Semantic Scholar in Best AI for Research

Best for

Free paper search, citation graphs and bulk metadata for developers

Pricing

Search on the website is free, and the API product page lists no fee. Without a key, requests share a pool of 1,000 requests per second across all unauthenticated users, according to the product page. A free key raises limits, and the page cites an introductory limit of 1 request per second on all endpoints.

What it covers

The site says it indexes over 200 million academic papers from publisher partnerships, data providers and web crawling. The API covers papers, authors, citations, venues, similar-paper recommendations and downloadable datasets.

Citations and verification

The Academic Graph API covers citation data, per the product page. Publications that use the API should credit Semantic Scholar and cite its Open Data Platform.

API

The REST Academic Graph API covers papers, authors, citations and venues; a free key is requested through a form on https://www.semanticscholar.org/product/api. Docs sit at https://api.semanticscholar.org/api-docs/.

Strengths and limitations

Third-party ratings

Not found

Dated facts

• Semantic Scholar's about page gives over 200 million papers, undated.
• The API product page, checked 7 November 2026, gives an introductory key limit of 1 request per second on all endpoints.

Semantic Scholar or Hyperresearch?

Choose Semantic Scholar for free paper search, citation graphs and bulk metadata for developers. For sourced research where every figure has to hold up, Hyperresearch is our editorial choice: it scored 77.7 on DRACO in our own run and checks each cited figure against its source.

Sources for this entry

• Semantic Scholar API overview
• Semantic Scholar API license
• Semantic Scholar about

Vendor descriptions are attributed to the vendor. Prices change; confirm with each vendor.

Continue this reading path

• Resource directory
• Best AI for Research
• Hyperresearch profile

Cite this entry