Tool profile
Citavi: cost, fit and limits
Citavi is a reference management and knowledge organization program made by Lumivero that stores sources, quotations and outlines in cloud, local or on-premise projects and includes an AI assistant for key insights, passage summaries and paper search.
What to know first
Citavi is sold through Lumivero with no prices on the product page: the FAQ says pricing varies by platform and license type. Individuals and teams of up to 10 buy online, while universities and enterprises request a demo for custom licensing. The AI assistant has three named parts. A free trial needs an account but no credit card, and its length is not stated.
Citavi at a glance
| Maker | Lumivero, United States |
|---|---|
| Free plan | Free trial only |
| Entry price | Quote only |
| API access | No |
| Category | Best AI Reference Management Software in 2026, rank 3 of 11 |
| Website | lumivero.com/products/citavi/ |
Who Citavi is best for
Authors who write from quotations
The outline builder takes drag-and-drop quotations into flexible categories, so the structure of a long paper is built from source material directly.
Small research teams
Cloud projects support role assignment, tasks and real-time collaboration for teams up to 10 people under the individual and small-team license.
Institutions with on-premise needs
The FAQ names Citavi DBServer for on-premise deployment, and projects can sit on an institutional server instead of the cloud.
Citavi plans and pricing
| Plan | Price | What it includes |
|---|---|---|
| Individual and small teams | Not published (buy online) | For solo researchers, students and teams of up to 10 people, bought online, although the page prints no amount, currency or billing period for it. |
| Organization and institutions | Custom quote | For universities, research centers and enterprise teams, where a requested demo leads to a tailored licensing model rather than a printed price list. |
| Free trial | Free, length not stated | Access to Citavi Web or Citavi Desktop after creating an account, with no credit card. |
Checked November 2026.
What Citavi does
- AI key insights
- Gives an overview of an article's main ideas, so a reader can decide whether a paper deserves a full read, which is useful when triaging a long reading list in a single afternoon.
- AI passage summaries
- Summarizes a selected paragraph or section of a paper, which helps when a dense methods passage needs a quick restatement before the reader decides to quote it or skip past it.
- AI paper search
- Finds papers from a plain-language topic description rather than keyword strings, according to the product page, which suits an early scoping stage when the right search terms are not yet known.
- Source capture
- Imports articles, books, PDFs and webpages with automatic metadata extraction, and a browser picker saves references, quotations and images in a single click, so capture stays inside the reading flow.
- Citation styles and checks
- The program offers over 11,000 citation styles, plus duplicate checks and local library availability checks, which support the writing stage and help a reader find out whether the institution holds a given book.
How Citavi handles your data
The Citavi product page says projects can be stored in the cloud, on a local drive or on an institutional server, and gives no region for cloud storage. No certification is named on the opened page. The Lumivero privacy policy URL returned a 404, so retention, model training on customer content and AI processing terms were not checked. A buyer should ask Lumivero in writing which provider runs the AI assistant, whether text sent to it is stored, and where cloud projects are hosted.
Where Citavi falls short in practice
- No price list. The page says cost depends on platform and license type but prints no figure at all, so cost cannot be compared with other managers until the buyer contacts the vendor or reaches the checkout.
- Trial length unknown. The page does not say how long the trial lasts, which makes it harder to plan an import of a large library and to judge whether the AI assistant can be tested properly in that time.
- Team ceiling. The individual and small-team tier covers up to 10 people, so larger research groups move into organization licensing, which means a demo request and a sales conversation before any price is known.
Works with
Alternatives to Citavi
Citavi: common questions
Which AI features does Citavi name?
The page names three under Citavi's AI assistant: key insights that outline an article's main ideas, passage summaries for a paragraph or section, and paper search from a plain-language description. No accuracy claims or model names accompany them, so judge them on your own reading list.
How much does Citavi cost?
The page shows no price. Its FAQ says pricing varies by platform and license type. Individuals and teams up to 10 can buy online, and organizations request a demo. Ask for the figure in writing before committing to a trial import.
Can Citavi projects stay off the cloud?
Yes. The page says projects can live in the cloud, on a local drive or on an institutional server, and the FAQ names Citavi DBServer for on-premise use. Which of those options apply to which license is not stated on the page.
Does Citavi connect to NVivo?
NVivo is named on the product page, as is Microsoft Word. The page does not describe how the NVivo link works or what moves across, so ask how references and quotations travel between the two programs before relying on it.
Is there a free version of Citavi?
The page offers a free trial of Citavi Web or Desktop after creating an account, with no credit card, but names no permanent free plan after it. Trial length is not stated on the page, so check the term when you sign up and note the date it ends.