Last updated: 2026-10-08
Liner is an AI search and research assistant from South Korea with more than 14 million registered users across 220 countries, according to its August 2026 funding announcement. It attaches line-by-line citations to answers, offers a Scholar Mode for academic papers, and sells search, research and writing under one subscription.
About Liner
Liner comes out of South Korea, where CEO Luke Kim turned a web-page highlighter into a cited-answer engine. The company now reports more than 14 million registered users in 220 countries. In August 2026 it raised a $36.1 million Series C, bringing total capital raised to roughly $64.3 million by the company's own count.
The core idea is evidence first. Every answer carries line-by-line citations that link to the source passage, and Scholar Mode restricts retrieval to academic papers. On its pricing page Liner says its search scored higher than ChatGPT's advanced model and the Perplexity Pro model on OpenAI's SimpleQA test. That is a vendor claim, so treat it as a reason to run your own checks rather than a settled ranking.
Liner sells three products under one subscription: Liner for everyday cited search, Liner Scholar for literature reviews, citation recommendations and peer-review style feedback, and Liner Write for drafting emails, newsletters and reports with sources attached. A Pro plan covers all three, and Deep Research, image generation and access to major models from OpenAI, Google and Anthropic sit behind a credit system. Scholar tools cost 30 to 80 credits per request.
It suits students, researchers, consultants and content teams who need to check where a claim came from before they publish it. If you compare it with Perplexity or Consensus, Liner's edge is that one plan spans web search, academic work and writing. If you want a general assistant instead, ChatGPT covers more ground, and NotebookLM is the stronger pick when your work starts from your own documents.
Liner has a free plan with unlimited Advanced Search and ads in answers. Paid plans start under $15 a month billed annually, and a Team plan costs $26.99 per seat. Its security page lists SOC 2 Type I and II, HIPAA and ISO 27001:2022 badges.
Pricing
Free plan at $0 with ads in answers. 99 a month billed annually. 99 a month billed annually.
99 per seat per month. Enterprise is custom. Deep Research uses 40 credits per request, and Pro includes 1,000 agent credits against 2,500 on Max and Team.
| Tier | Monthly price | What it includes |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | |
| Pro | $17.99/mo | |
| Team | $26.99/mo | |
| Max | $35.99/mo |
Key Features
- Line-by-line citations: Every answer links each statement to the source passage, and the Free plan includes unlimited cited answers.
- Scholar Mode: Restricts retrieval to academic papers so literature searches return papers instead of blog posts.
- Deep Research: Builds a structured report on a topic, paid for out of the monthly credit allowance on paid plans.
- Liner Scholar tools: Literature Review, Citation Recommender and Peer Review cover the main steps of writing a paper.
- Liner Write: Drafts emails, newsletters and reports in one window with sources attached to the claims.
- Multi-model access: Paid plans use major models from ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude, with premium external models costing 30 credits per request.
- File upload: Pro takes 100 MB files, and Max raises that to 200 MB with no daily cap.
Pros
- Unlimited Advanced Search and Scholar Mode on the Free plan, so the core cited-search workflow costs $0.
- One Pro plan at $14.99 a month billed annually spans Liner, Liner Scholar and Liner Write.
- Publishes SOC 2, HIPAA and ISO 27001 badges on a public safety page, which few consumer search tools do.
- Citations are attached line by line, which makes it quick to check a claim before publishing.
Cons
- Free plan answers carry ads and uploads are capped at one 25 MB file a day.
- Credits meter the heavy features: Deep Research uses 40 credits, so Pro at 1,000 credits covers about 25 requests a month.
- The SimpleQA accuracy claim comes from Liner itself and no independent run is published on the pricing page.
- Pro and Max prices are quoted per month billed annually, so paying monthly costs 20% more.
Data Handling
- Training-data policy
- Users can opt out of having usage history used for model training in settings. Team plan data is excluded from AI training.
- Data retention
- 30 days
- Compliance
- SOC 2 Type I and II · HIPAA · ISO 27001:2022
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does Liner cost?
Liner has a Free plan at $0. Pro is $17.99 a month, or $14.99 a month billed annually, and Max is $35.99 a month, or $29.99 billed annually. Team costs $26.99 per seat per month for 2 to 20 members, and Enterprise pricing is custom. Prices come from liner.com/pricing as checked on 2026-10-08.
What are the limits of the free Liner plan?
The Free plan includes unlimited Advanced Search, Scholar Mode and line-by-line citations. Answers carry ads, uploads are limited to one 25 MB file a day, and Research Assistant is capped at 10 a day. Agent credits for Deep Research are not included.
Which tools should I consider instead of Liner?
Perplexity is the closest general cited-search rival and covers more of the open web. Consensus searches only scientific papers, which suits strict evidence checks. NotebookLM is the better fit when you want answers grounded in your own uploaded sources.
Is Liner better than Perplexity for research?
Liner bundles Scholar Mode, a Literature Review tool and a writing editor into one plan, which Perplexity does not. Perplexity has the larger general audience and wider web coverage. Liner reports beating both ChatGPT and Perplexity Pro on SimpleQA, but that figure is its own claim.
How do I start using Liner?
Open liner.com, choose Liner, Liner Scholar or Liner Write, and sign up for the Free plan. Ask a question and open the numbered citations to check each source. Liner also lists a browser extension.
Top Alternatives
- Perplexity: Pick Liner if you want academic Scholar tools and writing in the same plan, and Perplexity if you want the broader general web answer engine.
- Consensus: Choose Consensus when you only need evidence from papers, and Liner when you also search the open web and draft.
- NotebookLM: Choose NotebookLM when your answers must come from documents you upload, and Liner when you need to search outward.
- Genspark: Pick Genspark for agent-style task execution and Liner for cited research.