Record · paper-searchMCP serverOpen sourceVerified Sep 23, 2026

Paper Search MCP

Search and download academic papers from arXiv, PubMed, bioRxiv, Semantic Scholar and many more sources.

Sources and review

Checked against public documentation on September 23, 2026. Suitability guidance is our editorial judgment; this is not a performance benchmark or an endorsement.

Repository and README

Best for

Literature searches that span several databases from one assistant.

Avoid if

You'd enable its optional Sci-Hub fallback; the project leaves it off by default and makes its use the user's responsibility.

About Paper Search MCP

Paper Search MCP searches and downloads papers from many sources, including arXiv, PubMed, bioRxiv, medRxiv, Google Scholar, Semantic Scholar, Crossref, OpenAlex, PubMed Central, CORE and Europe PMC, and extracts their text. It follows a free-first strategy that prefers open-access routes, with optional API keys for better coverage, and is also available as a CLI and agent skills.

Paper Search MCP is an open-source project written primarily in Python, with 2.7k stars on GitHub. It was last updated in September 2026.

Add Paper Search MCP to your MCP client

Generated from the launch command in the project's README. Your client starts the server on demand.

Claude CodeRun in your terminal

claude mcp add paper-search-mcp -- uvx paper-search-mcp

Cursor~/.cursor/mcp.json or .cursor/mcp.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "paper-search-mcp": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["paper-search-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

VS Code.vscode/mcp.json

{
  "servers": {
    "paper-search-mcp": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["paper-search-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Claude Desktopclaude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "paper-search-mcp": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["paper-search-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Codex~/.codex/config.toml

[mcp_servers.paper-search-mcp]
command = "uvx"
args = ["paper-search-mcp"]

Check the project's README for required accounts, keys and permissions before connecting. Setup guide for each client →

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