Consensus

VS

AnswerThis

AnswerThis vs Consensus: A Full Comparison for Researchers

Consensus is built for fast evidence checks, best known for its research Meter. AnswerThis searches 300M+ papers and clinical trials, reads the full PDFs, and writes full research deliverables with verified citations line by line, in one workspace. This is how the two compare.

Trusted by over 1 Million+ researchers

Trusted by over 1 Million+ researchers

HOW WE VERIFY

Every Answer is Verified Before it Reaches You

Explaining papers

highlighted PDF passage, chat explanation, then the Explain → Collect → Cited review step trail

Citations

claim with markers, verified-passage popover with page, and a removed unverifiable claim.

Systematic reviews

PRISMA counts plus five screening rows with logged reasons

From evidence to draft

cited paragraph, citation-style menu (APA / Vancouver / 2,000+ more), plagiarism and AI checks, reference and export targets.

Consensus

Fast evidence checks

AnswerThis

The whole research workflow

Papers searched

200M+ papers

300M+ papers and clinical trials

How deep it reads

Study snapshots and abstracts

Full PDFs, including tables and figures

Written literature review

Answers and Deep Research reports on top papers

Full review with verified citation on every line

What clicking a citation does

Links to the source paper

Opens the PDF at the highlighted sentence

Work with your own PDFs

Upload and search your papers

Upload and search your papers

Data extraction

Evidence tables and study snapshots

Any field across studies, including table data

Systematic review workflow

Not a built-in workflow

Agent-led and PRISMA-compliant, every decision logged

AI Writer

No

Draft with one-click citations, plagiarism and AI checks

Citation styles and exports

Copy citations in common styles

2,000+ styles, Zotero, Mendeley, EndNote, BibTeX

Field analysis

Consensus Meter for yes or no questions

Citation maps, research gaps, bibliometric trends

Search filters

Study type, journal quality and more

20+ controls: journal quality, date, citations, study type

Free plan

Yes

Yes, no card required

Ask either tool a research question and you get an answer with citations, drawn from the scholarly record rather than the open web

Every line, its source

41 lines, 41 citations, each resolving to the sentence it came from.

Every line, its source

41 lines, 41 citations, each resolving to the sentence it came from.

A vote is not an effect size

A meter tells you how many agree. AnswerThis tells you how much, and where it says so.

A vote is not an effect size

A meter tells you how many agree. AnswerThis tells you how much, and where it says so.

From one PDF to the whole table

Ask a paper a question, then keep the answer as a cited row.

From one PDF to the whole table

Ask a paper a question, then keep the answer as a cited row.

verdict

Our verdict

Consensus and AnswerThis both surface evidence from real papers. They suit different moments in the work.

Choose Consensus if you want to

01

Get a fast yes or no read on a research question

02

See how the top studies lean with the Meter

03

Run quick evidence checks before a deeper dive

04

Keep a light, low-cost evidence search tool

Choose AnswerThis if you want to

01

Get a fast yes or no read on a research question

02

Verify any claim by opening the paper at the exact sentence

03

Work across your own PDFs, extraction tables and library

04

Finish a checked, exportable draft, or a full systematic review

Where A Glance Ends
And A Review Begins

Finding answers is quick. A review has to show where the field agrees, where it splits, and what it leaves open, with a source behind every line. Consensus gives you the first read: how top studies lean on the question you asked. AnswerThis produces the review itself: structured by theme, built from 150+ relevant sources, every line traceable to the paper behind it, ready to refine in the same tab. One tells you where the evidence leans. The other hands you the review.

verdict

Value for money

Compare the value of quick evidence checks versus a complete research workflow.

PLANs

Consensus

AnswerThis

Free

Search with limited Pro analyses

Cited answers and reviews to start, no card required

Entry paid

Pro, around $10 to $15 per month by billing cycle

Pro, $12–25 per month by billing cycle

Team tier

Custom and enterprise plans

Lab & Team, $75 per month

Top tier

Custom and enterprise plans

Max, $250 per month

See The Full Pricing

What users say

Reviews from researchers

AnswerThis

★★★★★

5.0 on Product Hunt

AnswerThis has proven to be a reliable and valuable resource in my research work. The platform provides detailed and so far very accurate answers, and its literature tool offers deep, well-curated insights that are truly impressive. The AI writer is also a great asset, helping to streamline academic writing tasks. A highly recommended tool for researchers and academics seeking both precision and efficiency.

MUAIYED BUZAYAN

dental researcher

A purpose serving tool for researchers. It paves the way for deep research in structured way with great features.

Abu Talha

i am student who loves researching

Consensus

★★★☆☆

3.5/5

Congrats on the launch! It's really helpful, I used to try via prompts in chat asking GPT to give answers based on research papers. But I would check the answers by asking for the title of the article and authors to then check that it actually exists via google scholar😅 It's great to be able to simplify this task

Maksim Mamchur

CEO and Product of SubSchool

I appreciate the confidence Consensus' scientific-based answers provide me when researching topics new and old... especially in today's partisan & combative political/news climate

Patrick King

Los Angeles

get started

Give AnswerThis A Research Task

Choose a task and go. AnswerThis handles the searching, reading, citing and drafting with you.

Run a literature review

One question in, a structured review out, cited on every line.

Get started

Chat with a PDF

Ask one paper or your whole library, with answers pointing to the page.

Get started

Extract data into tables

Any field across studies, including numbers inside the papers' own tables.

Get started

Draft a paper with citations

Write in the AI Writer, cite in one click, check before you submit.

Get started

Generate citations in 2,000+ styles

One question in, a structured review out, cited on every line.

Get started

Find the research gap

One question in, a structured review out, cited on every line.

Get started

FAQ

We have answers to your questions

What does AnswerThis search, and how complete is it?

It searches 300M+ papers and clinical trials across PubMed, OpenAlex, Semantic Scholar, arXiv, ClinicalTrials.gov and more, plus any PDFs and library imports you add. Full documents are read, not just abstracts.

How is this different from asking a chatbot for a literature review?

A chatbot writes from memory and invents references under pressure. AnswerThis builds the review from retrieved papers, checks each claim against its source, and drops anything it cannot verify.

Can I control which papers make it into the review?

Yes. Set journal quality, publication date, minimum citation count, and source type before generation, and adjust the number of sources and the model.

What does cited line by line actually mean?

Every statement is checked against the paper it came from before it reaches you, and unsourced claims are removed rather than filled in. You can click any citation to see the exact passage.

What stops it from making up citations?

Every sentence in the review carries its own citation. Click it and the original PDF opens with the source sentence highlighted, in whichever of the 2,000+ styles you choose.