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What is Ask Litmaps?
Availability: Ask Litmaps is a Litmaps Pro feature that is currently rolling out.
Ask Litmaps answers your questions about the literature and the articles on your Litmaps. Every answer cites the articles it comes from, so you can check each claim against its source.
You can ask Ask Litmaps to:
Summarise what the research says on a question, with citations
Find the major topics on a Litmap and show them on the map
Trace how the ideas on a Litmap developed
Suggest articles to add to a Litmap or Tag, or start a new Litmap from the articles it finds
How to ask a question
Log in to the Litmaps app
Click "Ask Litmaps" in the sidebar
Type your question in the box and press Enter
While Ask Litmaps works, it lists each step it takes, such as searching or following citations, and how long each one runs. When the answer is ready, the steps fold into one line you can click to review them.
Each cited article appears as a chip in the answer. Click a chip to open the article's details beside the chat. Click "Sources" under the answer to see every cited article in one list.
Questions can be up to 2,000 characters long.
How to ask about a Litmap
Ask Litmaps can read the articles on a Litmap and answer questions about them.
Open a Litmap
Click "Ask Litmaps" in the sidebar to open the chat panel beside the map
Ask a question about the articles on the map, or click "Find the major topics on this Litmap"
Finding topics needs at least 5 articles on the Litmap. Ask Litmaps groups the map by content similarity and names each theme. Click a theme heading in the answer to highlight its articles on the map.
Ask Litmaps can also change the map's view and mark articles on it to illustrate an answer. A banner at the top of the map says what it changed:
Click "Keep view" to save the new view to your Litmap
Click "Revert" to put the map back as it was
Marks and highlights are never saved. They clear when you ask your next question.
How to add suggested articles
When an answer finds articles worth keeping, Ask Litmaps suggests what to do with them. It can suggest you:
Add articles to a Litmap ("Add to map")
Tag articles ("Create tag")
Start a new Litmap from them ("Create Litmap")
Nothing changes until you click the button. On a Litmap, suggested articles appear on the map, as Explore results do, so you can see where they fit before you add them. You can show them among your articles or in a box beside them.
If you add articles from a chat on the Ask Litmaps page, the chat moves to that Litmap and opens beside it, so your next question can use the map.
How to manage your chats
Ask Litmaps keeps your past chats in the current Workspace:
Chats started on the Ask Litmaps page are listed there.
Chats about a Litmap are listed with that Litmap and open beside it.
To move a chat onto a Litmap, open the chat and click "Move to a Litmap…", then choose a Litmap in the same Workspace.
To delete a chat, click "Delete chat". Deleting a chat removes its answers and cannot be undone.
Ask Litmaps credits
Each question uses credits in proportion to the amount of text sent to the AI model. A quick question uses fewer credits than one that searches widely and follows many citations.
Which credits a question uses depends on the Workspace you ask it in:
Questions in your personal Workspaces use your personal credits.
Questions in a Team's Workspaces use that Team's credits, which all its members share.
Credits come from two places:
Monthly credits come with your plan and renew each month.
Credit packs top up your monthly credits and are used once your monthly credits run out. Unused pack credits expire after 12 months.
How to check your credits
Click your profile in the bottom-left corner
Click "Ask Litmaps"
This page shows the credits available in the Workspace you're in, when its monthly credits renew, and the credits you've used each month.
To see how each member of a Team used its credits:
Click your profile in the bottom-left corner
Click "Teams" and open the Team
Team admins click the "Credit Usage" tab. Other members see the usage at the bottom of the page.
Click a month to see which members used its credits.
How to buy more credits
Open the "Ask Litmaps" page in your account, as above
Click "Buy more credits" and choose a credit pack
Complete the checkout
The pack goes to the Workspace you're in: to you in a personal Workspace, or to the Team in a Team Workspace. Your credits will be ready a moment after checkout.
Ask Litmaps – FAQ
Who can use Ask Litmaps?
Litmaps Pro and Teams members with edit access to the current Workspace. Free users see Ask Litmaps with an option to upgrade.
Where do the answers come from?
Ask Litmaps answers from the articles indexed in Litmaps and the articles on your Litmaps. It cites every article it draws on, so check the sources before relying on an answer.
Can Ask Litmaps change my Litmaps?
Only when you say so. It suggests articles to add, tag or start a Litmap with, and nothing changes until you click the button. Map view changes are temporary unless you click "Keep view".
Why was my answer cut short?
Ask Litmaps stops after several rounds of searching. Ask a narrower question to get a more complete answer.
Why is my chat read-only?
The Litmap the chat belonged to has been deleted or you no longer have access to it. You can still read the chat, but you can't ask new questions in it.
Why can't I move a chat to a Litmap?
Chats can only move to Litmaps in the same Workspace, and a chat already on a Litmap stays there. Start a new chat on the Litmap you want instead.
Can I use Ask Litmaps on the Search page?
No. Ask Litmaps can't see keyword search results. Add the articles to a Litmap, then ask about the Litmap.
I've run out of credits. What can I do?
Wait for your monthly credits to renew, or buy a credit pack. If you need more credits than a pack provides, contact us at team@litmaps.com.
Can I use Litmaps with my own AI assistant?
Yes. You can connect Claude, ChatGPT or another assistant to Litmaps. See Use Litmaps with your AI assistant (MCP).
Something went wrong. What should I do?
Message us using the chat icon in the Litmaps app.