Semantic Scholar
Open academic graph and API used across research tooling.
Full Semantic Scholar record →Head to head
Semantic Scholar vs Perplexity
Semantic Scholar (Allen Institute for AI) and Perplexity (Perplexity) both sit in Search & Research. Semantic Scholar is the cheaper entry point at Free, open API. Perplexity shipped more tracked changes in the last 30 days (2 vs 0). Every value below comes from the latest crawl of the vendors' own pages.
| Attribute | Semantic Scholar Allen Institute for AI | Perplexity Perplexity |
|---|---|---|
| Segment | Search & Research | Search & Research |
| Version | 2025 | Sonar API |
| Entry cost | Free, open API | from $20/mo |
| Pricing tiers | — | Free free · Pro $20 · Max $200 · Enterprise Pro $40 |
| Model stack | SPECTER embeddings | Claude Opus 4.5 · Frontier Models · Gemini 3 Pro · GPT-5.2 · Sonar |
| Context window | — | Varies by model |
| Public API | ||
| Routes models | ||
| Changes / 30d | 0 | 2 |
| Origin | Global | Global |
| Capabilities | 200M+ papers, Citation contexts, Open API | Cited answers, Deep research, Comet browser, Spaces, Shopping, Focus modes, Gateway API, Agent API |
Perplexity
Conversational search that cites its sources and offers deep research modes.
Full Perplexity record →