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CORE vs The Lens: catalog facts
CORE	The Lens
Free Searching is free; CORE is a not-for-profit service with additional offerings for…	Freemium Free to search, with paid subscriptions offered for some features.
Web	Web
Very large collection of open access papers Full text as well as metadata	Patents and scholarly works in one search Built-in charts and analysis of results
Limited to open access content Search only; no AI summaries described in the research	Analysis of very large result sets can time out Some features require a subscription
Web application	Web application
Closed source	Closed source
License not stated	License not stated
No account needed	No account needed
Needs internet	Needs internet
Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 26, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 26, 2026

Catalog facts only. Anything “not stated” is unconfirmed. Check full listings for details.