Comparison
Sidenote vs Elicit
Both help you with research papers — but at opposite ends of the job. Elicit finds and screens papers across a vast academic database. Sidenote is a browser extension that deeply reads the one paper you already have open and cites the exact passage. Here's an honest, feature-by-feature comparison.
The short answer
Should you use Sidenote or Elicit?
Plenty of researchers use both: Elicit to find the papers, Sidenote to read each one closely.
Compared honestly
Sidenote vs Elicit: feature by feature
CapabilitySidenoteElicit
Reads the specific paper or PDF you already have openSidenoteYesElicitNo
Explains jargon & acronyms in the paper you're readingSidenoteYesElicitPartial
Citations scroll & highlight the exact passage in your documentSidenoteYesElicitNo
Server-side citation check drops unsupported claimsSidenoteYesElicitPartial
Works on Confluence, Notion, SharePoint & web pages tooSidenoteYesElicitNo
Reads private docs in your browser session (no upload)SidenoteYesElicitNo
Ask across several documents you choose at onceSidenoteYesElicitPartial
Search a large database of academic papersSidenoteNoElicitYes
Extract findings from many papers into a structured tableSidenoteNoElicitYes
Automated screening for systematic reviewsSidenoteNoElicitYes
Sentence-level citations to source papersSidenoteYesElicitYes
Three rows go to Elicit, and we're not pretending otherwise — see Where Elicit wins below. The cross-document row is powered by Sidenote Collections, and clicking any answer's source is powered by Citations.
The core difference
Finding the right papers, or truly reading the one in front of you.
Elicit is a discovery engine. You ask a research question, it searches across a large corpus of academic papers, screens them, and pulls findings from many of them into a structured table. For a literature review or a systematic review, that breadth is exactly the point — and it does it well.
Sidenote works at the other end. Once you've opened a paper — an arXiv preprint, a journal PDF, a page behind your institution's login — Sidenote sits in the side panel and reads exactly what's on your screen. Ask it anything, get a glossary of the jargon, and click any citation to scroll the real paper to the exact sentence and highlight it.
The difference in one exampleYou're three pages into a dense methods section and a term you don't know keeps recurring. Elicit can tell you which papers cover the topic; Sidenote, reading the very paper on your screen, defines the term in context and shows you the exact line where the authors use it.
Giving credit
Where Elicit is the better tool.
If your work is about scale across the literature, Elicit is the stronger choice:
- Large-scale paper discoverySearch across a vast database of academic papers from a natural-language research question — something Sidenote doesn't do.
- Data extraction into tablesPull methodology, sample sizes, outcomes and findings from many papers at once into a structured table for review.
- Systematic-review screeningAutomated abstract and full-text screening built specifically to speed up systematic reviews at scale.
Sidenote does the next step instead: once those papers are open, it's the close-reading companion. If you also read beyond papers — runbooks, wikis, articles — see how Sidenote works for researchers across everything in the browser.
FAQ
Sidenote vs Elicit — common questions
Is Sidenote an Elicit alternative?
Not exactly — they do different jobs, and the honest answer is that many researchers use both. Elicit is built to discover and screen literature: search across a huge database of papers, pull findings from dozens of them into a table, and accelerate a systematic review. Sidenote is built to deeply read the one paper you already have open — an arXiv preprint, a journal PDF, a page on your screen — explain its jargon, and cite the exact passage behind every answer. Elicit helps you decide which papers to read; Sidenote helps you actually read and trust one.
Can Elicit read the specific PDF I have open in my browser?
Elicit works from its own library of academic papers and documents you bring into it, so its strength is breadth across that corpus. Sidenote rides along in your browser and reads exactly what's on your screen — the preprint, the journal page, the private wiki — with no upload, then cites the precise sentence and scrolls the document to it.
Does Sidenote help with literature reviews like Elicit?
Only at the reading end, not the discovery end. Sidenote won't search 100M+ papers or auto-screen abstracts for a systematic review — that's squarely Elicit's territory. What Sidenote does well is the close reading once you have a paper: summarise it, explain the methods, define the acronyms, and let you chat with it while every claim cites a passage you can click to verify.
Which is more trustworthy for citations?
Both cite sources at the sentence level, which is a real strength of each tool. Sidenote adds two things on top: every answer is checked server-side against the passages actually retrieved from your document, so unsupported claims have their citation dropped before you see them; and clicking a citation scrolls the open paper to the exact sentence and highlights it, so verifying takes a second.
Can I use both Elicit and Sidenote together?
That's a natural workflow. Use Elicit to find and shortlist the papers worth your time, open the ones that matter, then switch to Sidenote in the side panel to read each one closely, untangle the jargon, and pull out quotes you can trust. They sit at opposite ends of the same research task.
How much does Sidenote cost compared to Elicit?
Both have a free tier. Sidenote is free to install with a 7-day Pro trial that needs no card; paid plans start at £10/month. Elicit offers a free Basic plan with paid tiers above it (Plus and Pro), priced for individual and professional researchers — check elicit.com for current rates.
Try it on the paper you're reading
Read anything. With citations.
Add Sidenote to Chrome and ask the paper in front of you a question. No upload, no new tab — just the answer, and the passage that proves it.
7-day Pro trial · No card required · Free tier forever