Zotero 10 Is Here: What's New, What's Still Missing, and Which Plugins Lag Behind

Zotero 10 is officially out. Released on August 17, 2026, it's the latest major release in Zotero's rapid release cycle — and it's a big one. If you've been waiting for a reason to upgrade, this is it.

But before you hit "Check for Updates," there's one thing you should know: not every plugin has caught up with Zotero 10 yet. Some of your favorite plugins may still be running on Zotero 7 or 8 compatibility, and a few — like Aria — haven't shipped a Zotero 10-compatible build yet.

Here's everything that's new in Zotero 10, what's still missing, and how to make sure your research workflow survives the upgrade.

What's New in Zotero 10

Zotero 10 is packed with quality-of-life improvements that make managing a large library dramatically easier. Here are the headline features.

1. A Redesigned Advanced Search

The advanced search has been completely rebuilt. It now opens directly above the items list from a button in the quick-search bar, and it can filter any view — including collections and saved searches.

Nested condition groups let you build complex, multi-level searches.
Result levels let you search top-level items, attachments, annotations, or notes, with conditions automatically mapped across levels.
New conditions include Annotation Type, Color, and Author; Attachment Storage Type; and counts of annotations, attachments, notes, and tags.
New "is empty" / "is not empty" operators make it easy to find items missing metadata.

2. Smarter, Faster Search

Searching your library is now accent-insensitive ("cafe" finds "café") and full-text searches are much faster. Chinese, Japanese, and Korean searches in the quick-search bar now match full phrases quickly, and background indexing of new attachments is faster and more reliable.

3. Multi-Collection Selection

You can now select multiple collections, saved searches, or even entire libraries in the collections pane and view all their items together — grouped by library with sticky headers as you scroll. Combined with the new advanced search, this is a powerful way to work across your whole library at once.

4. Batch Editing

Edit fields on multiple items at once. Pair it with the new advanced search and multi-collection selection to find and fix metadata across one or more libraries in a single pass.

5. Undo Support

Zotero 10 finally adds undo and redo for many operations via Edit → Undo/Redo or standard keyboard shortcuts. Plugins can even opt their operations into the undo history.

6. Smarter Read Aloud

Read Aloud got smarter: it now skips in-text citations, headers, footers, tables, figures, and equations, reads paragraphs continuously across columns and pages, and highlights individual sentences as they're read.

7. Reading Mode for PDFs

A new Reading Mode renders PDFs as clean, reflowable text with adjustable font, size, and line spacing — no headers, footers, or multi-column layouts. Images, tables, and figures still render as in the original, and your highlights, underlines, and notes carry over to the standard PDF view.

8. Other Notable Improvements

Improved Safari Connector (requires Safari 18 on macOS 13+)
Citation preview pane in the citation dialog
Lower memory usage from reader tabs
Better database performance with automatic compaction
Mac Word plugin support on macOS 27 Golden Gate

The Catch: Not Every Plugin Supports Zotero 10 Yet

Here's the honest part. Zotero's rapid release cycle is great for the core app, but it's a treadmill for plugin developers. Every major version bump can break plugins, and it takes time for developers to ship compatible builds.

Right now, some plugins still target Zotero 7 or 8 and haven't released a Zotero 10-compatible version. Aria — the collaborative annotation plugin for research groups — is one example that users have flagged as not yet updated for Zotero 10. Others may work but show compatibility warnings.

Before you upgrade, check your plugins:

Open Tools → Plugins in Zotero and note which plugins you rely on.
Check each plugin's release page or GitHub for a Zotero 10-compatible version.
If a critical plugin hasn't caught up, you can either wait to upgrade or keep using the plugin's beta/development build if one exists.

The good news: PapersGPT is already compatible with Zotero 10. We ship updates alongside every Zotero release, so your AI research assistant keeps working the moment you upgrade.

What Zotero 10 Still Doesn't Do: Native AI Chat

Zotero 10 is excellent at organizing, searching, and reading — but it still doesn't ship an AI assistant that can answer questions about your library.

You still can't open Zotero, select twenty papers on transformer architectures, and ask "What are the conflicting findings on attention sparsity?" and get a synthesized, cited answer.

That's exactly where an AI Zotero plugin like PapersGPT comes in.

How to Combine Zotero 10 with an AI Research Assistant

The most efficient research setup in 2026 combines both:

1. Use Zotero 10 for organizing and reading

Take advantage of the new advanced search, multi-collection selection, batch editing, and Reading Mode to keep your library clean and actually read your papers.

2. Use AI for comprehension and synthesis

Install PapersGPT inside Zotero and:

Chat with a single PDF: "Summarize this paper's contribution in three sentences and list its limitations."
Chat with multiple PDFs at once: select an entire collection and ask cross-paper questions.
Automate your reading queue with AutoPilot: batch-process 100+ papers overnight into structured summaries, ready in the morning.
Generate a literature review draft from dozens of PDFs in seconds, grounded in your actual library — every claim traceable back to a source you own.

3. Keep your data private

PapersGPT is the rare Zotero AI plugin that supports local, offline models (gpt-oss, Gemma 3, Qwen 3, Phi, and more). No API key, no data leaving your machine — ideal for preprints, sensitive research, or trips with bad Wi-Fi.

Which Zotero Version Should You Use in 2026?

Scenario	Best choice
You're on Zotero 7 or 8	Upgrade to Zotero 10 — the new search, batch editing, and Reading Mode are transformative
You rely on plugins that haven't caught up	Check compatibility first; consider waiting or using dev builds
You want AI chat + literature reviews	Zotero 10 + PapersGPT
You care about privacy	Zotero 10 + PapersGPT local LLM mode
You collaborate in groups	Zotero 10 (multi-collection + batch editing) + PapersGPT

FAQ

Is Zotero 10 free? Yes. Zotero 10 is completely free and open source, like every version before it.

How do I upgrade to Zotero 10? Update in-app (Zotero → Preferences → General → "Check for Updates") or download the latest version from zotero.org.

Will my plugins work with Zotero 10? Most popular plugins are being updated, but not all have caught up yet. Check each plugin's release page before upgrading — some, like Aria, may still be on older compatibility.

Does Zotero 10's Reading Mode replace AI chat? No. Reading Mode makes PDFs easier to read; it doesn't answer questions, summarize across documents, or draft a literature review. For that, pair it with an AI plugin like PapersGPT.

Can I use PapersGPT with Zotero 10? Yes — PapersGPT is already compatible with Zotero 10, and we keep supporting new versions as they ship.

Where can I learn about Zotero 9? If you skipped Zotero 9, see our guide on Zotero 9's new features and how it compares.

Ready to Upgrade Your Research Workflow?

Zotero 10 is the best version of Zotero ever — and the perfect moment to add AI to your workflow. Download PapersGPT for Zotero and start chatting with your PDFs, generating literature reviews, and automating your reading queue today.