# Consensus vs ExplainThis

Consensus records 6,014,388 monthly visits with -1.2% month-over-month growth and Freemium pricing. ExplainThis records 1,463 monthly visits with -54% growth and Free pricing.

| Metric | [Consensus](https://openaitools.app/tool/consensus) | [ExplainThis](https://openaitools.app/tool/explainthis) |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| Website URL | https://consensus.app | https://explainthis.ai |
| Categories | AI Search Engine, AI Research Tool, AI Papers, AI Article Summarizer | AI Assistant, AI Productivity Tools, AI Marketing, AI Sales |
| Pricing Model | Freemium | Free |
| Monthly Visits | 6,014,388 | 1,463 |
| MoM Growth Rate | -1.2% | -54% |
| Primary Market | United States | United States |
| Direct Visits | 2,918,713 | 428 |
| Review Score | 4.7 | 3.9 |
| Saved Count | 31 | 0 |
| Supported Platforms | Website | Website |

## Consensus

Consensus works like a scholarly search engine supercharged by AI. Instead of returning a flat list of PDFs, you ask a natural-language research question and Consensus extracts claims from relevant papers, then shows you what the studies actually find. A Consensus Meter summarizes the weight of evidence for yes/no questions, so you can see at a glance whether scientists largely agree, disagree, or remain divided.

The platform indexes hundreds of millions of peer-reviewed papers spanning medicine, biology, psychology, economics and more. Answers link straight back to the source studies, and you can filter by study design, journal quality, sample size and publication year to separate stronger evidence from weaker signals. Features like Deep Search, Topic Synthesis and Skills let researchers build a working knowledge base over time rather than starting from scratch on every query.

Consensus is designed for researchers, clinicians, students and analysts who need trustworthy signals from the scientific record without drowning in irrelevant results. A free tier gives limited AI-powered searches each month, while paid plans unlock unlimited use, advanced filters and deeper synthesis.

**Pricing & Plans:** Freemium. A free tier offers a limited number of AI-powered searches per month; paid individual plans unlock unlimited searches and advanced research features, with discounted student pricing and team/enterprise options.

- **Evidence-grounded answers:** Ask a research question in plain language and get answers synthesized from peer-reviewed studies, with each claim linked to its source paper.
- **Consensus Meter:** A visual summary shows how the scientific literature leans on a yes/no question, indicating agreement, disagreement or mixed evidence.
- **Powerful filters:** Narrow results by study design, sample size, journal quality, publication year and more to prioritize high-quality evidence.
- **Topic synthesis and Deep Search:** Aggregate findings across many studies into structured summaries that map what is known and where the gaps are.
- **Research workspace:** Save papers, organize sources and build a persistent knowledge base for literature reviews and ongoing projects.

**Strengths:** Answers cite real peer-reviewed papers, so claims are verifiable; Consensus Meter makes it easy to gauge scientific agreement at a glance; Rich filters help separate high-quality evidence from weaker studies; Fast, clean interface designed around research workflows

**Limitations:** Free tier caps the number of AI-assisted searches per month; Coverage is strongest for STEM and health fields, lighter for some humanities topics; It guides you toward sources but is not a substitute for reading full papers

[Profile (Markdown)](https://openaitools.app/tool/consensus.md)

## ExplainThis

ExplainThis is an AI assistant aimed squarely at people who read for a living. It is distributed mainly as a Chrome extension, so instead of copying text into a separate tool you can summarise and explain a page right where you found it. That low-friction placement is the point: the tool is meant to slot into an existing browsing habit rather than demand a new workflow.

Its core jobs are summarisation and explanation. Long articles can be distilled into the essentials, and YouTube videos can be turned into the key points without watching start to finish. For startup knowledge workers — founders, marketers, salespeople and product managers — that means faster grounding when researching a market, a competitor or a topic that just came up in a meeting.

The product fits a category of lightweight AI copilots that augment browsing rather than replace it. It will not do your thinking for you, and summaries should still be checked against the source for anything high-stakes, but it removes a meaningful amount of reading overhead from the day. Check the official site for the current feature set and plan limits, since AI assistant products in this space evolve quickly.

**Pricing & Plans:** ExplainThis is generally offered as a free-to-start AI assistant with paid options for heavier usage. Review the official site for current pricing, as details may change.

- **Page and article summarisation:** Turn long articles and pages into a readable summary so you can decide what deserves a full read.
- **Video explanation:** Get the key takeaways from YouTube videos without sitting through the entire runtime.
- **Browser extension workflow:** Primarily a Chrome extension, so it sits alongside whatever you are already browsing rather than forcing a separate app.
- **Built for fast-moving teams:** Built for startup knowledge workers who need context fast across marketing, sales and product research.
- **Explanations on demand:** Ask follow-up questions about the content you are viewing to dig into the parts that matter to you.

**Strengths:** Sits inside the browser as a Chrome extension, so there is nothing new to launch; Handles both web pages and YouTube videos; Speeds up research for founders, marketers and product teams; Useful for triaging which long articles actually deserve a full read

**Limitations:** Relies on a browser extension, so it is most useful inside desktop Chrome; Summary quality depends on how well the page is structured; You need to review AI output before acting on it for anything important; Best experience requires signing in, which some users prefer to avoid

[Profile (Markdown)](https://openaitools.app/tool/explainthis.md)

## Frequently Asked Questions

### How do Consensus and ExplainThis compare in monthly traffic?

Consensus has 6,014,388 monthly visits, while ExplainThis has 1,463. Traffic estimates describe audience size, not product quality.

### How do their growth rates compare?

Consensus has a month-over-month growth rate of -1.2%; ExplainThis has -54%.

### How does pricing compare?

Consensus: Freemium. Freemium. A free tier offers a limited number of AI-powered searches per month; paid individual plans unlock unlimited searches and advanced research features, with discounted student pricing and team/enterprise options. ExplainThis: Free. ExplainThis is generally offered as a free-to-start AI assistant with paid options for heavier usage. Review the official site for current pricing, as details may change.

## Alternatives

| # | Tool Name | Monthly Visits | MoM Growth Rate | Pricing Model | Summary | Profile (Markdown) |
| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 1 | [Perplexity](https://openaitools.app/tool/perplexity-ai) | 88,310,223 | -3.7% | Freemium | Covers general web sources alongside academic papers, but lacks specialized scientific synthesis metrics and consensus ratings. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/perplexity-ai.md) |
| 2 | [Semantic Scholar](https://openaitools.app/tool/semantic-scholar) | 8,198,672 | +5.8% | Free | Completely free access to a massive scholarly index, but offers less automated natural-language evidence synthesis than Consensus. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/semantic-scholar.md) |
| 3 | [Kagi Search](https://openaitools.app/tool/kagi-search) | 4,647,605 | +3.2% | Free Trial, Paid | A paid, ad-free search engine that answers to its users | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/kagi-search.md) |
| 4 | [Monica](https://openaitools.app/tool/monica-ai) | 4,512,775 | -11.3% | Freemium | All-in-one AI assistant across web, browser, desktop and mobile | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/monica-ai.md) |
| 5 | [SciSpace](https://openaitools.app/tool/scispace) | 4,464,111 | +8.6% | Freemium | Provides deeper PDF reading and interactive literature analysis tools, but is less focused on quick evidence aggregation. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/scispace.md) |
| 6 | [Sider](https://openaitools.app/tool/sider) | 2,644,740 | -10.6% | Freemium | AI sidebar and browser agent for reading, writing and research | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/sider.md) |
| 7 | [Elicit](https://openaitools.app/tool/elicit) | 1,751,507 | +3.1% | Freemium | Performs advanced systematic review data extraction and evidence synthesis, but has a more complex interface than Consensus. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/elicit.md) |
| 8 | [Jenni](https://openaitools.app/tool/jenni) | 1,498,133 | +5.2% | Freemium | The AI workspace where researchers read, write, and cite with every claim traceable to its source | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/jenni.md) |
| 9 | [Merlin AI](https://openaitools.app/tool/merlin-ai-plugins) | 1,382,634 | +13.1% | Freemium | One AI assistant that plugs ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini into every tab | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/merlin-ai-plugins.md) |
| 10 | [Rayyan](https://openaitools.app/tool/rayyan) | 1,116,437 | +7.9% | Freemium | AI-assisted systematic review software for screening, extraction, and evidence synthesis at scale | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/rayyan.md) |

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Source: https://openaitools.app/compare/consensus-vs-explainthis

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