# Consensus vs Side Reader Consensus records 6,014,388 monthly visits with -1.2% month-over-month growth and Freemium pricing. Side Reader records 355 monthly visits with -36.5% growth and Freemium pricing. | Metric | [Consensus](https://openaitools.app/tool/consensus) | [Side Reader](https://openaitools.app/tool/side-reader) | | :--- | :--- | :--- | | Website URL | https://consensus.app | https://www.side-reader.com | | Categories | AI Search Engine, AI Research Tool, AI Papers, AI Article Summarizer | AI PDF, AI Reader, AI Chatbot, AI PDF Summarizer | | Pricing Model | Freemium | Freemium | | Monthly Visits | 6,014,388 | 355 | | MoM Growth Rate | -1.2% | -36.5% | | Primary Market | United States | Vietnam | | Direct Visits | 2,918,713 | 149 | | Review Score | 4.7 | 2.4 | | 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) ## Side Reader Side Reader exists to remove the friction of working with documents and AI chatbots at the same time. Normally you either paste chunks of a PDF into a chat window or juggle two tabs and lose your place. Side Reader is a Chrome extension that renders the PDF in the sidebar of ChatGPT, Claude or DeepSeek, so the document and the conversation sit side by side. Once a PDF is open you use built-in action buttons to summarize, translate or explain content, and you can customize those button prompts so the AI answers in your preferred format. For content that cannot be selected — charts, infographics, scanned images — a screenshot question lets you ask about a region of the page directly. The reader itself supports zoom, page navigation and width adjustment, so it behaves like a normal PDF viewer rather than a stripped-down preview. Privacy is handled simply: PDFs are stored locally in your browser and Side Reader does not keep your files. Because the AI work happens inside the ChatGPT, Claude or DeepSeek session you are already using, Side Reader adds document handling rather than a separate subscription to yet another model. **Pricing & Plans:** Freemium. The core Chrome extension is available to install, with a paid upgrade for extended usage; check the extension listing for current limits. - **Read PDFs beside the chat:** PDFs render directly in the sidebar next to the chat, so your document and the AI conversation are visible at the same time. - **Summarize, translate and explain:** Summarize a whole document, translate it, or have passages explained in simpler terms using the AI you are already signed into. - **Custom action button prompts:** Built-in buttons cover the common actions, and you can edit their prompts to make the AI respond in the format and tone you need. - **Screenshot questions for non-selectable content:** Ask about charts, scans or regions that cannot be selected by taking a screenshot question instead. - **Local storage and a proper reader:** Files stay local in your browser and are not stored by Side Reader, and PDFs keep zoom, page navigation and width controls. **Strengths:** Keeps the PDF and the AI conversation visible in the same window; Works with ChatGPT, Claude and DeepSeek rather than locking you into one model; Local-only file storage — documents are not kept on Side Reader servers; Customizable action prompts for repeatable workflows **Limitations:** Requires an active ChatGPT, Claude or DeepSeek session to do the AI work; Chrome only — no Firefox, Safari or Edge-specific edition; Very new/small product, so the feature set is still evolving [Profile (Markdown)](https://openaitools.app/tool/side-reader.md) ## Frequently Asked Questions ### How do Consensus and Side Reader compare in monthly traffic? Consensus has 6,014,388 monthly visits, while Side Reader has 355. 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%; Side Reader has -36.5%. ### 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. Side Reader: Freemium. Freemium. The core Chrome extension is available to install, with a paid upgrade for extended usage; check the extension listing for current limits. ## 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 | [SciSpace](https://openaitools.app/tool/scispace) | 4,464,111 | +8.6% | Freemium | AI research platform for reading, understanding and writing scientific papers | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/scispace.md) | | 5 | [PDFgear](https://openaitools.app/tool/pdfgear) | 2,845,280 | -3.4% | Free | A free, AI-powered PDF editor for every device | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/pdfgear.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 | [Immersive Translate](https://openaitools.app/tool/immersive-translate) | 2,392,414 | -9.4% | Freemium, Free Trial | Bilingual AI translation for websites, documents, video and images | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/immersive-translate.md) | | 8 | [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) | | 9 | [LightPDF](https://openaitools.app/tool/lightpdf-com) | 1,742,568 | -15.3% | Freemium | Free AI-powered PDF editor, converter and reader for every device | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/lightpdf-com.md) | | 10 | [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) | --- Source: https://openaitools.app/compare/consensus-vs-side-reader More Markdown: [Categories](https://openaitools.app/categories.md) · [Traffic rankings](https://openaitools.app/rankings.md) · [llms.txt](https://openaitools.app/llms.txt)