Authentication

Papers and Tallies are public. Most other Scite endpoints require an Authorization header.

Authorization: Bearer <your-token>

curl -G 'https://api.scite.ai/api_partner/search' \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_KEY>' \
  --data-urlencode 'term=CRISPR' \
  --data-urlencode 'limit=1'

Which plan do I need?

Pro plan

On Pro, create an API key instantly from the API Console.

Enterprise plan

Need higher limits or managed credentials? Enterprise plans support custom usage and access requirements. Contact sales.

Self-service API keys (Pro plan)

If you’re on the Pro plan, create and manage your own API keys from the API Console. No need to contact sales.

Keys are shown once at creation, and can be revoked or regenerated instantly.
Keys can optionally be set to expire.
Each key carries a set of scopes that determine which endpoints it can call. When creating a key you choose from three presets shown in the API Console:
- Read: all read scopes your account is entitled to (search, citation graph, journals, and any others your plan or license grants).
- Write: the read scopes plus write access, such as creating or updating collections.
- Fine-grained: pick exactly the scopes you need.
You can only grant a key the scopes your own account is entitled to; requesting a scope you don’t have is rejected.
Search snippets are always redacted on self-service keys.

Feature access

Creating a key doesn’t grant access to every feature. The API Console only lets you select scopes available to your account.

Feature	Access
Papers and Tallies	Public; no key required
Search	Available for evaluation on Pro; commercial or research use requires a separate license
Citation Graph and journals	Enable the corresponding read scope if it is available to your account
Paper recommendations	Available for evaluation with eligible Pro access; commercial or research use requires a separate license
Collections	Requires Collections access; create, update, and delete operations also require Write
Scite MCP	Requires the `mcp` scope and a premium subscription
Assistant	Requires the `assistant` scope; email sales
Reference Check	Requires a paid license; email sales
Evidence	Requires a separate scope for each dataset; email sales

If a call returns 403 {"detail":"User not authorized"} and the same key works elsewhere, the key or account doesn’t have the required scope. See Errors and rate limits before regenerating the key.

Enterprise access

Enterprise customers can be issued client_id / client_secret credentials for server-to-server integrations, higher rate limits, and additional scopes. Contact sales to discuss Enterprise access. Step 1: exchange your credentials for a bearer token

curl -X POST 'https://api.scite.ai/auth_token_users/token' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
    "client_id": "<YOUR_CLIENT_ID>",
    "client_secret": "<YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET>",
    "grant_type": "client_credentials"
  }'

Response:

{
  "access_token": "eyJhbG...",
  "token_type": "bearer",
  "expire_in": 1711234567
}

The access token expires after 2 hours. Request a new one when it expires.

Rate limiting

Authenticated requests can access restricted endpoints and get higher rate limits than the shared default. Authenticated responses include headers for the current short window and the per-minute window. Values vary by endpoint and account:

RateLimit-Limit: <short-window-limit>
RateLimit-Remaining: <short-window-remaining>
RateLimit-Reset: <seconds-until-reset>
X-RateLimit-Limit-Minute: <minute-limit>
X-RateLimit-Remaining-Minute: <minute-remaining>

See Errors and rate limits for retry guidance and common authentication failures.

Scite MCP authentication

Scite MCP supports three setup paths. See the MCP overview for direct links and setup guidance.

First-party ChatGPT plugin or Claude connector: install Scite from the platform’s directory and sign in with Scite through OAuth. No manual MCP URL or API key setup.
Other interactive MCP clients: connect to https://api.scite.ai/mcp and authenticate through OAuth 2.1.
Programmatic MCP API: create a self-service API key on the Pro plan, grant it the mcp scope, and send it as a bearer token to /mcp. Enterprise customers can alternatively exchange client_id/client_secret credentials as shown above.

Get Started

Concepts

Guides

MCP

Reference

Which plan do I need?

Pro plan

Enterprise plan

Self-service API keys (Pro plan)

Feature access

Enterprise access

Rate limiting

Scite MCP authentication

​Which plan do I need?

Pro plan

Enterprise plan

​Self-service API keys (Pro plan)

​Feature access

​Enterprise access

​Rate limiting

​Scite MCP authentication

Which plan do I need?

Self-service API keys (Pro plan)

Feature access

Enterprise access

Rate limiting

Scite MCP authentication