Research Rabbit
Visual citation-network mapper for papers — still free, now has RR+.
Overview
Research Rabbit visualises citation networks and author connections across 310M+ papers, syncing with Zotero. The core tool is still free, but an October 2025 redesign added a paid RR+ tier ($10/mo) for larger searches — and drew complaints about interface clutter.
Pricing
Pricing shown for reference only. These figures reflect RECATOOLS research as of 11 Jul 2026 and may be out of date or incomplete. This is not financial or purchasing advice — always confirm the current price on the provider’s official website before making any decision.
- 310M+ papers
- Unlimited collections
- Up to 50 seed articles
- Collection sharing
- 300 seed articles
- Advanced search controls
- Multiple projects
- Signal alerts
- Volume discounts
- LibKey integration
- Usage analytics
- Dedicated support
Use cases
ASEAN Perspective
Research Rabbit in Southeast Asia
ASEAN-region availability and pricing notes coming soon. Drop the editorial team a note via /contact/ if you can supply local context (Singapore/Malaysia/Indonesia/Thailand/Vietnam).
Research Rabbit maps citation networks, co-authorship, and topic timelines around any paper, and for years operated as a fully free public good for researchers. That changed on October 30, 2025: a redesign kept the core free — 310M+ papers, unlimited search, up to 50 seed articles — but added a paid RR+ tier ($10/mo, country-priced) for 300 seed articles and multi-project support. Existing users have pushed back on the new interface, calling it more cluttered than the minimal layout that made the tool popular, and some report the relevance filters miss obvious hits. It remains one of the best free ways to snowball a literature review and syncs cleanly with Zotero, but it's no longer a pure reference manager, has no API, and now asks power users to pay.
What people say
Free is still the headline, but it's no longer the whole story. On October 30, 2025, ResearchRabbit shipped a redesign that kept the core citation-mapping experience — unlimited searches across 310+ million papers, up to 50 seed articles, unlimited collections — free forever, then added a $10/month RR+ tier (country-adjusted pricing, discounted in 100+ countries) for researchers who need 300 seed articles, multiple projects, and faster support.
The reaction from longtime users is mixed. People who built workflows around the old, spartan interface describe the new one as cluttered and slower to navigate, and a few threads flag the relevance filters for surfacing papers that don't match the stated criteria — frustrating precisely when someone is trying to scope a new field fast. None of this touches the underlying data, which still draws from Semantic Scholar and PubMed and remains reliable for finding papers a keyword search would miss.
Research Rabbit is still a mapping and discovery layer, not a reference manager — it hands off to Zotero rather than replacing it, and there's still no mobile app or public API for programmatic use. For qualitative researchers doing interviews or coding open-ended responses, it has nothing to offer once the reading list is built. For anyone running a snowball-style literature review or scoping an unfamiliar field, though, the free tier alone is generous enough that most students will never need to pay.
Summary of public user & expert reviews, compiled by RECATOOLS.
Notable facts
- Research Rabbit was described by researchers on Twitter as 'the most useful academic tool since Google Scholar', with viral adoption driven entirely by word-of-mouth from PhD students.
- The platform is completely free and relies on grant funding and partnerships with academic institutions rather than user subscriptions.
- Research Rabbit's visual citation network can reveal that two papers you thought were unrelated actually share 15 common citing papers — revealing hidden conceptual connections.
Frequently asked questions
About this listing
This entry was compiled from publicly available data including Research Rabbit's official website, press releases, documentation, and reputable third-party publications. RECATOOLS is not affiliated with Research Rabbit unless explicitly stated.
Third-party AI tools update their pricing, features, availability, and policies frequently. Information here may be outdated by the time you read this — we make reasonable efforts to keep listings current, but cannot guarantee absolute accuracy.
For the latest details, please refer to Research Rabbit directly →
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