Semantic Scholar + Zotero + Claude

Semantic ScholarTHE SEARCH

Free forever — a non-profit runs it, so there is no plan to upgrade to.

Free tier: Free, run by the non-profit AI2

View details →Visit site ↗Free tier

ZoteroTHE LIBRARY

Free program, and 300 MB of sync storage holds a lot of PDFs.

Free tier: Free software, 300 MB of sync storage

View details →Visit site ↗Free tier

ClaudeTHE READER

Free tier explains the papers you actually get stuck on.

Free tier: Yes, limited messages

View details →Visit site ↗Free tier
Paid plan: $20/mo

Each price is what the vendor’s own pricing page shows by default. Some vendors default to annual billing and some to monthly, and a few show your local currency instead of US dollars, so the figure on their site may differ from the one here.

Workflow

1. Search Semantic Scholar — no account is needed to read.
2. Install Zotero and its browser connector, then save what you find.
3. Use the free Claude tier for the papers you cannot get through alone.

Setup time about 25 minutes