# ExplainPaper vs Surf ExplainPaper records 26,016 monthly visits with -39.3% month-over-month growth and Freemium pricing. Surf records 116,252 monthly visits with -18.9% growth and Free, Pro, Max, API credits pricing. | Metric | [ExplainPaper](https://openaitools.app/tool/explainpaper) | [Surf](https://openaitools.app/tool/surf) | | :--- | :--- | :--- | | Website URL | https://www.explainpaper.com | https://asksurf.ai | | Categories | AI Research Papers, AI Research Tool, Large Language Models (LLMs), AI Reader | AI Crypto, AI Copywriting, AI Creative Writing, AI For Finance | | Pricing Model | Freemium | Free, Pro, Max, API credits | | Monthly Visits | 26,016 | 116,252 | | MoM Growth Rate | -39.3% | -18.9% | | Primary Market | United States | South Korea | | Direct Visits | 9,686 | 88,813 | | Review Score | 4 | 4.2 | | Saved Count | 13 | 0 | | Supported Platforms | Website | Website | ## ExplainPaper ExplainPaper takes the friction out of reading academic literature. Instead of parsing equations, acronyms, and field-specific jargon alone, you upload a PDF and highlight whatever you don't understand. The tool returns a short, contextual explanation of that passage, and you can dial the complexity up or down to match whether you're a newcomer to the field or an expert skimming for detail. The explanations are context-aware: the model reads the surrounding paper so a highlighted term is explained in the sense the authors actually meant, not in a generic dictionary sense. You can request answers in more than 50 languages, which makes English-language research accessible to readers worldwide. Beyond highlights, a chat mode lets you ask follow-up questions about the paper and get answers drawn from the document itself, with pointers back to the relevant sections. ExplainPaper also extracts structure for you. It can produce a smart outline, pull out the key findings and main arguments, and show how concepts in the paper connect. The service is used by a large community of researchers and is offered free with usage limits, with a paid Pro tier that unlocks stronger models, whole-paper summaries, and saved highlights. **Pricing & Plans:** Freemium. The free tier costs $0 and includes unlimited highlight explanations, follow-up questions, and access to basic AI models. Pro is listed at $16/month and adds explanations powered by a more advanced model, whole-paper summaries, saved highlights and explanations, and paper Q&A, after a 7-day Pro trial that requires a card on file. Confirm current pricing on the provider's pricing page. - **In-context highlight explanations:** Select any confusing sentence or term and receive an immediate plain-language explanation that accounts for the rest of the paper. - **Adjustable explanation depth:** Shift the reading level from beginner-friendly to expert-detail so the explanation matches your background. - **Chat with your paper:** Ask questions and get answers grounded in the document's actual content, with references back to the relevant sections. - **Auto-generated insights:** Produce a smart outline, key-point extraction, and concept relationship views without reading the entire paper first. - **50+ explanation languages:** Get explanations in your native language, making English-language research easier for a global audience. **Strengths:** Explains passages in the context of the whole paper rather than in isolation; Reading-level control makes the same tool useful for novices and experts; Chat mode is grounded in the document, reducing generic or off-topic answers; Supports 50+ explanation languages for global readers **Limitations:** Free tier is capped, and the strongest models sit behind the Pro plan; Pro trial requires a payment card up front; Not a substitute for careful reading of methods and statistics in high-stakes work [Profile (Markdown)](https://openaitools.app/tool/explainpaper.md) ## Surf Surf positions itself as the intelligence layer for open financial markets. The core experience is conversational: you ask a question about a token, a protocol, a company, or a market move, and the system returns an answer grounded in live market feeds, onchain events, SEC filings, and news, with the underlying sources cited so you can verify the reasoning. Around that chat experience, Surf layers a set of named products such as CryptoPulse and Cryptopedia, plus an in-browser Studio for building analysis. What separates Surf from a generic chatbot is the data plumbing behind it. The company says its datasets are kept current, structured, and unified across fragmented sources before any model touches them, which matters because much of crypto data is scattered across exchanges, chains, and regional venues. Surf also highlights its coverage of hard-to-source markets, including multilingual Asian centralized exchange data, as a differentiator for institutional research. For builders, Surf exposes the same intelligence through an API, an MCP server, a CLI, and reusable agent skills, so a research desk can embed crypto and equities context directly into its own agents and internal tools. Surf states it is used by more than 500,000 users across 700-plus organizations, and its developer layer is documented separately for teams that want to integrate rather than click. Surf is operated by Cybertino Inc. and is not affiliated with any exchange or broker; outputs are research assistance, not investment advice. **Pricing & Plans:** Surf publishes a tiered pricing page covering Free, Pro, and Max plans alongside API credit packages, with annual billing options and Studio credits bundled at higher tiers. Exact figures change over time, so check the official pricing page before purchasing. - **Cited conversational analyst:** Ask questions about tokens, protocols, or equities in plain language and receive answers backed by visible sources rather than unsupported assertions. - **Unified multi-source data:** Market prices, onchain events, SEC filings, and news are normalized into one structured layer so the model reasons over consistent inputs. - **Developer integration layer:** API, MCP server, CLI, and agent skills let teams wire Surf intelligence into their own agents, dashboards, and internal research workflows. - **CryptoPulse and Cryptopedia products:** Purpose-built modules for tracking market-moving developments and for looking up structured context on projects and assets. - **Coverage of hard-to-source markets:** Surf emphasizes structured multilingual data from Asian centralized exchanges, a category many Western data vendors handle poorly. **Strengths:** Answers come with citations, which makes verification practical rather than a leap of faith.; Covers both onchain crypto data and US equities in a single interface, useful for cross-asset research.; Genuine developer surface area: API, MCP, CLI, and agent skills, not just a chat box.; Institutional framing and published case studies signal real deployments with funds and exchanges. **Limitations:** It is a research and intelligence tool, not a trading or execution venue, so it will not place orders for you.; Deeper data access and higher usage tiers sit behind paid plans and API credits.; Coverage quality varies by asset and venue; niche or thinly traded markets may return thinner answers. [Profile (Markdown)](https://openaitools.app/tool/surf.md) ## Frequently Asked Questions ### How do ExplainPaper and Surf compare in monthly traffic? ExplainPaper has 26,016 monthly visits, while Surf has 116,252. Traffic estimates describe audience size, not product quality. ### How do their growth rates compare? ExplainPaper has a month-over-month growth rate of -39.3%; Surf has -18.9%. ### How does pricing compare? ExplainPaper: Freemium. Freemium. The free tier costs $0 and includes unlimited highlight explanations, follow-up questions, and access to basic AI models. Pro is listed at $16/month and adds explanations powered by a more advanced model, whole-paper summaries, saved highlights and explanations, and paper Q&A, after a 7-day Pro trial that requires a card on file. Confirm current pricing on the provider's pricing page. Surf: Free, Pro, Max, API credits. Surf publishes a tiered pricing page covering Free, Pro, and Max plans alongside API credit packages, with annual billing options and Studio credits bundled at higher tiers. Exact figures change over time, so check the official pricing page before purchasing. ## Alternatives | # | Tool Name | Monthly Visits | MoM Growth Rate | Pricing Model | Summary | Profile (Markdown) | | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | | 1 | [Semantic Scholar](https://openaitools.app/tool/semantic-scholar) | 8,198,672 | +5.8% | Free | A free, AI-powered academic search engine for 240M+ papers across every scientific field | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/semantic-scholar.md) | | 2 | [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) | | 3 | [ChatPDF](https://openaitools.app/tool/chatpdf) | 1,044,477 | -3.7% | Freemium | Chat with any PDF, video, or website and get cited answers in seconds | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/chatpdf.md) | | 4 | [LuxAlgo](https://openaitools.app/tool/luxalgo) | 985,376 | +9.8% | Freemium, Free Trial, Paid | AI trading indicators, real-trade orderflow and charts in one platform | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/luxalgo.md) | | 5 | [MacroMicro](https://openaitools.app/tool/macromicro) | 928,258 | +22.5% | Freemium, Paid | Global macro data and AI research platform for smarter economic decisions | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/macromicro.md) | | 6 | [ResearchRabbit](https://openaitools.app/tool/researchrabbit) | 831,571 | +3.1% | Free | Map the literature around the papers you love—free | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/researchrabbit.md) | | 7 | [Connected Papers](https://openaitools.app/tool/connected-papers) | 750,576 | +3.1% | Freemium | Explore the academic literature as a visual graph of related papers | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/connected-papers.md) | | 8 | [Aime](https://openaitools.app/tool/aime) | 260,428 | +11.4% | Freemium | AI investing copilot for stock research, screening and market signals | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/aime.md) | | 9 | [Intellectia.Ai](https://openaitools.app/tool/intellectia-ai) | 171,347 | +18% | Free Trial, Paid | AI-driven market analysis for faster, data-backed investing decisions | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/intellectia-ai.md) | | 10 | [WisPaper](https://openaitools.app/tool/wispaper) | 107,817 | +0.1% | Freemium | Screen thousands of papers down to the studies that matter | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/wispaper.md) | --- Source: https://openaitools.app/compare/explainpaper-vs-surf More Markdown: [Categories](https://openaitools.app/categories.md) · [Traffic rankings](https://openaitools.app/rankings.md) · [llms.txt](https://openaitools.app/llms.txt)