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PaperQA2 vs GPT Researcher: catalog facts
PaperQA2	GPT Researcher
Free Free and open source under the Apache 2.0 licence; model API usage may cost extra.	Free Free and open source; you pay for any LLM or search APIs you connect.
Command line	Web, Self-hosted, Command line
Answers include citations to the source documents Fetches paper metadata with citation counts and retraction checks	Writes cited reports from web and local sources Works with many LLM providers
Needs a language model, either through an API or run locally Setup and tuning assume comfort with Python	Requires API keys and some setup Report quality depends on the model and sources used
Downloadable app	Downloadable app, Self-hosted
Open source	Open source
License: Apache-2.0	License not stated
Not stated if an account is needed	No account needed
Not stated if it works offline	Not stated if it works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Checked October 2, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 26, 2026

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