Free vs Pro — What You Get with ZiNote Pro

ZiNote is free to use, and always will be. The free plan gives you everything you need to start discovering and saving academic papers. But if your research demands are growing — more keywords, more papers, more AI power — Pro is designed to keep up with you.

This guide walks you through exactly what each plan offers, who benefits most from upgrading, and how to make the switch.

What You Get with Free

The free plan is not a stripped-down trial. It is a fully functional research tool that covers the essentials.

3 keywords — Set up to three research keywords. ZiNote uses these to find and recommend papers tailored to your interests every day.
Daily swipe limit — You get a generous number of swipes each day to browse through your personalized paper feed. Enough for a focused daily check-in.
Basic translation — Reading a paper in a language you are less comfortable with? ZiNote can translate titles and abstracts so you can quickly decide if a paper is worth a deeper read.
Basic AI summary — Get concise, plain-language summaries of papers powered by AI. Great for scanning a batch of results and picking out the ones that matter.
Full source coverage — This is important: free users are not locked out of any sources. ZiNote pulls from all the same databases, preprint servers, and journals regardless of your plan. You see the same breadth of research as Pro users.
Zotero sync — Save a paper in ZiNote and it lands in your Zotero library automatically. No extra steps, no Pro requirement.

For many researchers — especially those focused on a single topic — the free plan is all you need.

What Pro Unlocks

Pro is built for researchers who are juggling multiple directions, filtering large volumes of papers, or relying heavily on AI features throughout their workflow.

20 keywords — Cover up to twenty research directions at once. Ideal when you are working across sub-fields, collaborating on multiple projects, or simply want a wider net.
Unlimited swipes — No daily cap. Scroll through as many papers as you want, whenever you want. Particularly useful during literature review sprints or when you are exploring a brand-new topic.
Unlimited translation — Translate as many titles and abstracts as you need without hitting a ceiling. Helpful when your field has significant output in multiple languages.
Unlimited AI summary — Generate AI summaries for every paper you encounter. No rationing, no waiting. Let the AI do the heavy lifting so you can focus on reading what matters.
Priority recommendations — Pro users get access to an enhanced recommendation engine. ZiNote learns your preferences faster and surfaces higher-relevance papers earlier in your feed.
Batch operations — Save, tag, or organize multiple papers at once. When you are deep in a literature review and selecting dozens of papers in a session, batch operations save real time.

Quick Comparison

| Feature | Free | Pro | |---|---|---| | Keywords | 3 | 20 | | Daily swipes | Limited | Unlimited | | Translation | Basic (daily limit) | Unlimited | | AI summary | Basic (daily limit) | Unlimited | | Source coverage | All sources | All sources | | Zotero sync | Included | Included | | Priority recommendations | — | Included | | Batch operations | — | Included |

Who Needs Pro?

Not everyone does, and that is perfectly fine. Here are the situations where Pro makes the biggest difference.

Multi-direction researchers

If you are working on more than three topics — or your research sits at the intersection of several fields — three keywords will feel limiting fast. With twenty keywords, you can track each thread separately without constantly swapping them out.

PhD students with heavy daily filtering

Doctoral work often means reading widely and filtering aggressively. If you are combing through dozens of papers every day to stay current, the daily swipe limit on Free can slow you down. Unlimited swipes let you power through your entire feed in one sitting.

Literature review and survey writing

Writing a survey paper or a systematic review? You need volume. Batch operations let you save and organize large sets of papers efficiently, and unlimited AI summaries mean you can generate a quick digest for every candidate paper without thinking twice. The time savings add up quickly when you are evaluating hundreds of results.

Multilingual research fields

Some disciplines — international relations, linguistics, regional studies — produce important work in several languages. Unlimited translation means you never have to skip a paper just because you hit a daily translation cap.

How to Upgrade

Upgrading takes about thirty seconds:

Open ZiNote and tap your profile icon (bottom-right corner).
Tap "Upgrade to Pro" — you will see it right on your profile screen.
Choose your plan — pick the option that works for you.
Confirm — your Pro features activate immediately. No restart, no sign-out required.

That is it. Your keywords, saved papers, and Zotero connection all stay exactly as they are. You just get more room to work.

A Note on Our Philosophy

We believe every researcher deserves good tools, regardless of budget. That is why Free includes full source coverage and Zotero sync — features that some apps reserve for paid tiers. Pro exists for people whose workflow genuinely benefits from more capacity and power, not as a gate to keep free users from doing real work.

Start with Free. If you find yourself bumping against the limits, Pro is one tap away.

Ready to unlock the full ZiNote experience? Open the app, head to Profile, and tap Upgrade to Pro. Your research will thank you.