ScholarAI is an AI research assistant that searches peer-reviewed papers and answers with citations, through the ScholarAI GPT in ChatGPT, its own Copilot web app and an API. Jenni AI acquired it in August 2025, and scholarai.io now sends visitors to Jenni, where ScholarAI's paper search powers the research features. ScholarAI's own plans still run on credits: Free gives 5 one-time credits, Basic costs $9.99 a month for 50 credits, and Premium $18.99 a month for unlimited use of the GPT and Copilot. Extra credits cost $4.99 for 25.
Reviewed by EdGrows·Updated Sep 30, 2026This analysis is based on documentation, public user reports, and vendor materials — not yet on our own hands-on testing. How we rate
ScholarAI made its name as one of the most popular research tools in ChatGPT's GPT Store: ask a question, and it searches peer-reviewed literature and answers with citations to real papers instead of the invented references general chatbots were known for. It also built its own web app, the ScholarAI Copilot, and an API, and says it is trusted by more than 600,000 researchers.
In August 2025 Jenni AI, an academic writing assistant, acquired ScholarAI, and its founders joined Jenni. The change is visible on scholarai.io: a banner announces that "ScholarAI has joined Jenni", the main button says "Try Jenni Now", and the homepage describes searching papers, saving citations and drafting "directly in Jenni". According to the site's FAQ, ScholarAI's paper-search tools now power Jenni's research experience.
ScholarAI's own products still run. The GPT, the Copilot, the API and the credit-based plans remain on sale, which makes this page mostly about two questions: what ScholarAI still costs on its own, and when Jenni is the better buy.
The ScholarAI GPT is the entry point most people know. Inside ChatGPT, it searches academic literature and returns answers that cite specific papers, which makes it useful for finding sources, checking what research says on a question and summarizing studies. You sign in to connect a ScholarAI account, and usage draws on ScholarAI credits.
The ScholarAI Copilot is the standalone web app, with uploads of your own papers and an AI chat grounded in them. Credits go much further in the GPT: one credit covers roughly 10 to 20 GPT responses but only about one Copilot response, since the Copilot does more processing per answer. The API lets developers build the same paper search into their own tools, with team and enterprise plans by arrangement.
ScholarAI's pricing page, captured September 30, 2026. All plans are billed monthly.
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 5 one-time credits |
| Basic | $9.99 a month | 50 credits a month |
| Premium | $18.99 a month | Unlimited use of the GPT and Copilot, unlimited uploads |
| Teams | By request | Unlimited access, pay-per-use billing, data sharing, collaboration spaces |
| Credit packs | $4.99 to $99.99, one-time | 25, 50, 100 or 500 credits |
The arithmetic is straightforward. Basic's 50 credits cost about 20 cents each, the same rate as the one-time packs, so Basic mainly suits people who want a steady monthly allowance. Anyone using more than about 90 credits a month pays less on Premium, which removes the meter entirely for the GPT and Copilot. The free plan's 5 credits are a one-time trial, not a monthly allowance.
Jenni AI is where the combined company is heading. It is a writing workspace for researchers and students: upload sources, chat with your papers, write with AI autocomplete, and insert citations automatically in more than 10,000 styles, with one-click imports from Zotero and Mendeley. Jenni offers a free plan and a premium plan with unlimited words and uploads, and with ScholarAI's search built in, it covers finding papers as well as writing with them.
ScholarAI on its own still makes sense in two cases: if you do your research inside ChatGPT and want its GPT to cite peer-reviewed papers, or if you are a developer who needs a paper-search API. For writing a thesis or paper from sources, Jenni is the more complete tool, and the direction of the company suggests it will get the new features.
For literature reviews, Elicit extracts data from papers into tables and Consensus summarizes what studies conclude on a question. Scite shows whether later papers support or contradict a claim, and Undermind runs deep searches across scientific literature. For free overviews of a topic with sources, Perplexity and Stanford's STORM are alternatives, and Paperpal covers academic editing once the writing starts.
Jenni AI, an academic writing assistant, acquired ScholarAI in August 2025, and ScholarAI's founders joined the Jenni team. The ScholarAI website now carries a banner saying it has joined Jenni and pushes visitors to try Jenni, where ScholarAI's paper-search tools power the research experience. The ScholarAI GPT, Copilot, API and plans are still available.
ScholarAI's unit of usage. One credit equals roughly one AI-generated response in the ScholarAI Copilot, or 10 to 20 responses in the ScholarAI GPT inside ChatGPT, depending on how much processing a request needs. When credits run out you keep access to your account, but new searches and answers need more credits or a plan upgrade.
Free includes 5 one-time credits. Basic costs $9.99 a month for 50 credits a month, and Premium $18.99 a month for unlimited use of the GPT and Copilot, unlimited uploads and unlimited ScholarAI access. Teams plans are priced on request, with pay-per-use billing, data sharing across a team and collaboration spaces. Prices are billed monthly.
Yes. ScholarAI sells one-time credit packages: 25 credits for $4.99, 50 for $9.99, 100 for $19.99 and 500 for $99.99. At about 20 cents a credit, they suit occasional users. Anyone who needs more than about 90 credits a month is better off on Premium's unlimited plan at $18.99.
Search the GPT Store in ChatGPT for ScholarAI, or follow the link from ScholarAI's website, then sign in to connect your ScholarAI account. The GPT searches peer-reviewed literature and cites papers in its answers, and each credit covers roughly 10 to 20 of its responses.
Yes. The ScholarAI API lets developers build its paper search and answers into their own applications, and the website links to an API user guide. Teams and enterprise plans with custom features and bulk pricing are available by contacting ScholarAI.
Yes. You can upgrade, downgrade or cancel from your account settings at any time, and after cancelling you keep your plan until the end of the current billing cycle. Credit usage is visible in the account dashboard, which helps decide between Basic, Premium and one-time packages.
Cited AI search plus the new Computer agent: free plan, Pro at $20 or $200 a year, Max at $200, Computer credits, and the free Comet browser.
An academic search engine that answers from peer-reviewed papers. Basic search is free, Pro starts at $12 a month billed yearly, and students get up to 40% off.
A free chat app and one of the cheapest frontier-class APIs: V4.1-Flash with vision and open weights, from $0.15 per million input tokens off-peak.