Private AI for academic research. Your unpublished work stays yours.
Ask questions across your papers, preprints, peer-review materials, lab notes, and reference libraries, and get answers with sources. Your documents stay stored on your computer. Personal details are hidden before any cloud AI.
Free for 7 days. No card needed. Windows coming soon.
Coming through the Microsoft Store. Download for Mac
Elephas runs on Mac, and Windows is coming soon. We will send you the link once.
For Mac, with Windows coming soon. Free for 7 days.
macOS 14 or later on Apple Silicon. Windows version coming soon.
When your research involves
This isn't the kind of work you casually paste into ChatGPT.
Getting scooped or violating embargo is a real cost.
AI tools for research without uploading drafts to a chatbot
The risk in research is getting scooped or breaking embargo. With Elephas, your documents stay stored on your computer, and you choose where answers are generated: Elephas AI, your own API key, or a model on your computer.
The best AI for research papers and literature review
Add your reading list to a Brain: PDFs from arXiv, JSTOR, PubMed, plus your own drafts and notes. Ask for consensus methods, contradictions, and gaps. Sources show the exact page.
Built for deep research on your own corpus
Search at depth across papers, spreadsheets, and field notes you trust, not the open web. Find every mention of a specific assay across 200 papers, or every interview note where a participant raised a theme.
An alternative to Elicit and Consensus for IP-sensitive work
Elicit and Consensus search the published literature. Elephas answers from your own unpublished material, while your documents stay stored on your computer. Use both when your project needs both.
How Elephas works with your research
Search is built on your computer. Personal details are hidden before a cloud request. You choose where answers are generated: Elephas AI, your own API key, or a model on your computer.
Add your papers and drafts to a Brain
Create a Brain per project, dissertation, or paper. Add files or a whole folder: PDFs, your own drafts, lab notes, and spreadsheets. Elephas reads and indexes them on your computer.
Elephas hides personal details first
Before a question leaves your computer, Elephas hides personal details such as names, email addresses, and phone numbers, then puts them back in the answer. Your documents stay stored on your computer.
Pick the route that fits the work
Use Elephas AI for everyday questions and synthesis, your own API key if you already have an account with a provider, or the on-computer model for embargoed data and pre-submission drafts.
What stays on your computer, and what is sent
Your documents and the search index
Stay stored on your computer.
Asking with Elephas AI or your own API key
Your question and the selected passages are sent, with personal details hidden first.
Asking with the on-computer model
Nothing is sent anywhere.
Free for 7 days. No card needed. Windows coming soon.
Coming through the Microsoft Store. Download for Mac
Elephas runs on Mac, and Windows is coming soon. We will send you the link once.
For Mac, with Windows coming soon. Free for 7 days.
Three ways to run AI. You pick the route for the task.
Search is built on your computer. Where answers are generated is your choice.
Elephas AI
Ready the moment you install. When you ask with Elephas AI, your question and the passages Elephas picked from your documents are sent through the Elephas gateway to the AI model. They are not stored and are not used to train AI models.
When to use it
Literature synthesis, methods comparison, and general questions across your library, with personal details hidden first.
Your own AI account
Use your own account with OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, and others. With your own API key, requests go straight to the provider you chose. Elephas cannot see them. With your own API key, your provider's terms decide what is kept.
When to use it
Researchers whose institution already has terms with a provider. Available on the Personal and Professional plans, not on Team.
A model on your computer
Download a model once. With the on-computer model, answers are generated on your computer. Nothing is sent anywhere. Answers are simpler than on the cloud routes. Elephas needs an internet connection to sign in and to confirm your plan.
When to use it
Embargoed datasets, pre-submission drafts, or any work you keep away from cloud AI. Available on every plan. On Team, the owner decides whether members may use it.
Personal detail protection
Protection before processing, for sensitive research
Before a question leaves your computer, Elephas hides personal details such as names, email addresses, and phone numbers, then puts them back in the answer. You can see what was hidden under every answer.
It is detection, not a guarantee, and it works best in English. Check what was hidden when it matters. For the most control, use the on-computer model.
Read how Elephas protects your documents for exactly what stays on your computer and what is sent.
What you can count on, and check
- Your documents stay stored on your computer.
- Personal detail protection is on by default for Elephas AI and for your own API key.
- Under each answer, open the list of hidden details to see exactly what was replaced.
- Add your own Protected Names for each Brain, such as participant and co-author names.
- With the on-computer model, answers are generated on your computer. Nothing is sent anywhere.
Honest note: detection can miss things. Elephas does not hold security certifications today, and it is not a substitute for your own professional or regulatory obligations. For embargoed material, use the on-computer model.
Free for 7 days. No card needed. Windows coming soon.
Coming through the Microsoft Store. Download for Mac
Elephas runs on Mac, and Windows is coming soon. We will send you the link once.
For Mac, with Windows coming soon. Free for 7 days.
For your whole lab or team
Put your group's reading list, protocols, and shared drafts in a shared Team Brain and invite colleagues by email. Each person's chats stay private to them, and sync between teammates is end-to-end encrypted. See private AI for teams.
What it looks like in practice
Four tasks researchers bring to Elephas.
Synthesize a literature review across 150 PDFs
Add your reading list to a Brain. Ask for the consensus methods, contradictions between studies, and the gaps your paper could fill. Sources show the exact page.
Check an unpublished draft against your sources
Add your draft to a Brain with the papers it cites. Ask which claims your sources support and where the support is thin. For pre-submission work, use the on-computer model. With the on-computer model, answers are generated on your computer. Nothing is sent anywhere.
Find the right paper, fast, across your reference library
Ask in plain English: "Which paper used the modified assay on stage IV samples?" Elephas searches your documents and cites the paper and page.
Find recurring themes across your interview notes
Add your written interview notes to a project Brain. Ask for every passage where a participant raised a given theme, with the source cited.
Elephas vs Elicit, Consensus, and NotebookLM
Different tools, different goals. Here is what fits where for research work.
| Elephas | Elicit | Consensus | NotebookLM | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Primary focus | Your own corpus and drafts | Search the published literature | Search the published literature | Your uploaded sources |
| Where your documents are stored | On your computer | Varies by plan | Varies by plan | Uploaded to the provider |
| Personal details hidden before the model sees them | Yes, and you can see what was hidden | Varies by plan | Varies by plan | No |
| Answers can be generated on your computer | Yes | No | No | No |
| Use your own OpenAI or Anthropic key | Yes, on Personal and Professional | No | No | No |
Comparison reflects published feature sets as of 2026. Use Elicit or Consensus for searching the open literature. Use Elephas for answers from your own work.
Not another chatbot
Generic AI tools were built for open prompts on the open web. Your research is neither.
Generic AI chat
- × Consumer prompts may be used to train future models.
- × Confidently invents a reference, and you have to check every citation.
- × Cannot see your actual reading list or drafts. You paste in excerpts and lose context.
Elephas
- With Elephas AI, your question and the selected passages are not stored and are not used to train AI models.
- Answers cite the paragraph from a paper in your library, so you can verify in one click.
- Your documents stay stored on your computer. Search is built on your computer.
Questions researchers ask before they install
Straight answers.
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Consumer ChatGPT may use your inputs to improve future models. For pre-publication drafts, peer-review materials, or unpublished data, that is a real exposure. With Elephas, your documents stay stored on your computer. When you ask with Elephas AI, your question and the passages Elephas picked from your documents are sent through the Elephas gateway to the AI model. They are not stored and are not used to train AI models. For embargoed work, use the on-computer model. With the on-computer model, answers are generated on your computer. Nothing is sent anywhere.
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Elicit and Consensus search the published literature and summarize papers from the open corpus. NotebookLM lets you load your own sources, which are uploaded to Google. With Elephas, your documents stay stored on your computer. Search is built on your computer. You choose where answers are generated: Elephas AI, your own API key, or a model on your computer.
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When you ask with Elephas AI, your question and the passages Elephas picked from your documents are sent through the Elephas gateway to the AI model. They are not stored and are not used to train AI models. With your own API key, your provider's terms decide what is kept. With the on-computer model, answers are generated on your computer. Nothing is sent anywhere.
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Yes. Add PDFs, including scanned ones, to a Brain and Elephas indexes them on your computer. You can mix downloaded papers, your own drafts, peer-review reports, and notes in the same Brain, as PDF, Word, Markdown, or plain text files. Scanned text recognition is English only. Ask across the whole Brain and get answers with sources that show the exact page.
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Yes, on the Personal and Professional plans. With your own API key, requests go straight to the provider you chose. Elephas cannot see them. With your own API key, your provider's terms decide what is kept. On Team, cloud AI is Elephas AI only.
Unpublished work deserves a better default
Use AI on your research with more control and less exposure
Your documents stay stored on your computer. Personal details are hidden before any cloud AI. Every answer cites your files.
Free for 7 days. No card needed. Windows coming soon.
Coming through the Microsoft Store. Download for Mac
Elephas runs on Mac, and Windows is coming soon. We will send you the link once.
For Mac, with Windows coming soon. Free for 7 days.
Lab or department evaluation? Contact us.