Elicit vs Undermind

Undermind asks follow-up questions about a research goal, then by its own description reads hundreds of papers and follows citation trails. A postdoc starting a new topic who needs the papers found, not tabulated, can buy Pro at $16 per month billed annually, and Team is $15 per person per month billed annually. Elicit Pro is $49 per user per month billed as $588 annually, and the extra money pays for screening 5,000 papers into 20 columns. A lab tabulating study data wants that. Undermind sells search, so it falls short there.

On recall, Undermind's 85% for the 20 most relevant papers in ten minutes comes from its own benchmark of 23 queries. Aaron Tay's informal test found 8 of 11 gold-standard papers in its top 10. A 2025 systematic review of 18 studies put Elicit's average search sensitivity at 37.9%. No study compares the two head to head. For the postdoc who only needs to find papers, Elicit Pro is the overspend at about three times the annual price.