Consensus is an AI search engine for research questions. Ask 'Does exercise reduce depression?' and Consensus searches 200 million academic papers, synthesises the findings, and tells you what the research actually says — with citations. Free tier available. Premium: $8.99/month.
Consensus is an AI-powered search engine that answers research questions using peer-reviewed academic literature. Unlike a general search engine that returns web pages, Consensus searches 200 million academic papers and synthesises their findings into a direct answer with citations. You ask a question the way you would ask a researcher, and Consensus tells you what the evidence says.
The signature feature is the Consensus Meter — a visual indicator showing whether the academic literature broadly supports, contradicts, or is divided on a claim. It distinguishes between: "the evidence strongly supports this", "the evidence is mixed", and "the evidence contradicts this." This saves hours of reading through conflicting study summaries trying to assess the weight of evidence.
Consensus is the fastest route from a research question to a reliable evidence-based answer. It is not designed for the deep extraction work of systematic reviews (use Elicit for that), but for quickly checking what the research says on a specific question — before a decision, before citing a claim, before writing a recommendation.
Researchers who need quick evidence checks across many questions. Students and academics checking claims before writing. Healthcare professionals wanting a rapid synthesis of the evidence on a treatment question. Journalists fact-checking health and science claims. Policy analysts assessing the evidence base for an intervention. Anyone who needs to know what academic research says on a specific question without reading dozens of papers.
Go to consensus.app. No sign-up required for basic searches. For the full experience including the Consensus Meter and GPT-4 synthesis, create a free account. Enter your research question as a complete question — "Does intermittent fasting improve metabolic health in adults?" — not keywords. Consensus returns a synthesised answer plus the top supporting papers with links.
Frame questions precisely. "Does exercise help depression?" returns broader results than "Does aerobic exercise reduce depressive symptoms in adults with major depressive disorder?" The more specific your question, the more specific and useful the Consensus Meter result.
Read the caveats on the Meter. Consensus adds important context — "studies are mostly small", "evidence is mostly from high-income countries", "most studies are short-term". These qualifications matter as much as the headline finding.
Consensus was founded in 2021 and searches over 200 million academic papers, per the official Consensus website. The Consensus Meter uses AI classification to categorise paper findings as supporting, contrasting or inconclusive, and aggregates across results to produce the summary indicator. GPT-4 synthesis (available on paid plans) produces the written summary above the paper results.