No. 29 of 34 ·Academic Research Databases

Web of Science

Web · API

Freedom report

One barScore 5.0

Free tierNo free tier on record
Open codeNo open-source code on record
Runs widely1 of 6 device platforms
DocumentedPlans, terms and facts published

Web of Science is ranked #29 of 34 in academic research databases on Freedom251. It runs on API, Web. There is no free plan.

Web of Science plans and pricing

All plans

Web of Science platform Not published Institutional subscription; price not listed on the product page clarivate.com · 7 Oct 2026

Web of Science API Expanded — Intermediate Not published 2 requests per second · 250,000 full records per year developer.clarivate.com · 7 Oct 2026

Web of Science API Expanded — Premium Not published 5 requests per second · 3,000,000 full records per year developer.clarivate.com · 7 Oct 2026

Web of Science API Expanded — Basic Not published 2 requests per second · 50,000 full records per year developer.clarivate.com · 7 Oct 2026

Web of Science API Expanded — Advanced Not published 3 requests per second · 1,000,000 full records per year developer.clarivate.com · 7 Oct 2026

Compared on academic research databases

Free plan: No
Full-text access: Yes
Advanced search: Yes
Subject coverage: multidisciplinary
Content types: journals, conference proceedings, scholarly books, dissertations, theses, preprints, datasets, grants, patents
Theses and dissertations: Yes
Conference proceedings: Yes
Institutional access: Yes

Best Web of Science alternatives

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Two bars JSTOR Free tier No. 1$16.58/mo6.6 No signal MAXQDA Paid plans No. 2—6.5 One bar AGRICOLA Free tier No. 3Free6.4 One bar arXiv Free tier No. 4Free6.4 One bar CORE Free tier No. 5Free6.4 One bar EconLit Free tier No. 6Free6.4

The record

Purpose: Web of Science is a research discovery platform built around scholarly literature and citation links.
Research coverage: The platform page lists more than 34,000 journals, 288 million metadata records and 3.4 billion citation links.
Discovery tools: The platform supports finding new research, potential partners, trending topics and commercial opportunities in one interface.
Research Assistant: The Web of Science Research Assistant provides natural-language multilingual search, concise overviews, task guidance and visualizations, and requires institutional subscription access.
Integrations: Registered users can export records to EndNote, and researcher profiles can sync publications with ORCID.
API access: The API Expanded offers REST access with JSON and XML output and requires a paid license and registered application.
API limits: API Expanded plans are limited by request rates and full-record counts, with the listed plans ranging from 50,000 to 3,000,000 records per year.
Security: Clarivate describes its security program as aligned with ISO 27001 and SOC 2, but says not all products are individually certified.
Support: Clarivate provides Web of Science product and technical support through its Support Center.
Audience: Clarivate describes Web of Science as serving researchers, universities and research institutions, governments, funders, publishers and research-intensive corporations.
Pricing: The product page directs interested organizations to contact sales and does not display a platform subscription price.
Founded: 1997
Headquarters: London, United Kingdom

Where it ranks on Freedom251

Best Academic Research Databases in 2026#29 of 34
Best Research Administration Software in 2026#19 of 20

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Sources

clarivate.com/academia-government/scientific-and-acad· checked 7 Oct 2026
clarivate.com/academia-government/scientific-and-acad· checked 7 Oct 2026
apps.clarivate.com/wos/static/html/login-splash/entitled.h· checked 7 Oct 2026
developer.clarivate.com/apis/wos· checked 7 Oct 2026
clarivate.com/trust-center/security-compliance/· checked 7 Oct 2026
supportcenter.clarivate.com/s/product/webofscience· checked 7 Oct 2026