Accelerate your literature review with AI mind mapping
mapifast lets researchers turn conference talks, recorded panels, and explainer videos into structured, source-grounded mind maps with arXiv citations on every claim and a vector index that links new findings to prior reading.
Most “AI summarisers” collapse a 90-minute keynote into eight bullet points and call it a day. That's useless when you're tracing how an idea propagates across a sub-field. mapifast keeps the structure intact: a planner agent extracts the conceptual scaffold, parallel sub-agents query arXiv + the open web for grounding, a critic agent loops if confidence < 6, and the final mindmap carries citations on every leaf. ChatGPT and Notion AI do not do this; Mapify produces shallow trees without sources.
5 ways researchers use mapifast
Rapid literature review
Drop a 1-hour conference talk, get a graph of every cited paper and method with arXiv links.
Cross-paper connections
RAG layer reuses your prior maps so the same concept across talks links automatically.
Field-survey scaffolding
Use a generated mind map as the outline of a survey paper or seminar deck.
Per-node deep research
Spawn a dedicated researcher graph on any node when you need to go beyond the talk.
Notion / Obsidian export with citations
Export to your reference manager with formatted bibliography hooks.
How the workflow runs
- Step 1Paste talk URLNeurIPS / ICML / ACL / TED etc.
- Step 2Multi-agent groundingResearcher graph runs locate-node → plan → gather (arXiv ‖ Tavily ‖ vector recall) → synthesize → critic.
- Step 3Drill into any nodeEach leaf supports “Go deeper” which expands the subgraph with fresh citations.
- Step 4Build a meta-mapConnect maps across multiple talks via shared semantic embeddings.
- Step 5Export to your reference managerNotion or Obsidian, with citation links preserved.
mapifast vs ChatGPT vs Elicit vs Mapify
Honest, head-to-head comparison on the dimensions that matter for researchers.
| Feature | mapifast | chatgpt | elicit | mapify |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| arXiv-grounded citations | Yes | No | Paper search only | No |
| YouTube as input | Native | Plugins required | No | Yes |
| Critic loop / fact-checking | Yes (LangGraph critic) | No | Limited | No |
| Cross-map RAG | Yes (Pinecone) | No | Within library | No |
| Free plan | 10 maps/mo | Free tier | Limited free | Limited |
Frequently asked
Is mapifast suitable for academic research?
Yes. The researcher graph cites arXiv on every claim; the critic agent loops when confidence is low.
How is this different from Elicit?
Elicit is paper-first; mapifast is talk/video-first and produces a graph rather than a list.
Can I cite a mapifast mind map in a paper?
Cite the underlying source (the YouTube talk + arXiv papers); the map itself is a derivative artefact.
Does it support BibTeX export?
Notion export carries citation links; native BibTeX export is on the roadmap (Q3 2026).
Can I run it on a private corpus?
Bring-your-own MCP server support means you can wire mapifast to a private retrieval index.
What about controversial or contested claims?
The critic agent flags low-confidence claims and surfaces alternative sources where available.
Is there a public-explore feed?
Yes — the Explore page indexes opt-in public maps with semantic search.
How do I edit the generated map?
Maps are interactive; drag, rename, re-parent. Edits sync via Yjs across collaborators.
Try mapifast free — 10 mindmaps a month, no credit card.