Use case 09 of 10 · last checked 14 Oct 2026
The best research & search tools
Five tools worth your time. Order is provisional until we publish test results. How we'll score them.
- 01 Free; Pro $20/mo
PerplexityProvisional
Cited web answers and Deep Research.
- 02 Free; Pro $19.99/mo
Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM)Provisional
Upload sources and get grounded answers, summaries and audio overviews.
- 03 Free tier; Pro $49/mo
ElicitProvisional
AI for finding and summarising research papers.
- 04 Free tier; Pro $12/mo billed annually
ConsensusProvisional
Search engine answering questions from scientific papers.
- 05 Usage-based API with free credits (verify)
ExaProvisional
Web search API built for AI agents.
Get the Shortlist every Tuesday.
New releases with a Try / Watch / Skip verdict, ranking changes, and one "best tool for…" pick. Five minutes, free.