Frequently Asked Questions

CLARA is an AI-powered research tool made by the University of Oxford. You type a question, and CLARA searches through over 1.4 million pages of real industry documents to find answers for you. Every answer comes with a link (called a citation) to the exact page where the information was found, so you can always check the source yourself.

Anyone interested in researching corporate accountability, public health, or environmental issues. That includes researchers, lawyers, journalists, students, NGO staff, and policymakers. You don't need any technical background to use it.

Click the 'Get Started' button on the homepage. Enter your name, email, and choose a password. We'll send a short verification code to your email — just type it in and you're ready to go. The whole process takes about a minute.

No, CLARA is completely free. You get a daily allowance of credits that top up automatically each day. There are no paid plans, no trials, and no hidden charges.

CLARA gives you access to four large collections from the UCSF Industry Documents Library (a major public archive): Fossil Fuel (climate and emissions research), Chemical and Benzene (safety and exposure records), Pharmaceutical (drug trials and marketing), and Food (safety studies and additives). You can also upload your own documents and search those too.

Just type your question in the chat box (sometimes called a prompt), the same way you'd ask a colleague. For example: 'What did oil companies know about climate change in the 1980s?' CLARA will search the documents and write an answer with links to the sources it used.

Citations are the small numbered links you'll see in CLARA's answers. Each one points to a specific page in the original documents. Click on any citation to see the actual source — this lets you verify the information yourself and use it in your own work.

Yes. Click the collections button next to the chat input to choose your sources. You can search CLARA's built-in collections, your own uploads, and files created by CLARA — all at once. CLARA will tell you which source each piece of information came from.

CLARA always tries to base its answers on the actual documents and show you where it found the information. But like any AI tool, it can sometimes get things wrong or miss details. That's why we include citations with every answer — always click through and check the sources, especially for important research.

Yes. You can upload PDFs, Word documents, text files, and images (common formats like .pdf, .docx, .txt, .png, .jpg). Once uploaded, CLARA can read and search through them just like the built-in collections. Each file can be up to 50 MB, and you get 200 MB of storage in total.

The Workspace is your personal writing area inside CLARA. Think of it like a built-in notepad where you can write research notes, reports, and summaries. You can also ask CLARA to create documents for you directly in the Workspace.

Yes. Just ask in the chat — for example, 'Create a timeline of key events from the fossil fuel documents' — and CLARA will write a structured document and save it to your Workspace. You can then edit it however you like.

The editor works like a simple word processor (a rich-text editor). You can add headings, bold and italic text, bullet lists, quotes, and more using the toolbar at the top. No special knowledge needed — if you've used Google Docs or Word, you'll feel right at home.

Yes. CLARA keeps a history of changes to your files (called version history). If CLARA edits a document during a conversation and you prefer the earlier version, you can easily go back to it.

Credits are what CLARA uses to track your daily usage. Each time you send a message, it uses a small number of credits. You can see how many credits you have left at the top of the screen.

You get a fresh set of credits every day, enough to support a full day of research. The exact number may change over time as we manage the platform, but you'll always start each day with a full allowance.

Your credits will refresh the next day. In the meantime, you can still read through your past conversations, check citations, and work on documents in your Workspace — you just won't be able to send new questions until your credits reset.

Yes. Your account is protected with secure sign-in, and all your data is encrypted (scrambled so only you and our servers can read it) when it travels between your computer and CLARA. Only you can see your conversations and files — no other user has access to your account.

No. When you ask CLARA a question, your message is sent to an AI service (OpenAI) to generate the answer, but it is not saved or used to train any AI models. Their API (the way our systems talk to each other) policies confirm this. Your conversations stay private.

No. Your conversations, files, and uploads are completely private. Other users cannot see any of your data. Our team can see basic account information (like your email) for support purposes, but we cannot read your conversations or open your files.

You can delete individual conversations or files at any time by clicking the delete option next to them. If you'd like to delete your entire account and everything associated with it, go to your profile menu and choose 'Request Data Deletion'. This is permanent and cannot be undone.

The more specific you are, the better. Instead of 'Tell me about climate change', try 'What did Exxon's internal research say about CO2 emissions between 1975 and 1990?' Also, use the collections picker to select only the sources relevant to your question — this helps CLARA focus on the right documents.

CLARA uses AI to read and summarise documents, and AI can phrase things differently each time — much like how two people might summarise the same article in different words. The underlying documents don't change, just the way the answer is written. If you get a great answer, save it to your Workspace so you don't lose it.

Yes, CLARA works on phones and tablets through your web browser — no app needed. The experience is best on a laptop or desktop though, since you get more room to see the chat, sources, and editor side by side.

First, check that you've verified your email — look for a verification code in your inbox (and your spam folder). If you've forgotten your password, click 'Forgot password?' on the sign-in page to reset it. Still stuck? Email us at admin@clara-research.com and we'll help.

Just send us an email at admin@clara-research.com. We're a small team at the University of Oxford and we read every message. Whether it's a question, a suggestion, or something that's not working — we'd love to hear from you.