Compare
Mosaic vs Elicit
Checked against Elicit's own pages on
The short answer
Mosaic is a web workspace for running a research project day to day. Your own library, the PDFs you read and annotate, tasks and goals, the Google Docs or Word files you write in, and the citations in those files stay together in one project. Its assistant answers from the papers you chose, with sources, and can search OpenAlex, PubMed, Semantic Scholar and the web when you need more.
Elicit is built for evidence synthesis: finding papers on a question, screening them against criteria, and extracting the same data points from each one into a table, with a dedicated systematic review workflow and its own paper corpus. Pick Elicit if a systematic review or a large extraction table is the job in front of you.
The two fit at different stages, and some people will want both: synthesize in Elicit, then read, plan and write in Mosaic. Mosaic is in an invite-only beta behind a waitlist, and it is free during the beta.
Side by side
| Feature | Mosaic | Elicit |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Running a research project: library, reading, tasks and goals, documents and citations in one workspace | Evidence synthesis: searching papers, screening them and extracting data |
| Citing while you write | Word add-in and Google Docs add-on insert citations from your library in nine styles, with a reference list that updates itself | Exports RIS or BibTeX for a reference manager, which formats the citations |
| Questions about your papers | The assistant answers from the project's papers, notes and tasks, with sources | Chat with papers using their full text |
| Library | A library per project, with a PDF reader, highlights, underlines and notes | A library with collections, tags, search and duplicate detection, from which you can start reviews and extractions |
| Keeping up with new papers | A briefing of new papers per project, on a schedule, from PubMed or Semantic Scholar, with optional email | Routines that keep your work up to date with new research |
| Research reports | Deep research: a staged report with sources that searches, screens, extracts and synthesizes, exported to Google Docs or Word | Research reports with sentence-level citations, exported as PDF or Word |
| Paper search | The assistant searches OpenAlex, PubMed, Semantic Scholar and the web | Searches its own corpus, which its help center puts at 138 million papers, plus PubMed and ClinicalTrials.gov |
| Reference manager import | One-time import from Zotero and Mendeley | Imports references from Zotero, EndNote or Mendeley |
| Access | Free during the beta, which is invite-only behind a waitlist | Open sign-up, with a free plan and paid plans |
| Extraction tables | Extraction is one stage of a deep research report, alongside search, screening and synthesis | Interactive tables with custom extraction columns across many papers |
| Systematic reviews | A deep research report gives a first look at a question in stages, with its sources listed | A dedicated workflow that guides you through search, screening and data extraction, then a report |
| Export | Deep research reports export to Google Docs or Word; your data exports as a zip | Exports sources as RIS or BibTeX files, and tables as CSV or Excel |
Choose Mosaic if
- You want one workspace per project that holds the library, the PDFs with your highlights and notes, the tasks and goals, and the documents you are writing.
- You write in Google Docs or Microsoft Word and want to insert citations from your own library there, with a reference list that updates itself. See cite while you write.
- You want an assistant that answers from your own papers, notes and tasks, and shows which of them it used.
- You want new papers for each project to arrive on a schedule, as a briefing, instead of checking alerts by hand.
- You work with a lab or co-authors and want shared workspaces with roles and per-project access.
When Elicit is the better fit
- You are doing a systematic review or a scoping review and need to screen a large set of papers against written criteria, with the decisions recorded.
- You need the same data points pulled from dozens or hundreds of papers into one table, and you want that table as CSV or Excel.
- Your workflow depends on RIS or BibTeX files.
Using Elicit and Mosaic together
Adding Mosaic gives the papers you found a place to be read, planned around and cited. A workable split is to find, screen and extract in Elicit, then keep the papers you decide to use in a Mosaic project, where you read them, plan the work and cite them in Word or Google Docs.
The two products run side by side, without a direct connection. To carry papers across, add them to Mosaic by DOI or PubMed ID, upload the PDFs, or save them from the publisher page with the Chrome extension. If your Elicit sources already live in Zotero or Mendeley, you can import them from there once.
Questions
Is Mosaic an Elicit alternative?
Yes, if what you need is a home for the whole project. Mosaic keeps your library, PDFs, tasks, documents and citations together, searches for papers, and answers questions from your own library with sources. Elicit stays the fit for evidence synthesis: systematic review screening and large extraction tables.
Can Mosaic help with a literature review?
Yes. Its deep research report searches, screens, extracts and synthesizes on a question, lists its sources, and exports to Google Docs or Word. It is a first look at a topic that you then read and build on in the project, not a systematic review workflow.
Can I use Mosaic and Elicit together?
Yes. Many people will find and screen in Elicit, then add the papers they keep to a Mosaic project by DOI, PubMed ID, link or PDF, or through a one-time import from Zotero or Mendeley. From there Mosaic handles the reading, the tasks and the citations.
Does Mosaic cite in Google Docs and Word?
Yes. A Google Docs add-on and a Word add-in insert citations from your project library in nine styles and keep the reference list up to date. See cite while you write.
Is Mosaic free?
Mosaic is free during its beta, which is invite-only behind a waitlist. The assistant has usage limits; see usage limits.
Sources
Everything this page says about Elicit comes from its own public pages, read on November 10, 2026. Tools change. If something here is out of date, tell us and we will correct it.