Liner
AI search and web highlighter aimed at students, answering with academic citations.
why this verdict
Downgrade — pay for the workflow, not the AI
Elicit and Consensus cover the headline feature free, so the $15/mo is now paying for the workflow around it.
- A named launch, not a vibe named, unlinked
- ChatGPT deep research producing cited literature reviews without a separate tool. OpenAI, February 27, 2025 — no announcement link recorded yet.
- How much of the job it covers headline only editorial call
- The headline feature, but not the workflow, data or integrations around it.
- Is there a free way to do it? yes
- 2 of 3 listed replacements have a usable free tier: Elicit and Consensus.
- What the call is worth $180/yr
- $15/mo at the entry paid tier — $180 a year per seat.
- Threatened by
- OpenAI
- Since
- February 27, 2025
- List price
- $15/mo
- Per year
- $180
The backstory
Liner began as a web highlighter and became an AI search product that answers questions against a large academic corpus and keeps your saved sources together. Deep research modes in the general assistants now write cited reviews for free, which removes the casual student use case. Liner is wounded rather than dead because the highlighter habit, the saved-source library and the paper index are things a general chatbot does not keep for you.
Escape hatches
switching could free up $180/yrStructured paper screening and data extraction
elicit.com open_in_newAnswers drawn only from peer-reviewed studies
consensus.app open_in_newAgentic deep literature search with synthesis reports
undermind.ai open_in_new2 of 3 replacements have a usable free tier.