Question 1

How is Alcuin different from standard AI search engines?

Accepted Answer

Standard AI search tools generate conversational prose that frequently hallucinates ungrounded details or quotes modern blogs. Alcuin is an open-access archival finding aid. Every factual claim is decomposed into atomic propositions and verified by an independent adversarial verifier subagent against retrieved 120-word passages from authoritative academic collections (OpenAlex, Internet Archive, and Wikipedia).

Question 2

Where does Alcuin retrieve its primary records from?

Accepted Answer

Alcuin connects directly to open scholarly and archival repositories: OpenAlex (over 250 million cataloged peer-reviewed papers and official DOIs), Internet Archive (digitized primary manuscripts and historical holding records), and Wikipedia. We never fabricate citations or cite paywalled opaque datasets without verification.

Question 3

What are the three core output formats?

Accepted Answer

Alcuin generates three distinct, human-crafted scholarly views: (1) Article — a longform editorial essay structured with thematic sections, citations, and historiographical debates; (2) Summary — a dense 30–90 second brief with direct answers and core takeaways; and (3) Key Points — discrete evidentiary bullets categorized by findings and historical context.

Question 4

Can I use Alcuin for free without an account?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Anyone can perform an instant guest inquiry with zero signup required. Free signed-in scholars receive 3 comprehensive multi-format research runs every calendar month.

Question 5

How do the paid capacity tiers work?

Accepted Answer

We offer three paid plans: Explorer ($7.99/mo for 30 inquiries), Researcher ($14.99/mo for 100 inquiries + priority multi-agent compute), and Power User ($29.99/mo for 300 inquiries + high-concurrency workers). Quotas refresh automatically on the 1st of each calendar month.

Question 6

How do I cancel or modify my membership?

Accepted Answer

In compliance with California Automatic Renewal Laws and ROSCA, cancellation is instant and 100% self-service. Click your profile avatar -> Account Settings -> Manage Billing to open the Stripe Customer Portal, where you can cancel, pause, or switch tiers in 1 click.

Question 7

What is the Independent Verifier Subagent?

Accepted Answer

The verifier is an isolated agent that audits the synthesized draft without having seen the original synthesis prompt. It checks each proposition strictly against the retrieved 120-word passages, flagging unsupported extrapolation and calculating the objective corroboration precision score.

Question 8

How do Evidentiary Challenges work?

Accepted Answer

If you identify an inaccurate claim, conflicting interpretation, or broken citation, you can click "Challenge Evidence" directly on any citation bracket. You can submit primary notes or contradictory source URLs. Challenges are recorded in the archive and reviewed by our editorial team.

Question 9

What citation styles can I export?

Accepted Answer

Every research dossier includes a one-click citation exporter supporting Chicago Manual of Style (17th ed.), MLA (9th ed.), APA (7th ed.), BibTeX (for LaTeX manuscripts), and Markdown format.

Question 10

Are my private inquiries used to train AI foundation models?

Accepted Answer

Strictly No. In accordance with Section 3 of our Privacy Policy, enterprise zero-data-retention agreements prevent your private queries, research dossiers, and notes from ever being used to train public or private foundation models.

Question 11

Can I export or delete my research data?

Accepted Answer

Yes. In compliance with GDPR Articles 17 and 20, you can export your entire personal research library as a structured JSON archive in one click under Account Settings, or permanently delete your account and personal dossiers at any time.

Question 12

Who do I contact for archival inquiries or support?

Accepted Answer

You can reach our archival engineering and scholarship team directly at support@alcuin.site. For data protection oversight, contact privacy@alcuin.site.

Frequently Asked Questions

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