Compare AI tools

	Elicit S	Adobe Firefly A	OpenRouter S	Fathom S
Tagline	AI research assistant for academic literature.	Commercially safe image gen, deeply integrated with Photoshop.	One API, every model. Pay-as-you-go, no subscriptions.	Meeting notes, free forever for individuals.
Category	Research	Image	Dev Platform	Meetings
Pricing	Free + $12-$42/mo	Free + included with Creative Cloud	Pay per token — model-dependent	Free for individuals + $15-$29/user/mo teams
Best for	Grad students, researchers, anyone doing literature reviews.	Anyone in Creative Cloud. Brands that need copyright clarity.	Developers experimenting across models. Apps that want fallback logic.	Solo operators, freelancers, small teams on a budget.
Strengths	Searches 125M+ papers Extracts + synthesizes findings across papers Systematic review workflow	Trained on licensed content — commercially safe Generative Fill in Photoshop is incredible Native to Adobe ecosystem	300+ models from one endpoint Automatic fallbacks between providers No subscription — just pay what you use	Unlimited free tier for solo use Strong summaries + action items Works in Zoom, Meet, Teams
Weaknesses	Academic-only Can hallucinate citations — verify everything	Aesthetic ceiling below Midjourney Tied to Adobe subscription	Slight markup over direct API Some provider features not exposed	Bot-joining model Team features gated
Kai's verdict	S-tier for academic research. Nothing else comes close for systematic reviews.	S-tier inside Photoshop (Generative Fill). B-tier standalone.	S-tier for model-shopping. I use this for every prototype before committing.	S-tier for solo + free. The best free option, hands down.
Link	Open →	Open →	Open →	Open →