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Mendeley pricing, features, company info, and alternatives
A factual product page for Mendeley as a reference manager suite for research libraries and citations.
Last updated April 2026 ยท Pricing and features verified against official documentation
Pricing
Current public pricing tiers on file for Mendeley, last verified Apr 15, 2026.
Free
$0
Includes 2GB storage and 5 Reading Assistant questions.
Plus
$4.99 / month
$55/year when billed yearly; yearly plans include one month free.
Pro
$9.99 / month
$110/year when billed yearly; yearly plans include one month free.
Max
$14.99 / month
$165/year when billed yearly; yearly plans include one month free.
What You Can Do With It
The main capabilities that shape how people use Mendeley today.
Build and sync a personal library across desktop and web with collections, tags, search, and automatic cloud backup.
Capture papers from the browser with Mendeley Web Importer and import PDFs or folders directly into the library.
Annotate PDFs, save highlights and notes into Mendeley Notebook, and collaborate through shared groups.
Insert citations and bibliographies in Microsoft Word with Mendeley Cite, while paid plans add Reading Assistant, Ask My Library, and Compare Experiments.
Best For
Who Mendeley is most clearly built for.
Researchers who want a synced reference library with browser capture and Word citation support.
People who annotate PDFs heavily and want highlights, notes, and group sharing kept together in one workflow.
Users who want AI-assisted reading tied to their own paper library rather than a standalone chat tool.
Company
Leadership and company context for Elsevier.
Founders
Paul Foeckler, Victor Henning, Jan Reichelt
Platforms
Where you can use Mendeley today.
Web
Windows
macOS
Linux
Chrome
Firefox
Microsoft Word
Integrations
Notable connected tools and ecosystem hooks for Mendeley.
Microsoft Word
Privacy Notes
Publicly stated data-handling notes that matter when evaluating Mendeley.
The terms say the services are provided by Mendeley Limited and that the site privacy policy is part of the terms of use.
Mendeley says synced library data is stored in the cloud and that it will not publish private or personally identifiable data unless you choose to share it.
The terms say Mendeley may extract metadata from uploaded content for indexing and improved searchability.
Compliance
Public compliance or enterprise-governance signals we found for Mendeley.
WCAG 2.1 AA (partial)
Section 508
Access
How to integrate or build around Mendeley.
Public API
Yes
Docs
Available
Alternatives
Other tools worth considering alongside Mendeley.
Free, open-source reference manager for collecting, organizing, annotating, and citing research.
Web-first reference manager for collecting, organizing, citing, and annotating research papers.
Reference manager for collecting, organizing, citing, and syncing research libraries across desktop, web, and iOS.
AI literature review tool for discovering papers, tracing citation networks, and organizing collections.
Product Snapshot
Mendeley is a reference manager suite for collecting papers, organizing a library, annotating PDFs, and inserting citations in Microsoft Word.
What You Can Do With It
- Build and sync a personal library across desktop and web with folders, search, and cloud backup.
- Import references from the browser with Mendeley Web Importer and keep metadata attached to the source PDF.
- Read and annotate PDFs, then collate highlights and notes in Mendeley Notebook.
- Insert citations and bibliographies in Word with Mendeley Cite, while premium tiers add Reading Assistant, Ask My Library, and Compare Experiments.
Why It Stands Out
It packages reference capture, synced storage, PDF annotation, Word citation tooling, and library-aware AI features into one workflow instead of splitting those jobs across separate products.
Tradeoffs To Know
- The free plan includes only 2GB of storage and 5 Reading Assistant questions.
- Public pricing currently shows individual plans only, not a separate team or institutional ladder.
- The current product experience is centered on desktop, web, browser import, and Word rather than a broad mobile app story.
- The AI reading features are tied to paid premium tiers.
Sources
- mendeley.com/pricing
- mendeley.com/reference-management/reference-manager
- elsevier.com/about
- blog.mendeley.com/2008/08/13/press-release-research-sharing-start-up-mendeley-launches-with-support-of-lastfm-chairman-and-skypes-former-founding-engineers
- mendeley.com/download-reference-manager/windows
- mendeley.com/reference-management/mendeley-cite
- static.mendeley.com/md-stitch/releases/live/web-importer-content.4c50e9be.html
- mendeley.com/reference-management/premium
- mendeley.com/download-reference-manager/macOS
- mendeley.com/download-reference-manager/linux
- static.mendeley.com/md-stitch/releases/live/terms-content.28b53a1f.html
- static.mendeley.com/md-stitch/releases/live/07-syncing.d470f3b7.html
- static.mendeley.com/md-stitch/releases/live/07-how-sync-works.0b6692e3.html
- mendeley.com/accessibility
- dev.mendeley.com/overview/how_to_use_the_api.html
- mendeley.com/guides