7 Best Free Liner AI Alternatives for Research in 2026
Use these free Liner AI alternatives to help you do research, summarize articles, and write better in 2026.
Doing research can feel overwhelming. You’re juggling search engines, academic papers, PDFs, and tools that don’t always give you what you need. It’s easy to lose time just trying to find a clear answer or pull useful info from a long article.
AI research assistants help students find answers, summarize sources, and organize information faster. These tools use AI to simplify the research process and reduce time spent reading or searching.
Liner AI is one tool that tries to help with this, but it’s not perfect—and not every feature is free. If you’re looking for a better or simpler way to handle research tasks, there are other tools worth trying.
In this article, we'll list out the 7 best free Liner AI alternatives students can use for research in 2026. Let's dive in!
What is Liner AI?
Liner AI is a tool that helps users highlight, summarize, and search information across the web. It's an AI research tool and search engine that helps streamline the process of academic research.
Though, it may not work for everyone. Some students needs cheaper options, or just require a tool with different features.
What Does Liner Do?
Liner offers a few key features that are useful for students trying to save time and stay organized during research. It combines multiple tools into one interface to help with reading, searching, and note-taking.
Here are a few things that Liner offers:
AI search engine - Gives short, AI-generated answers from the web when you type in a question.
AI research - Helps you explore topics by pulling relevant summaries and related info.
AI summarizer - Shortens long articles, papers, or websites into quick, digestible takeaways.
Answer questions - Lets you ask follow-up questions for clarity without needing to search again.
These features can make research easier, especially when you're working with limited time or juggling multiple sources.
Is Liner AI Free?
Liner offers a free plan that only includes the Liner Basic model and 0 reasoning answers & file uploads. To get access to these features, you have to upgrade to a paid plan.
If that doesn't work for you, don't worry, there are plenty of other AI research tools out there that offer free plans with less limits.
Want a free AI assistant to help with research?
Use AI Blaze to answer questions and generate summaries for FREE.
How to Choose a Liner AI Alternative
If you’re a student, the best Liner AI alternative should make research and studying easier without adding extra steps. Some tools help summarize sources, while others can assist with writing or reviewing your work.
Here are a few things to look for in a Liner AI alternative:
Free plan or student access - Choose a tool that gives you useful features without needing a paid plan or credit card.
Works anywhere - It should function across different websites, PDFs, and study platforms so you can use it wherever you work.
AI study assistance - Look for tools that help summarize readings, create study notes, or explain topics clearly.
Proofreading and writing help - The right tool can also catch grammar mistakes and improve how you write essays or reports.
Using AI tools for research helps you save time, and if you find the right tool, you'd be surprised how helpful they can be.
7 Best Free Liner AI Alternatives
If you’re looking for a tool that can help you research faster, summarize sources, or get clear answers without switching tabs, you have options.
Here's our list of the 5 best free Liner AI alternatives:
| Tool | Description | Price |
|---|---|---|
| AI Blaze | Free personal AI research, writing, and studying assistant that works on any website. | 100% free for students. |
| Elicit AI | Gather sources for academic research using AI. | 4 free papers at once. |
| Scite AI | Chat-based AI assistant to help you find facts and figures during research. | $20/month. |
| Sider AI | A deep research agent to answer questions and find sources. | $10/month. |
| Research Rabbit | Visual-based academic research with AI. | Free to use. |
| Powerdrill AI | Chat with data and explore topics with AI. | Limited free plan. |
| HIX.AI | AI chat for writing and research. | Limited free plan. |
1. AI Blaze
First up on our list of the best free Liner AI alternatives is AI Blaze.
AI Blaze is your personal AI research assistant that helps you quickly generate citations, summarize text, articles, and PDFs, and streamline the writing process!
With AI Blaze, you can answer questions and generate summaries on any website (no file uploading necessary)!
Here's why AI Blaze stands out:
Use AI to answer questions - Answer questions and get detailed explanations on any page or website. No need to upload files or copy/paste!
Take notes & generate summaries with AI - AI Blaze helps you summarize PDFs & articles and take notes using AI!
Streamline research with AI - AI Blaze helps you answer questions, improve your writing, check for mistakes, and even generate citations!
Actually learn with AI - AI Blaze helps you actually study and learn, not just complete assignments or cheat.
AI Blaze works on any website! - Get help with homework on any website on Chrome.
AI Blaze is free! - Forget about annoying licenses or subscriptions. AI Blaze is free for students!
👍
Pros
- 100% free for students.
- Works on any website.
- No file uploads necessary.
👎
Cons
- Only available on Chrome.
Want a free AI assistant to help with research?
Use AI Blaze to answer questions and generate summaries for FREE.
2. Elicit AI
Elicit AI focuses on helping students and researchers ask better questions and get answers from real academic papers. When you search for a topic, it brings up summaries, citations, and related points from published research.
It also organizes the responses into clean tables to make comparing sources easier. This tool is most useful for literature reviews or building research arguments.
Price
- Includes a free plan. Paid plans starting at $12/month.
3. Scite AI
Scite AI helps students verify the credibility of research by showing how papers have been cited—positively, negatively, or neutrally. You can search for a topic and see which studies are widely supported or debated.
It also gives AI-generated answers based on published academic work. If you're writing a research paper and need trustworthy sources, Scite helps you decide what to rely on.
Price
- Personal plan is $20/month.
4. Sider AI
Sider adds a collapsible sidebar to your browser that follows you around the web. It can summarize articles, answer questions about the text you’re viewing, and even chat with PDFs.
Students working with academic sources can upload documents directly and get help breaking them down. Tools like Sider AI keep your research session in one place so you don’t have to keep jumping between apps.
Price
- Basic plan is $10/month, Pro is $20/month, Unlimited is $40/month.
5. Research Rabbit
Research Rabbit is built for exploring connections between academic papers, authors, and fields of study. It shows how different research is linked, helping you discover related work or track how a topic has developed over time.
The visual maps make it easier to see which papers are central to a subject. It’s best for students doing deep research or starting a new project from scratch.
Want a free AI assistant to help with research?
Use AI Blaze to answer questions and generate summaries for FREE.
Price
- Free, but they do accept donations.
6. Powerdrill AI
Powerdrill AI is an AI assistant that lets you chat with your datasets and documents to extract insights quickly. You can upload PDFs, spreadsheets, or other files and ask questions in plain language to get specific answers.
It's designed to help students analyze research data without needing technical skills. The tool generates visualizations and summaries to make complex information easier to understand.
Price
- Free plan available with limited queries. Paid plans start at $3.90/month.
7. HIX.AI
HIX.AI is an all-in-one AI writing and research assistant that offers multiple tools for students. It includes an AI writer, article summarizer, and research assistant that can help with various academic tasks.
The platform provides quick summaries of long articles, generates citations, and helps you paraphrase content. For students juggling multiple research assignments, HIX.AI consolidates several useful features into one interface.
Price
- Free plan with limited usage. Pro plans start at $19.99/month.
What is the Best AI Research Assistant?
The "best" AI research assistant depends on what you need help with during your research process and how you like to work.
If you're focused on finding and gathering academic sources, you'll want a tool that excels at discovery and citation tracking. If you need help understanding dense material, look for assistants that specialize in summarization and explanation. For students who struggle with writing, some tools focus specifically on drafting, revising, and polishing your work.
The reality is that most students need a combination of these features, so it's worth testing different tools to see which ones actually fit into your workflow and save you time where you need it most.
To recap, our suggestion for the best free Liner AI alternative is AI Blaze. AI Blaze is your personal AI research assistant that helps you do research, summarize content, and answer questions on any website. Plus, AI Blaze is 100% free for students.
