PQAI
PQAI is an open-source AI patent search platform that uses dense neural retrieval to surface prior art across 68+ patent offices and 100M+ research papers, serving inventors, researchers, IP professionals, and LegalTech developers via a free web app and paid API tiers.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2019
- HeadquartersScott Air Force Base, United States
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What PQAI does
PQAI (Project PQAI), founded in 2019 and legally organized as an open-source initiative rather than a conventional venture-backed company, builds AI-powered patent search infrastructure targeted at inventors, researchers, IP professionals, and LegalTech developers. Its core offering is a semantic prior-art search engine that uses dense neural retrieval — trained on USPTO examination data rather than user behavior — over a corpus of patents from 68+ global offices plus 100M+ non-patent literature (research paper) records. The product surface is a self-serve web application at search.projectpq.ai, a programmatic Python-accessible API with MCP server connectivity, and several specialized tools: CPC/IPC classification suggestion, USPTO Group Art Unit prediction with examiner allowance rates, concept extraction, and keyword suggestion. The company is led by Sam Zellner (an IAM Strategy 300 Honoree) and operates with 1–10 employees, supported organizationally by AT&T, GLIPA, and GreyB, with a core integration partnership with InspireIP that places PQAI inside an invention disclosure workflow serving 5,000+ innovators.
The platform follows a hybrid go-to-market combining product-led growth, community-led open-source development, and API-first distribution. Revenue is generated through a tiered subscription stack: a free web tier for individual users, PQAI+ Individual at $20/month (or $216/year), a $49/month chat-based search experience, a Developer API plan at $199/month for 600 queries, and an Enterprise API plan at $700/month for 3,000 queries with bulk data, on-premise/private server deployment, and integration support. Free academic API tokens are granted on email request, and private server deployment targets enterprises with strict data security requirements. Distribution channels are digital self-serve for SMBs/individuals and direct enterprise contact for on-premise and high-volume deployments, with content marketing (blog, comparison articles, guest posts), GitHub presence, and developer documentation as the primary demand-generation surfaces.
Pricing is publicly disclosed and the platform is GDPR-aligned with a privacy-first architecture that never logs user queries. While the company has not disclosed revenue, fundraising, or specific headcount, multiple recent product launches (Search Engine v4.0 and PDF export in April 2024; data coverage expansion to 68 countries and 100M+ papers in December 2024; UI/country filtering in April 2025) and an independent #2 ranking among AI patent search tools (June 2025) suggest an active and iterating business rather than a stalled open-source project.
PQAI firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- PQAI
- Legal name
- Project PQAI
- Website
- https://projectpq.ai
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2019
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- PQAI is an open-source AI patent search platform that uses dense neural retrieval to surface prior art across 68+ patent offices and 100M+ research papers, serving inventors, researchers, IP professionals, and LegalTech developers via a free web app and paid API tiers.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
PQAI industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Patent Search Software
- NAICS
- Software Publishers (51321), Web Search Portals, Libraries, Archives, and Other Information Services (5192)
- SIC
- Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)
- akta.pro primary industry
- IP & Patent Information Publishing (Patent/Litigation Analytics, Prior Art) (MPAJACAK)
- akta.pro secondary industry
- IP Management, Patents & Trademark Software (BPAEAPAN)
Keywords
Where PQAI is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Scott Air Force Base
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Markets served
PQAI business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Personnel, Infrastructure, Operations, Marketing or Sales
Revenue model
- Free Tier: Free basic access to patent search with up to 20 results per query. Anonymous users can discover, explore, and analyze prior art data. This tier serves as the primary acquisition channel for converting users to paid plans.
- PQAI+ Individual Plan: Premium subscription for individual users at $20/month (billed monthly) or $216/year. Includes up to 50 API requests/month, faster search speed, and limited API access for personal use.
- PQAI+ Chat-Based Search: Chat-based patent search experience subscription at $49/month for users preferring conversational interface over traditional search.
- Developer API Plan: API access at $199/month including 600 API queries per month. Targeted at developers, startups, and organizations needing programmatic access for experimentation or early-stage integration.
- Enterprise API Plan: Commercial API subscription at $700/month including 3,000 API queries per month with priority support, bulk data access, custom API workflows, and integration support. Required for commercial use and platform integrations.
- Institutional Subscriptions: Enterprise and institutional subscriptions for organizations requiring advanced analytics, batch processing, API access, and tailored solutions for larger teams.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Monthly | Free tier for basic patent search |
| Subscription | Monthly | PQAI+ Individual for personal use |
| Subscription | Monthly | PQAI+ for chat-based patent search |
| Subscription | Monthly | Developer API plan |
| Subscription | Monthly | Enterprise API plan for commercial use |
Go-to-market motion3 records
Distribution channels4 records
Marketing channels8 records
PQAI product offering
Product offeringCore offering
PQAI provides an open-source AI-powered semantic patent search platform that enables natural-language prior-art discovery across patents from 68+ offices and 100M+ research papers. Its offering includes a free web search interface, a Python SDK Patent Search API for embedding into LegalTech and IP software products, and an on-premise Private Server deployment for enterprises requiring data confidentiality. Companion tools (CPC lookup, concept extraction, keyword suggester, GAU predictor) are integrated to support inventors, researchers, and IP professionals through the patentability assessment workflow.
Product overview
PQAI (Patent Quality through Artificial Intelligence) is an open-source initiative offering an AI-powered patent search ecosystem comprising a core web-based Patent Search Platform, a programmatic Patent Search API, and multiple specialized tools. The core platform uses semantic AI to surface prior art from patents (68+ offices) and non-patent literature (100M+ research papers) via natural-language queries. The product family includes PQAI+ (paid individual tier) and Private Server (enterprise on-premise deployment) as the two main paid offerings, with the free tier covering basic web search. Built around the core semantic search engine, the suite includes CPC Lookup, Keyword Suggester, Concept Extractor, and GAU Predictor as companion tools, all supported by an open-source codebase on GitHub.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- PQAI Patent Search Platform Core AI-powered semantic prior-art search web application that enables users to discover, explore, and analyze patent data and scholarly literature using natural-language queries. Covers patents from 68+ offices and 100M+ research papers with semantic matching that goes beyond keyword search. Includes free tier (up to 20 results per query) and PQAI+ paid upgrades.
- PQAI Patent Search API Programmatic REST API providing semantic prior-art search, CPC classification prediction, concept extraction, patent data retrieval, patent drawing retrieval, and patent family information. Supports Python SDK, returns structured JSON responses, and includes MCP server access for integration with Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini. Available via Developer ($199/month for 600 queries), Enterprise ($700/month for 3,000 queries), or PQAI+ Individual ($20/month).
- PQAI Private Server On-premise deployment of PQAI's AI-powered patent search engine for enterprises that require all queries and results to remain within their own infrastructure. Designed for organizations with strict data security, confidentiality, or compliance requirements, including corporate IP departments, law firms handling pre-filing invention research, and government patent offices.
Quantifiable outcome
- Patent search results delivered in minutes rather than hours of manual keyword refinement
- +3 more outcomes
Companies that use PQAI
Customer profileNamed customers6 records
Segments10 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
PQAI technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration9 records
AI capability6 records
Feature8 records
PQAI partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Four partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.
- InspireIPcoreInspireIP has built an integration with PQAI for their invention disclosure platform. While PQAI powers prior-art search, InspireIP handles the capture, structuring, and filing of invention disclosures. The partnership creates a complete workflow from idea capture to patent filing, with InspireIP reporting 5,000+ innovators using their combined solution.
- AT&TminorAT&T is listed as an initiative supporter of PQAI, indicating financial or strategic support for the open-source patent search project.
- GLIPA (Global IP Association)minorGLIPA is listed as an initiative supporter of PQAI, indicating organizational support for the open-source patent search initiative.
- GreyBminorGreyB is listed as an initiative supporter of PQAI, contributing to the collaborative effort to improve patent quality through AI.
Scale indicators6 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
PQAI competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- IPRally: AI-first patent search and analytics platform based in Finland. Directly comparable to PQAI in using neural/AI techniques for semantic prior-art search and patent classification, targeting patent professionals and LegalTech integrators.
- Solve Intelligence: AI-native patent drafting and prosecution assistant. Compares to PQAI as a fellow AI-first LegalTech company building workflow-embedded AI tooling for the patent lifecycle, with overlapping buyer personas at IP law firms and inventors.
- Ambercite: AI-driven patent citation analysis and semantic search tool. Closely overlaps PQAI's semantic prior-art retrieval and patent analytics value proposition for IP professionals and inventors.
- XLSCOUT: AI-powered patent analytics and drafting platform. Closely aligned with PQAI in applying AI to prior-art search, patentability assessment, and invention evaluation for inventors, law firms, and R&D teams.
Broad incumbents
- PatSnap: Global commercial IP analytics platform with patent search, landscape analysis, and competitive intelligence. A well-funded incumbent offering overlapping prior-art and patent search capabilities but with a much broader product suite and enterprise sales motion.
- The Lens (Lens.org): Open, large-scale patent and scholarly literature database covering 140M+ patents. Directly cited as a data source and comparison point for PQAI; shares the open-data philosophy but offers broader, non-AI-native search across the same patent corpus PQAI indexes.
- Orbit Intelligence (Questel): Commercial IP analytics and patent search suite from Questel. Overlaps PQAI on patent search, classification, and competitive intelligence, but as part of a much larger IP service platform with global enterprise customers.
- LexisNexis PatentSight: Enterprise-grade patent analytics and quality benchmarking tool under LexisNexis. Comparable to PQAI on patent quality analytics and prior-art insights, but positioned and priced for large corporate IP departments rather than open-access users.
- Google Patents: The dominant free global patent search engine from Google. Provides comparable patent search functionality at massive scale, often cited in PQAI customer testimonials as a baseline competitor PQAI exceeds on semantic accuracy.
Others
- Semantic Scholar: AI-driven semantic search engine for scientific/academic papers. Not a patent competitor, but uses comparable dense-retrieval and embedding technology for non-patent literature, making it an adjacent reference point for PQAI's NPL search capabilities.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat6 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
PQAI social profiles
Digital presencePQAI compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance1 record
PQAI financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
PQAI leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles1 record
PQAI funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
PQAI M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about PQAI
What does PQAI do?
PQAI provides an open-source AI-powered semantic patent search platform that enables natural-language prior-art discovery across patents from 68+ offices and 100M+ research papers. Its offering includes a free web search interface, a Python SDK Patent Search API for embedding into LegalTech and IP software products, and an on-premise Private Server deployment for enterprises requiring data confidentiality. Companion tools (CPC lookup, concept extraction, keyword suggester, GAU predictor) are integrated to support inventors, researchers, and IP professionals through the patentability assessment workflow.
Is PQAI a public or private company?
PQAI is a private company. It is classified as nonprofit foundation owned and is currently operating.
When was PQAI founded?
PQAI was founded in 2019. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is PQAI based?
PQAI is headquartered in Scott Air Force Base, United States, in the North America region.
How does PQAI make money?
Six revenue lines are on record. Free Tier is the primary driver. The others are PQAI+ Individual Plan, PQAI+ Chat-Based Search, developer API Plan, enterprise API Plan and institutional Subscriptions.
Who are PQAI's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are IPRally, Solve Intelligence, Ambercite and XLSCOUT. Broad incumbents are PatSnap, The Lens (Lens.org), Orbit Intelligence (Questel), LexisNexis PatentSight and Google Patents. Semantic Scholar is listed as an others.
Does PQAI have an API?
Yes. PQAI API provides semantic prior-art search using dense retrieval over a global patent corpus, along with CPC classification prediction, concept extraction, patent data retrieval, patent drawing retrieval, and patent family information. API access is provided as part of PQAI+ subscription (Individual at $20/month or Enterprise at $700/month). For academic and non-commercial usage, a free API token can be requested via email at [email protected]. MCP server access is included with API plans, with MCP queries counting against the same monthly API quota. Enterprise and Developer plans are available at $199/month (600 queries/month) and $700/month (3000 queries/month) respectively. PQAI API returns structured JSON responses and supports endpoints for semantic prior-art search, similar-document retrieval, patent data retrieval, CPC class suggestions, and USPTO Group Art Unit prediction. Developer documentation is at api.projectpq.ai/docs.
What industry is PQAI in?
PQAI's product category is Patent Search Software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is MPAJACAK, IP & Patent Information Publishing (Patent/Litigation Analytics, Prior Art), with a secondary code of BPAEAPAN, IP Management, Patents & Trademark Software. Its NAICS code is 51321 and its SIC code is 7372.