AI tools for students
Reading, note-taking, research and writing support. Check your institution's policy before using any of these on assessed work — that's on you, not the tool.
15 tools · checked by hand · no paid placement in this list
NotebookLM
Free plan
Grounded Q&A over your own documents, with audio overviews.
QuillBot
Free plan
Paraphrasing, summarising and citation tooling for students and writers.
Grammarly
Free plan
Grammar, tone and rewrite suggestions everywhere you type.
Perplexity
Free plan
Answer engine that cites its sources instead of guessing.
SciSpace
Free plan
Explains dense papers paragraph by paragraph.
Elicit
Free plan
Literature review across research papers, with extracted findings.
Consensus
Free plan
Search engine that answers from peer-reviewed studies.
Connected Papers
Free plan
Visual graph of what a paper cites and what cites it.
ResearchRabbit
Free
Maps citation networks so you can see a field's shape.
Otter.ai
Free plan
Live meeting transcription with summaries and action items.
Hemingway Editor
Free plan
Flags dense sentences and passive voice. Brutal, and usually right.
DeepL
Free plan
Translation and document rewriting with unusually natural output.
Claude
Free plan
Anthropic's assistant for long-context reasoning, writing and code.
ChatGPT
Free plan
OpenAI's general assistant with browsing, files and image input.
HuggingChat
Free
Free chat interface over open-weight models, no account needed.
At a glance
| Tool | Pricing | Best known for |
|---|---|---|
| NotebookLM | Free plan | Grounded Q&A over your own documents, with audio overviews. |
| QuillBot | Free plan | Paraphrasing, summarising and citation tooling for students and writers. |
| Grammarly | Free plan | Grammar, tone and rewrite suggestions everywhere you type. |
| Perplexity | Free plan | Answer engine that cites its sources instead of guessing. |
| SciSpace | Free plan | Explains dense papers paragraph by paragraph. |
| Elicit | Free plan | Literature review across research papers, with extracted findings. |
| Consensus | Free plan | Search engine that answers from peer-reviewed studies. |
| Connected Papers | Free plan | Visual graph of what a paper cites and what cites it. |
| ResearchRabbit | Free | Maps citation networks so you can see a field's shape. |
| Otter.ai | Free plan | Live meeting transcription with summaries and action items. |
| Hemingway Editor | Free plan | Flags dense sentences and passive voice. Brutal, and usually right. |
| DeepL | Free plan | Translation and document rewriting with unusually natural output. |
| Claude | Free plan | Anthropic's assistant for long-context reasoning, writing and code. |
| ChatGPT | Free plan | OpenAI's general assistant with browsing, files and image input. |
| HuggingChat | Free | Free chat interface over open-weight models, no account needed. |
Still deciding?
This list is editorial — placement in it cannot be bought. Pricing models change; confirm on the vendor's own site. Some outbound links earn a commission, which never affects what appears here. See the disclosure.