Zotero

Zotero

Your research assistant

431 ratings
263 reviews
Free

Details

  • Released
  • Updated
  • March 17, 2022
  • October 3, 2026

Features

Zotero screenshot #1 for iPhone
Zotero screenshot #2 for iPhone
iphone
ipad
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About

This research tool helps you collect, organize, annotate, cite, and share your academic and professional work. Save articles, books, and webpages, add notes and highlights, and generate bibliographies in thousands of styles. Collaborate with others and sync your library across devices.

✓Collect research from various sources
✓Organize with collections and tags
✓Annotate PDFs and webpages
✓Generate citations and bibliographies
✓Collaborate in group libraries
✓Sync across devices
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What users say

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What's New in Zotero

2.0.8

October 3, 2026

- Listen to PDFs, EPUBs, and webpage snapshots with Read Aloud - Miscellaneous improvements and bug fixes

User reviews

Amazing free resource

Everything works like a charm. Adding, reading sources, editing citations, exporting them. They’ve thought of everything.

Suggestion

I use Zotero for reference management on all of my devices, and I love this app. I have a suggestion to add listening mode to the mobile app. Right now it’s only available on the computer version.

The PDF annotation tools are great, but the note-taking experience is seriously limited

I can highlight text, annotate PDFs, and sync everything, but I can’t properly view formatted notes created on the desktop version. This is especially frustrating when working with poorly OCR’d historical books: on desktop, I can correct OCR errors in a citation while preserving the link to the original page. On iPad, I only see the original, corrupted OCR text instead of the edited citation.

For a research app, this makes the iPad version feel incomplete. The annotation tools are excellent, but the lack of a proper note editor and support for existing formatted notes is a major limitation.
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Need more themes

Sepia is still too bright, but the dark theme's contrast is too high. All three burn my eyes...Need customizable themes just like the laptop version

No confirmation email

Gave valid email. Insists on two factor authentication, but never sends the code. Unusable.

User experience

🐞

Reported Bugs

4 issues

Unable to unzip PDF snapshots

Bug

Annotations disappearing or moving unexpectedly

Bug

Dark mode not working as expected

Bug

Inability to add citations directly from the app

Bug
✨

Requested Features

6 requests

Eraser tool for annotations

Feature

More color options for pen and highlighter

Feature

Ability to open PDFs in external apps

Feature

Bookmarking and table of contents support

Feature

Improved search functionality

Feature

Offline access to downloaded PDFs

Feature

FAQ

What does Zotero do?

Zotero is a free research tool designed to help you collect, organize, annotate, cite, and share your research materials. It allows you to save articles, books, webpages, and more, then manage them efficiently for your projects.

How can I collect research with Zotero?

You can collect research by saving journal articles, newspaper articles, books, and webpages directly through the Share button in Safari and other apps. The app can also automatically download PDFs and allows you to add physical items by scanning barcodes or DOIs with your device's camera.

Is Zotero free to use?

Yes, Zotero is a free research tool. The developers are committed to providing this software without charge and do not sell user data, operating as an independent, nonprofit organization.

Can I use Zotero on multiple devices?

Yes, you can synchronize your personal and group research libraries to access them via Zotero’s desktop app and the Zotero website. This ensures your research is available across different platforms.

How does Zotero help with citations and bibliographies?

Zotero can instantly generate citations and bibliographies in over 10,000 different formats and journal styles, including popular ones like APA, Chicago, IEEE, MLA, Turabian, and Vancouver. It also integrates with word processors like Word, LibreOffice, and Google Docs.