CLARA review
A free web workspace for archival research with page-linked citations and document uploads.
Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026
CLARA is a free, web-based AI research assistant operated by the University of Oxford. It is designed for researchers, lawyers, journalists, students, NGOs, and policymakers working with archival material and source documents. The service searches curated collections covering corporate accountability, public health, environmental issues, and related topics, then returns answers with citations linked to exact document pages. Users can also upload PDFs, Word documents, text files, and images for combined searching.
Its strongest feature is the connection between AI-generated research and underlying documents. CLARA can produce reports, timelines, and summaries while keeping the relevant source pages attached to answers. A personal research workspace adds rich-text editing, file version history, and the ability to export or download research files. This makes it a practical fit for projects that need an organized path from document discovery to editable research output, rather than a simple question-and-answer interface.
According to the published FAQ, CLARA is completely free, with no paid plans or trials. That makes it suitable for individuals and organizations seeking archival research support without a subscription tier to evaluate. The trade-off is a narrower working model: the listed platform is web-based, and the workspace is personal rather than a team workspace. Choose CLARA for citation-backed archival and document-based research, especially when page-level references and file handling matter. Choose another tool if shared team workspaces or a broader collaboration environment are central requirements.
CLARA pros and cons
- Where it wins
- Links answers to exact pages in original documents
- Searches curated archives and uploaded files together
- Creates reports, timelines, summaries, and exportable files
- Where it doesn't
- Web access is the only listed platform
- Personal workspace is not designed for team collaboration
- Its collections focus on selected archival research topics
CLARA fact sheet, pricing and score →
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