MyOwnArcCited AI answers
Ask questions scoped to one paper, a folder, or your whole library. Every claim carries a numbered citation linking to the exact passage. Verifiable, not vibes.
Never submit another AI-invented reference.
Research with AI. Verify every claim. MyOwnArc answers only from papers in your library, and every sentence carries a citation that opens the exact passage in the PDF, so nothing lands in your lit review that you can't defend.
Free plan forever · Student plan from $5/month · Cancel anytime
Don't trust the AI. Check the source. The actual product, not a mockup.
Searches PubMed · OpenAlex · Semantic Scholar · Crossref
Exports to BibTeX · CSV · Word · Markdown
APA 7 · Harvard · Vancouver · IEEE references, built automatically
From first search to final reference list
MyOwnArc replaces the tangle of a reference manager, a PDF reader, an AI chat, and a notes app with one library that keeps your sources, your reading, and your writing connected.
A library that files itself
Drop in PDFs, DOCX files, or web pages. Title, authors, year, journal, and DOI auto-fill from Crossref and OpenAlex. Organise with nested folders and tag groups; drag a paper, or a whole folder, to move it. Search everything instantly.
Read & highlight
An in-browser PDF reader with text highlighting. Browse your highlights per document or across a whole folder when it's time to write.
Notes that cite themselves
Write in Markdown with live preview. Type @ to cite any library document. Citations render as (Author, Year), and your APA 7 reference list builds itself.
Discover across databases
Search PubMed, OpenAlex, Semantic Scholar, and Crossref together, de-duplicated by DOI. One click imports the open-access PDF when one exists.
Deep search reports
Give it a research question. MyOwnArc queries the databases, sifts the candidates, imports the most relevant papers, and writes a cited evidence report, saved as a note you can build on.
Alerts that watch for you
Save a topic and MyOwnArc checks PubMed, OpenAlex, Semantic Scholar, and Crossref for new papers on it. Once a week you get an email digest; add anything worth keeping to your library in a click.
Key ideas, all in one place
MyOwnArc pulls the key points out of every paper as it files them, then lists them together with their source, folder, and year: sortable, searchable, filterable by tag. The finding you half-remember, without reopening six PDFs.
Follow the references
Everything your papers cite, pooled in one list and ranked by how many of your papers cite it, with the ones you already hold marked. A reference cited five times over that isn't in your library yet is usually the paper you're missing.
Extraction matrices
The table you'd otherwise build by hand in a spreadsheet: papers down the side, your questions across the top (sample size, method, key finding). The AI fills every cell from the paper's own text and shows you the sentence it took each answer from. Export to CSV.
Three steps to a cited answer
Build your library
Upload PDFs, paste URLs, or import from PubMed, OpenAlex, and Semantic Scholar. Metadata fills itself in.
Ask & read
Chat with a document, a folder, or everything at once. Open any PDF to read and highlight as you go.
Write & export
Draft notes with @-citations, then export to Word or Markdown with a formatted APA 7 reference list, or BibTeX for LaTeX.
Why pay $20–$40 a month and still juggle four apps?
That's the going rate: an AI research tool, a reference manager, a PDF reader, and a notes app, each with its own subscription and none talking to the others. MyOwnArc does all four jobs, with citations you can verify, for the price of a coffee.
Explorer
Try everything, free forever
$0
- Up to 30 documents
- 10 AI-summarised papers / month
- 25 cited AI answers / month
- Discover search & import
- PDF reader with highlights
- BibTeX & CSV export
Most popular
Student
Verified academic email
$5/mo
Billed yearly ($60) · or $7 month-to-month
- 500 documents
- About 2 cited AI answers a day over your whole library, more over a folder or one paper
- Notes with @-cite & APA 7
- 5 deep-search reports / month
- Word (.docx) export
Researcher
For serious literature work
$12/mo
Billed yearly ($144) · or $15 month-to-month
- Unlimited documents
- About 5 cited AI answers a day over your whole library, more over a folder or one paper
- 40 deep-search reports / month
- Related-papers citation graph
- Priority support
Lab
Groups & departments
$10/seat/mo
Billed yearly · 3-seat minimum
- Researcher's features for every seat
- About 4 cited AI answers a day a seat over the whole library
- Shared folders & libraries
- Centralised billing
- Admin & member management
- Invoice payment
Why a daily figure: every answer pays for the text it reads. One over your whole library reads up to 120,000 characters of your papers; one over a folder or a single paper reads less, so the same day goes further. Every plan has a daily AI allowance that resets at midnight UTC, and summaries and deep-search reports come out of it too. On Student, a deep-search report takes a whole day's allowance.
How MyOwnArc stacks up
The AI research tools charge a premium; the reference managers don't answer questions. MyOwnArc does both jobs for less.
| MyOwnArc | Anara | Elicit | SciSpace | Paperpile | Zotero | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cheapest full paid plan | $5/mo | $10–20/mo | $12–49/mo | $12/mo | $4.15/mo | $1.67/mo* |
| Free plan | ✓ | ✓ limited | ✓ limited | ✓ limited | ✗ trial only | ✓ |
| AI answers with passage-level citations | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| PDF reader with highlights | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Notes with auto reference list (APA 7, Harvard, Vancouver, IEEE + more) | ✓ | partial | ✗ | partial | ✓ via Docs | ✓ via plugin |
| Data-extraction tables (literature matrix) | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ 2 free cols | ✓ 5 free cols | ✗ | ✗ |
| One-click save browser extension | ✓† | partial | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Multi-database discovery (PubMed + OpenAlex + Semantic Scholar + Crossref) | ✓ | partial | ✓ | ✓ | partial | ✗ |
| Deep-search cited evidence reports | ✓ | add-on | ✓ Pro ($49) | partial | ✗ | ✗ |
| BibTeX import & export · CSV · Word | ✓ | partial | CSV | partial | ✓ | ✓ |
*Zotero is free software; the price shown is its 2 GB file-storage add-on. †MyOwnArc's extension currently installs in developer mode; Chrome Web Store listing pending. Competitor pricing and features from public pricing pages, September 2026; annual-billing rates where offered. Trademarks belong to their owners; MyOwnArc is not affiliated with any product listed.
Questions, answered (with sources)
How is this different from ChatGPT?
MyOwnArc only answers from the papers in your library, and every claim carries a numbered citation that links back to the exact passage in the source. You can verify every sentence, which is what your supervisor, reviewer, or marker actually requires. No invented references.
Which databases does Discover search?
PubMed, OpenAlex, Semantic Scholar, and Crossref, searched together and de-duplicated by DOI. One-click import grabs the open-access PDF when one exists; otherwise the abstract is saved as a citable reference.
Can I get my data out?
Always. Your library or any folder exports to BibTeX or CSV; notes export to Markdown or Word (.docx) with a formatted APA 7 reference list. Your research is never locked in.
Is there a student discount?
The Student plan is the discount: $5/month billed yearly with a verified academic email. That's a quarter of what comparable AI research tools charge.
Verifying takes a minute: we email a link to your institutional address and you open it. Plenty of real universities use ordinary domains our rules don't recognise. If yours is one, tell us where you study and a person checks it, usually the same day.
What citation styles are supported?
APA 7, Harvard, Chicago (author–date), MLA 9, Vancouver, and IEEE, switchable per note, applied to previews and Word/Markdown exports alike. BibTeX export covers everything else via LaTeX or your reference manager.
How do I pay?
Payments run through Stripe: debit/credit card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, or direct debit (Bacs in the UK, SEPA in Europe) if you'd rather not put a subscription on a card. We never see or store your payment details.
Can I cancel anytime?
Yes. Your account page has a Manage billing button that opens Stripe's billing portal, where you can cancel (and change your payment method, or grab invoices). Your plan stays active until the end of the billing period, and you can export everything before you go.
AI research you can actually cite.
Start with 30 documents and 25 cited answers, free. No card, no lock-in. Every claim opens the passage it came from, so you can defend all of it.
Start free