Connected Papers
by Connected Papers · Application
Visual literature-exploration tool that builds a similarity graph of papers around a seed paper, with prior and derivative works lists
Overview
Connected Papers is a web application for exploring a research field visually. Given one or more seed papers it generates a graph in which nodes are related papers and proximity reflects similarity, and it lists "prior works" that the cluster commonly cites and "derivative works" that cite the cluster. Multi-origin graphs, saved papers and graph history are included in every plan.
The service is run by a small independent team and is sold as a freemium product: the free tier includes all features with a monthly cap on new graphs, while Academic and Business plans (individual or group seats, billed quarterly or annually) remove the cap; an Academic Library plan offers campus-wide access with SSO or IP authentication, and a scholarship program exists for researchers who cannot pay.
It is a discovery aid rather than a reference manager: graphs are limited to what the underlying bibliographic corpus covers, there is no public API, and exports are per-paper rather than bulk.
Editorial note on uncertainty. The about page could not be rendered by automated fetchers, so the description of the similarity method and data source is deliberately limited.
Capabilities
- Similarity graphs around one or several seed papers
- Prior-works and derivative-works lists
- Multi-origin graphs and graph history
- Saved papers across sessions
- Group and campus plans with SSO/IP access
Typical workflows
- Mapping a new field from a handful of known papers
- Finding foundational references missing from a draft
Strengths
- Fast visual overview of a topic
- Free tier includes all features
Limitations
- Monthly graph cap on the free plan
- No public API or bulk export
- Dependent on an external bibliographic corpus
Prerequisites
- Web browser; account for saving graphs
Who it is for
- Graduate students starting a literature review
- Researchers entering an adjacent field
Alternatives & comparison
ResearchRabbit offers comparable network exploration with a permanently free tier and collection-based alerts; Semantic Scholar and OpenAlex provide the raw graph data via APIs for users who prefer to build their own views.
- OpenAlex
Open catalog of the global research system: works, authors, sources, institutions and topics under CC0, served by a REST API, web app and S3 snapshot
Open sourceFree - ResearchRabbit
Literature-discovery app that grows collections of papers through citation and author networks and recommends related work, with a free-forever tier
ProprietaryFreemium - scite
Citation-analysis platform whose Smart Citations show whether later papers support, contrast or merely mention a claim, with an AI assistant and reference checking
ProprietaryFreemium - Semantic Scholar
Free AI-assisted literature search from Ai2 with an Academic Graph API, recommendations and downloadable datasets of papers, authors and citations
ProprietaryFree
Sources & verification
Primary sources consulted for this record. Claims are tied to the fields each source supports; the automated link checker re-verifies every URL on a schedule.
- Official siteConnected Papers | Find and explore academic paperschecked Nov 1, 2026
https://www.connectedpapers.com/
Supports: name, summary
- Pricing pageConnected Papers pricingchecked Nov 1, 2026
https://www.connectedpapers.com/pricing
Supports: pricing_model, capabilities, description
- Confidence
- Medium
- Reviewed
- Nov 1, 2026
- Links
- Verified · Nov 2, 2026
Spotted an error?
More in Literature discovery & review
Crossref
Crossref · Research dissemination
Membership organization that registers DOIs for scholarly content and exposes the metadata through a free public REST API, content negotiation and the paid Metadata Plus service
Google Scholar
Google (Chrome DevTools team) · Literature discovery & review
Free scholarly search engine from Google that indexes articles, theses, books and court opinions with citation counts and author profiles
arXiv
arXiv (independent non-profit, formerly hosted by Cornell University) · Research dissemination
Free, moderated open-access preprint server for physics, mathematics, computer science, statistics, quantitative finance, economics and related fields, with an open API and bulk access
RePEc
RePEc volunteers · Research dissemination
Volunteer-run decentralized bibliographic database of economics research, fed by institutional archives and served through IDEAS, EconPapers, the Author Service, CitEc, NEP and MPRA
Elicit
Elicit · Literature discovery & review
AI research assistant that finds papers, extracts structured data from them into tables and runs systematic-review style workflows and reports
Consensus
Consensus · Literature discovery & review
AI search engine over peer-reviewed literature that synthesizes answers, shows a Consensus Meter for yes/no questions and summarizes studies