Consensus
Overview
Consensus is an AI search engine focused on "visualizing scientific consensus." It covers 220+ million peer-reviewed academic papers and features the Consensus Meter, which shows how many papers answer a question with Yes, No, or Possibly. Unlike generative chat AI, Consensus is built for users who need evidence-based answers grounded in real research.
Key Features
1. Consensus Meter
Analyzes relevant papers and visually displays the percentage supporting Yes / No / Possibly for a given claim. Especially valuable for contested fields like medicine, nutrition, and psychology.
2. 220M+ Peer-Reviewed Papers
The corpus is built on OpenAlex and Semantic Scholar and supplemented by full-text partnerships with Taylor & Francis, Sage, and the American Chemical Society. All answers come from peer-reviewed literature with direct citation links — unlike open-web search AI, Consensus prioritizes primary source credibility.
3. Research Agent
The successor to Scholar Agent. It plans its own searches for complex multi-step questions, chains tools together, applies academic filters, and returns citation-backed answers grounded in peer-reviewed research.
4. Deep Search
Automates literature reviews by building search strategies, expanding key terms, identifying conflicting arguments, and exploring citation graphs, producing a structured report in minutes.
5. Result Filters
Narrow results with 19 study-design filters grouped into Experimental, Observational, Evidence Synthesis, and Other categories, plus 44 publisher filters.
6. Research Hub / Ask Paper
Upload a PDF and chat with it directly, pinpointing answers inside long papers. Clicking a search result opens a paper preview in a sidebar.
7. Medical Mode
A specialized mode that narrows results to clinical guidelines and top medical journals — strong support for healthcare professionals making clinical decisions.
8. External Clients
Consensus is available as a ChatGPT App and connects to Claude over MCP.
Pricing
| Plan | Monthly | Key Perks |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Unlimited basic search, Pro features capped |
| Premium | $8.99 (annual) | Pro Analysis, Study Snapshots |
| Pro | $15 ($120/yr) | 15 Deep Searches per month |
| Deep | $45 | Unlimited Deep Search for high-frequency reviews |
| Teams | $9.99/seat | Team usage |
| Enterprise | Contact sales | Org-level features and admin |
The API is billed at $0.10 per call plus a platform fee.
Typical Use Cases
- Validating medical, nutrition, or psychology claims against real papers
- Fact-checking for writers and journalists
- Evidence gathering for policy and risk assessment
- Clinical decision support for healthcare professionals
Strengths
- Extremely credible: 220M+ peer-reviewed papers only
- Consensus Meter summarizes scientific agreement at a glance
- Medical Mode tailored for clinicians
- Research Agent automates multi-step investigations
Weaknesses
- Does not cover general news or blog content
- Very recent research may take time to appear
- Non-English (e.g. Japanese) literature coverage is weaker
Official
- Website: https://consensus.app