Which AI research tool saves your time? Compare features, depth, and pricing.
Refind is a "brain food" newsletter that sends 5 curated links per day — focused on long-form articles and ideas worth thinking about. Founded in 2015, it has around 500K subscribers and a reputation for quality over quantity. The free tier is limited; the paid tier unlocks deeper personalization and additional features.
The model is link curation: a small editorial team selects articles they think are worth your time. You get a short note on each link, formatted as a daily email. It's light, it's thoughtful, and it works if you trust the Refind editors to decide what matters.
Lumis inverts the model. Instead of editors choosing for you, you choose your sources — and AI agents synthesize the three most important developments into a ranked briefing. The difference is specificity: Refind curates what's broadly interesting; Lumis delivers what's specifically relevant to your research interests.
| Feature | Lumis | Refind | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daily scheduled briefing | ✓ | ✓ | AI agents monitor your sources |
| AI-generated synthesis | ✓ | ~ | |
| Source-level transparency | ✓ | ✗ | |
| Custom source/RSS support | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Topic subscriptions | ✓ | ✗ | 10 research categories |
| Voting/ranking | ✓ | ✗ | 👍/👎 feedback loop |
| Archive search | ✓ | ✗ | Full-text search |
| Link curation | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Free plan available | ~ | ~ | Paid tier for deeper features |
| Price (paid) | ✗ | ✗ |
Refind is the better fit if you want a curated "brain food" experience — 5 thoughtful links curated by humans, delivered daily, without any setup. If you don't need research-grade depth and are comfortable receiving whatever the Refind editorial team selects, the free tier is a perfectly decent option. It's especially good for generalists who want intellectual breadth without tracking any specific domain.
Lumis is built for professionals who need research-grade specificity, not a curated list of broadly interesting articles. Refind gives you 5 links chosen by editors; Lumis gives you the three most important developments from YOUR sources, ranked by relevance and explained in context.
If you're a researcher, analyst, or operator tracking a specific industry and finding yourself clicking through Refind links to primary sources anyway, you're doing the synthesis work manually. Lumis automates that layer — and because the system learns from your feedback, it gets smarter about your interests over time.
Lock your founding rate before the first 500 spots fill.