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Consensus is an AI search engine for research. You ask a question, it searches over 400 million scholarly articles, including 350 million peer-reviewed research papers, and it writes an answer where every sentence links back to the paper it came from. It’s a search engine first. It finds the papers, then uses AI to read and summarize them. It doesn’t make things up from general knowledge, so you can always click through and check the source.

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How this guide works

This guide is for researchers at any level, whether you’re starting your first project or you’ve been publishing for years. Each lesson is a short video plus a prompt to try on your own topic. Start at the top if you’re new to Consensus, or jump straight to the task you need.

1. Quick start

Run a search, see where the papers come from, and save what you find.

2. Understand your results

Read an answer, check its claims, and find the strongest papers.

3. Map the literature

Find the main findings, the history, and where studies disagree.

4. Follow the trail

Use citations to go from one good paper to many.

5. Organise and find gaps

Keep your papers in one place and spot what’s missing.

Key features

Reference pages for search, Research Agent, Deep Review, Library, and more.
All the videos are also in one YouTube playlist.
New to research terms like “meta-analysis” or “preprint”? Keep Research terms in plain English open in another tab.

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Where you can use Consensus

Web app

Everything in this guide happens at consensus.app. It’s free to start.

In ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, or the API

Connect Consensus to the AI assistant you already use in one click, or build on it with the API.

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Why researchers trust Consensus

  • Search happens before AI. The AI only summarizes papers Consensus actually found. If nothing relevant turns up, it tells you.
  • Every claim is checkable. Hover a citation to see the exact quote from the paper. See Check a claim against the paper.
  • Retracted papers are flagged and never used in answers.
  • Your data isn’t training data. Consensus doesn’t train models on your searches or uploads.
AI is a research assistant, not a replacement for reading. Use it to find and understand papers faster, then read the ones that matter.

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Plans

Paper search is unlimited on every plan. See pricing for details, and help.consensus.app for account help.