Elicit and Perplexity both get called "AI research tools," so people treat them as two brands of the same thing. They aren't. One gives you an answer with links. The other gives you a table of papers. The fastest way to pick is to name the shape of what you want back before you name a tool.

This is a short version of our guide, Elicit vs Perplexity . It only uses the rankings we've already published. There are no prices or citation scores here, on purpose. Check current pricing before you pay for a plan.

The short version

On our Best for Research list the editorial order is Perplexity, NotebookLM, Elicit, Consensus, then ChatGPT.

"What's the state of X, and I'll click the sources." Use Perplexity.

"Build me a table of methods and findings." Use Elicit.

"What do these files I uploaded say?" That's NotebookLM, not either of these.

"What do studies say, in science or medicine?" That's Consensus.

"Write me the long brief and I'll check it." That's ChatGPT.

Perplexity: when you want links you can…