claim about answer quality, and we show no example outputs. Run the same kit in it and in the alternatives, in your own account:
- Summarize a report with traceable facts
- Analyze a spreadsheet and get the numbers right
- Edit an email without losing a detail
- Diagnose and repair a small program
- Research a question with sources that support the answer
- Make sense of documents that disagree
- Research a current question within a date window
- Edit an article without changing its facts
- Turn project notes into a report that agrees with itself
- Implement a small specification
- Refactor code without changing what it does
- Make a picture that follows a detailed brief
- Put exact text into a graphic
- Change one thing in a picture and nothing else
- Make a short clip that follows a brief
- Make a song that sings your lyrics exactly
- Read a script with names, numbers and abbreviations
- Design a logo with an exact name
Getting started
- Start on Consensus Free with a question in your own field, and open the cited papers to check that they say what the summary says.
- Use one of your 3 free Deep reviews on a topic you know well before you rely on one for new work.
- Choose Pro at $20 a month for unlimited Pro messages and 15 Deep reviews, or Deep at $65 a month if you run more than 15 reviews a month. If you are a student, faculty member or US clinician, check the eligibility discount first.
- Before you publish AI answers commercially, ask Consensus about rights, since its Terms speak of personal use only.
- Compare Consensus with other research tools on our tools page, and read how we check vendor claims.
Your fit
Tell Find my AI what you do and what matters; it checks every plan of Consensus against your priorities, next to the alternatives.
Alternatives
- SciSpace SciSpace's free Basic plan adds a Paraphraser, AI Writer and Citation Generator that do not spend credits, and Premium is shown at $20 a month, though SciSpace's prices could not be confirmed as US prices. About SciSpace
- Perplexity For questions beyond research papers, Perplexity documents citations in every answer on every plan, though it uses your data to improve its AI by default until you turn off "AI data retention". About Perplexity
- Claude Claude Pro, at $20 a month or $200 a year, documents a context of up to 1 million tokens for reading long papers you upload, with model improvement controlled in Privacy Settings. About Claude
Recent changes
- Consensus Deep added
- Consensus Pro added
- Consensus Free added
Every change is in the change log.
Questions
Is Consensus AI free?
Yes. Consensus Free includes unlimited paper searches, 10 Pro messages, up to 3 Deep reviews and 10 Study Snapshots a month, plus 30 API and MCP calls.
How much does Consensus AI cost?
Pro is $20 a month, or $144 a year paid up front ($12 a month). Deep is $65 a month, or $540 a year paid up front ($45 a month). Consensus does not say whether tax is included.
What is the difference between Consensus Pro and Deep?
Both include unlimited paper searches and unlimited Pro messages. Pro gives 15 Deep reviews and 500 API and MCP calls a month; Deep gives 200 Deep reviews and 2,000 calls.
Does Consensus train AI on my searches?
No, according to its privacy policy: your queries, content and personal information are never used to train AI models, Consensus's own or any third party's.
How many papers does a Consensus Deep review read?
A Deep review runs up to 20 targeted searches and analyzes typically 50 papers, up to 100. One Pro help article gives only the 50 figure.
Can I use Consensus answers commercially?
Not verified. Consensus's Terms allow copying site content for personal use only, and no page states your rights to use AI answers commercially.
Sources
14 official pages, checked Nov 4, 2026. This page was written by the What the tech desk with AI assistance from the facts in our data release; no company paid for or reviewed it.
- How to Use Pro MessagesConsensus NLP, Inc.
- How Consensus WorksConsensus NLP, Inc.
- How to Use Deep ReviewConsensus NLP, Inc.
- How to Upload and Chat with DocumentsConsensus NLP, Inc.
- Terms of UseConsensus NLP, Inc.
- How to Use SkillsConsensus NLP, Inc.
- How to Connect Consensus to Other AI ToolsConsensus NLP, Inc.
- How to Use Consensus in Microsoft 365 CopilotConsensus NLP, Inc.
- Privacy PolicyConsensus NLP, Inc.
- Consensus Product ChangelogConsensus NLP, Inc.
- SecurityConsensus NLP, Inc.
- How to Add Consensus to Your Mobile Home ScreenConsensus NLP, Inc.
- Subscription PlansConsensus NLP, Inc.
- PricingConsensus NLP, Inc.
About this page
- Published by
- What the tech, Helsinki, Finland
- Author
- What the tech
- Reviewed by
- Peyman Khosravani
- Review scope
- Checked that this page matches the facts in data release 2026.11.07-2: a check against documented sources, not a hands-on test of the product.
- Evidence
- Facts documented by each company, each linked to its official source and dated. Test results appear only where an editor ran the test.
- Data release
- 2026.11.07-2, Nov 7, 2026
Product ownership is separate from publication: What the tech publishes this page; Consensus NLP, Inc. supplies Consensus. Official Consensus website. Product names and logos do not imply endorsement of this publication.