Chat with PDF
Upload a PDF and ask AI anything about it — summaries, key points, answers grounded in your file. Your PDF is never uploaded — only your question and the matching passages go to the AI. Free, no signup.
Free · No sign-up▶ Watch: How to chat with a PDF (0:38)
Video transcript
- Add your PDF. Drop a PDF. Its text is read in your browser and split into pages.
- Ask a question. Ask in plain English, just like you would ask a colleague.
- Read the answer. Only the matching passages are sent to the AI. The answer names its page.
- Check the source page. Tap the page chip to see the exact passage the answer is based on.
- Save the chat. Download the questions and answers as a Markdown file for your notes.
How to chat with a PDF
- 1. Drop a PDF into the upload box or click it to choose a file. The text is extracted page by page right in your browser.
- 2. Wait for the confirmation showing the file name, page count and character count. Scanned PDFs without selectable text will show a warning instead.
- 3. Type a question in the Ask a question about the PDF… box and press Enter or click Ask. Follow-up questions keep the recent conversation in mind.
- 4. Read the answer, which cites page numbers like (p. 3) for each fact, so you can open your PDF and check the original passage.
Frequently asked questions
Is Chat with PDF free, and are there page or question limits?
It is free with no sign-up. There’s no fixed page count, but very long documents stop being read after about two million characters of text. Questions go through a shared free AI service with fair-use rate limits (about 12 requests a minute and 300 a day per connection), so wait a moment if it says the AI is busy.
Is my PDF uploaded when I chat with it?
The PDF file itself stays in your browser; the text is extracted and searched on your device. When you ask a question, only that question, a few recent Q&As and up to about 7,000 characters of the best-matching passages are sent to our AI server, which passes them to an AI provider to write the answer. Avoid using it for highly confidential documents.
How do I ask questions about a PDF with AI?
Load the PDF, then ask in plain English, for example “What is the cancellation policy?” or “Summarize the key findings.” The tool finds the most relevant passages, and the AI answers using only those excerpts, citing page numbers. If the answer isn’t in the excerpts, it says so rather than guessing.
Can Chat with PDF read a scanned PDF?
Yes. When pages have no selectable text, the tool reads them with OCR right in your browser (up to 40 scanned pages; the scan is never uploaded) and then answers from that text. Faint or blurry scans read less accurately, so check key numbers with the page chip. Password-protected, encrypted or damaged PDFs can’t be opened and will show an error.
Can I get a summary of a long PDF instead of asking specific questions?
Yes. Ask something like “Give me an overview” or “What are the main points?” For broad questions the tool samples passages from across the whole document rather than one section, so the summary covers more ground. For very long files, asking about specific chapters or topics gives more detailed answers.
Does Chat with PDF work with any language?
It reads any PDF with selectable text, and passage matching works across languages. The AI is asked to reply in the language of your question, so you can ask in English about an English PDF or in Spanish about a Spanish one. Answers are only as accurate as the extracted text and excerpts.