What search tools cost to run
13 tools in this category publish a monthly price. The median is $15, from $6.00 to $20. What follows is what the model underneath would cost at four shapes of work, and what that leaves for everything the company actually built.
One person using an assistant through a working day.
The median seat, $15, on the light workload
The same seat price, the same work, three model choices. Nothing about the product changed between those rows. That gap is the reason to ask a vendor which model is underneath and whether it can change without telling you.
Every search tool that publishes a price
Entry price against the light workload on Gemini 3.1 Pro. Where the price is a range, the figure is the lowest published monthly number.
| Tool | Entry price | Model cost | Left over |
|---|---|---|---|
| Connected Papers | $6.00 | $11 | $-4.56 (-76%) |
| Elicit | $10 | $11 | $-0.56 (-6%) |
| Scholarcy | $10 | $11 | $-0.56 (-6%) |
| Litmaps | $10 | $11 | $-0.56 (-6%) |
| Consensus | $12 | $11 | $1.44 (12%) |
| SciSpace | $12 | $11 | $1.44 (12%) |
| You.com | $15 | $11 | $4.44 (30%) |
| Humata | $15 | $11 | $4.44 (30%) |
| Perplexity | $20 | $11 | $9.44 (47%) |
| Scite | $20 | $11 | $9.44 (47%) |
| ChatPDF | $20 | $11 | $9.44 (47%) |
| Afforai | $20 | $11 | $9.44 (47%) |
| Undermind | $20 | $11 | $9.44 (47%) |
A model, not an audit. We do not know which model any of these run on or how much work a seat does, and the figures exclude caching, batching and volume discounts, all of which push a real bill down.