Last month, I was preparing with a client for an upcoming tech conference. He handed me a 30-page brochure with the speaker profiles, schedule of important sessions, and sponsorship opportunities. Normally, going through all of that takes hours.
That’s when I tried out AI PDF chat tools. Within minutes, I had all the info at my fingertips. That experience opened my eyes to explore more AI tools that can genuinely help users analyze PDFs and get insights.
Today, I decided to finally share the 7 Best AI Tools for Chatting with PDFs with you. Here, you’ll find their unique features, limitations, pricing details, and ideal user types. Stay with me until the end for honest, practical insights.
| Tool | Free PDF Limits | AI Models | Best for |
| ChatPDF | 2 PDFs per day | GPT-4o and GPT-4o-mini | Easy-to-use interface |
| Sharly | 10 PDFs per month | GPT-4o, GPT-4o-mini, o1, and o1-mini | Customized output |
| SciSpace | Limited | Not mentioned | Technical and Citation-backed Analysis |
| AskYourPDF | 2 PDFs per day | GPT, Claude, Gemini | Multiple Document formats & Podcast |
| Sider.AI | Not mentioned | Basic: Sider Fusion, GPT-5 mini, Claude 3.5 Haiku, Gemini 2.5 Flash, Kimi K2, DeepSeek V3Advanced: GPT-5, GPT-4.1, DeepSeek v3.1, Claude 3.7 Sonnet, Claude Sonnet 4, Gemini 2.5 Pro, Gemini 2.5 Flash Think, and more | AI model flexibility for free |
| SmallPDF | 4 PDFs per day | GPT-4o Mini | Integrations |
| Humata AI | 1 PDF lifetime | Not mentioned | Reasoning and Audio Playback |
1. ChatPDF – Best for Easy-to-use Interface
| Rating | |
| File type supported | PDF, Word, PowerPoint, Markdown, and Text |
| Devices | Windows, Mac, iOS, Android |
Beginner AI tool users—if you’re looking for a user-friendly PDF analyzer, ChatPDF is just perfect. The app works similarly to ChatGPT but is specialized for PDFs. It uses advanced AI technology to scan, analyze, and summarize documents with accurate outputs.
Highlighted Features
- Login without Sign-Up: Simply visit their website, click the “+” button, and upload your document. When I tested with multiple files, no account or registration was required.
- Quick Response: The tool scans and processes even 50-page PDFs in just seconds. It then generates an AI-powered summary of the content.\
- Personalized Outputs: ChatPDF offers two output modes. The Fast mode is free, quick, and detailed, and the High Quality mode is for paid users.
- Academic + Non-Academic Use: The tool is trained to handle complex formulas in science notes. It gave me professional and polished answers for business PDFs.
- Multilingual Support: I uploaded English lecture notes, but asked for responses in Hindi. The answers are translated accurately.
- Cross-Device Accessibility: ChatPDF works on desktop and mobile. Apps are available for Mac and mobile devices via its web platform.
Pricing
ChatPDF free plan includes 120 pages/PDF, 2 PDF uploads/day, 20 messages/day. For unlimited PDFs, unlimited questions, and 2,000 pages/PDF, the Plus plan is available. It’ll cost ₹2,399.00 yearly (₹199.92 / month).
What I Dislike
- Struggles to handle detailed or complex queries.
- Paid versions still have limitations on file size, quantity, and pages.
Who Should Use
- Students and researchers looking for instant Q&A and summaries.
- Anyone seeking a simple, fast, no-login AI assistant for everyday document analysis.
2. Sharly – Best for Customized Output
| Rating | |
| File type supported | PDF, Word, Upload from Cloud, Link |
| Devices | Web based |
Sharly is another user-friendly tool, perfect for professional use cases. The app is trusted by over 2 million users, including teams at Microsoft, The New York Times, and more. It’s especially helpful for strategic decision-making, quick insights, and accurate marketing document analysis.
Highlighted Features
- Customized Output: Sharly allowed me to set custom instructions with flexible answer lengths. From the settings button under the Chat dashboard, I can choose content sources, set language preferences, and even add a custom prompt bar.
- Easy-to-read Summaries: Once a document is uploaded, Sharly processes it within seconds and generates a concise one-paragraph summary outlining the key contents.
- Structured Responses: Whether for academic research or marketing notes, Sharly delivers structured and to-the-point answers. I was especially impressed by its short, digestible language.
- Integrations: Sharly integrates with popular cloud platforms. So,. I can share files directly from Notion, Google Drive, Dropbox, or Sharly’s own cloud storage.
- Highly Accurate Answers: When I uploaded a CSR report and asked statistical questions, Sharly accurately responded with the exact employee retention rate and other figures.
Pricing
The free plan of Sharly allows up to 10 document uploads per month, 50 messages per chat, 10,000 context length, and access to the GPT-4o-mini model. For users who need more power, Sharly offers three paid plans: Pro, Team, and Business.
The Pro plan is priced at ₹5,000 annually (₹417 per month) and unlocks unlimited document uploads, an extended 50k context length, and access to advanced models including GPT-4o, o1-mini, o1, and more.
What I Dislike
- Unlike ChatPDF, Sharly was unable to provide output in Hindi.
- It can take extra time to process detailed sales reports.
- The free plan’s limits may not be sufficient for large-scale professional use.
Who Should Use
- Researchers and academics looking for advanced research paper analysis.
- Project managers and analysts who need customizable outputs.
- Teams that require secure collaboration on shared documents.
3. SciSpace – Best for Technical and Citation-backed Analysis
| Rating | |
| File type supported | PDF only |
| Devices | Windows, Mac, iOS, and Chrome plugin |
Another PDF chat assistant you can trust for both academic and marketing PDFs is SciSpace. It offers a Chrome extension for easy access and a mobile app for on-the-go use. The app is 256-bit encrypted, ensuring strong data privacy.
Highlighted Features
- Suggested Queries: Although SciSpace takes a little time to process PDFs, once uploaded, it generates suggested queries with pre-set prompts. This is helpful for students who want quick learning support.
- Clean Interface: The user interface is minimal and well-structured. You get a side-by-side view of the PDF and chat bar, while the left-side navigation menu provides access to tools like literature reviews, AI writing assistance, citation generation, and more.
- Citation-Backed Answers: When I uploaded chemistry lecture notes, SciSpace provided every answer with accurate page references.
- Answers in Multiple Languages: Similar to ChatPDF, SciSpace allows you to select your preferred language from a dropdown menu. For example, I asked for responses in Hindi.
- Explain Math and Tables: If your document includes complex numerical data or tables, you can simply hover your cursor over them to get clear explanations.
Pricing
SciSpace free users get 100 AI credits/month for AI agent use, plus limited chats with PDFs and access to the standard model only. For advanced needs, SciSpace offers three paid plans—Premium, Advanced, and Team.
The Premium plan starts at ₹8,400 per year (₹700 per month). It includes 1,200 monthly AI credits, unlimited chats with papers and PDFs, access to high-quality models, and more.
What I Dislike
- Takes longer to process documents compared to Sharly.
- Free limits on chats are not clearly explained.
- Lacks support for uploads from Google Drive or links.
Who Should Use
- Academics who need citation-linked insights for complex studies.
- University students looking for literature review support.
- Professionals who require accurate analysis for technical reading.
4. AskYourPDF – Best for Multiple Document Formats & Podcast
| Rating | |
| File type supported | PDF, Word, PowerPoint, Markdown, and Text |
| Devices | Windows, Mac, Android, iOS |
AskYourPDF is an AI-powered tool that helps you summarize and manage documents. It’s trusted by 5 million+ users as it provides a huge library of other AI tools like an AI Poem Generator, AI Humanizer, and AI Detector. I particularly liked its accuracy, high-quality summarization, and unique podcast generation feature.
Highlighted Features
- Multi-format Support: AskYourPDF supports the widest range of file types compared to many competitors. It can read and analyze PDF, DOC, TXT, PPT, PPTX, EPUB, and RTF files. You can also upload directly from Zotero or share links.
- Output Customization: From the upload page, you can set preferences for output. The tool allows you to choose answer length and format (auto, bullet points, paper-style, or paragraph).
- High-Quality Output: When I requested a summary, AskYourPDF generated a detailed explanation of each topic in the document. Even in auto mode, it didn’t just provide a simple chapter overview and included page-referenced citations for accuracy.
- Podcast Generation: You can convert chats and entire documents into podcasts. The podcast creates a conversational, interactive audio version with multiple speakers. It’s perfect for those who prefer listening to reading.
- Mobile and Desktop Access: AskYourPDF is available on mobile and desktop. The tool also integrates as a Chrome extension and plugins for Zotero and ChatGPT.
Pricing
Free users can upload 2 documents per day, ask up to 50 questions daily, and have 1 conversation with the AI. Plus, they can access 50 chats per day through plugins. AskYourPDF offers three paid plans: Premium, Pro, and Enterprise.
The Premium plan starts at $144.99 per year ($11.99/month) and includes support for up to 2,500 pages per document (max 31 MB), 1,200 questions per day, 50 documents per day, access to advanced AI models, and more.
What I Dislike
- Slow document processing speed
- Occasional glitches during chats
- Free plan limit of 2 uploads per day feels too restrictive
- User interface looks basic and outdated
Who Should Use
- Academics and students handling multiple document formats
- Professionals working across desktop, mobile, and browser platforms
- Individuals who want podcast-style summaries of their documents
5. ChatPDF by Sider.AI – Best for AI Model Flexibility
| Rating | |
| File type supported | PDF, Word, PowerPoint, Markdown, and Text |
| Devices | Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Edge & Chrome extension |
Sider AI is a popular app, ranked as a 2023 Chrome Favorite with a 4.9 rating on the Chrome Store. This app also provides ChatPDF features, letting you interact with, analyze, and summarize PDFs, documents, and presentations.
Highlighted Features
- AI Model Selection: Sider AI supports multiple AI models such as Sider Fusion, GPT-5 Mini, Claude 3.5 Haiku, DeepSeek V3, and Kimi K2. All are free to use. Paid users can access even more advanced models.
- Brief Summaries: The tool accurately detects chapters when extracting key terms (e.g., from Unit III). While it provided me with short, to-the-point answers for marketing documents, the output quality for technical documents was average.
- PDF Translator: You can translate PDFs into different languages (Hindi, Chinese, Japanese, etc.) directly from the chat dashboard. For example, I translated a CSR report into Hindi, and it provided each slide with accurate Hindi translations.
- Extensions: Unlike many other PDF analyzers, Sider AI is available for Microsoft Edge users in addition to Chrome. It provides extensions for both browsers.
- Easy Organization: You can save chats as notes and later use them for multi-note chats, making research and reference much easier.
Pricing
For free users, Sider AI allows uploads up to 10 MB with 30 credits to chat using basic AI models. But it does not clearly specify the daily file upload limit or exact AI credit consumption. There are four paid plans: Starter, Unlimited, Basic, and Pro.
The Starter plan costs $50/year ($4.20/month). It offers 1,800 credits/month for basic AI models, 100 advanced credits/month for advanced AI models, file/link chat support, and access to premium features.
What I Dislike
- 10 MB maximum upload size is too low.
- No clear details about upload limits.
- Output accuracy can vary for scientific/academic documents.
Who Should Use
- Users who prefer browser overlays and extensions.
- Tech enthusiasts interested in exploring different AI models.
- Non-native speakers who want to translate PDFs easily.
6. SmallPDF – Best for Integrations
| Rating | |
| File type supported | PDF, Word, PowerPoint, Markdown, and Text |
| Devices | Windows, iOS, Android, |
You must have used SmallPDF for compressing or converting PDFs — it’s extremely popular. In fact, it has been trusted by 1.7 billion users since 2013. Alongside its core tools, SmallPDF also provides a Chat with PDF feature, which is very useful.
Highlighted Features
- Accurate Output: I tested SmallPDF with both academic and non-academic documents. It accurately analyzed each page and provided correct answers to both factual and general queries.
- Suggested Questions: Most PDF analyzers only suggest questions at the time of file upload. However, SmallPDF goes a step further by providing new suggested questions after every query. It helps with deeper learning and exploration.
- Integrations: SmallPDF integrates seamlessly with Google Drive, Dropbox, and OneDrive. You can also share outputs directly via WhatsApp, Telegram, Reddit, LinkedIn, Twitter, and more.
- Safe & Private Document Processing: SmallPDF is ISO/IEC 27001 certified and follows strict data security standards. It is GDPR-compliant, uses TLS encryption, and automatically deletes files after a set time. Importantly, it does not store your chat history.
Pricing
SmallPDF free users can upload up to 4 documents per day and have 20–30 AI chats daily. They can upload files of up to 50 MB with a word limit of 25K–35K. Paid options include three plans: Pro, Team, and Business.
The Pro plan starts at ₹8,799/year (₹733.25/month) and offers unlimited chats with PDFs, no file upload size limit, and support for documents containing up to 100K words.
What I Dislike
- Inability to accurately cite references
- Outputs are too short for descriptive questions
- Struggles with processing scientific academic documents
Who Should Use
- Students and everyday users who want instant summaries
- Individuals seeking a free, privacy-focused document analysis tool
7. Humata AI – Best for Reasoning and Audio Playback
| Rating | |
| File type supported | PDF, Word, PowerPoint, Markdown, and Text |
| Devices | Web based |
The last PDF analyzer tool I tested is Humata AI. It provides a secure, encrypted conversational AI agent to analyze documents. While it’s trusted by top companies like Google, I wouldn’t recommend it due to its strict free limits and slow output speed.
Highlighted Features
- Brief Summary: When you upload a file, Humata AI takes some time to process it. But then summarizes the key themes, similar to an executive summary.
- Multiple File-Type Support: In addition to PDFs, Humata AI supports DOCX, DOC, PPTX, PPT, and TXT files. You can also add website and YouTube links to generate summaries or start a chat.
- Audio Support: The tool can read outputs aloud. By clicking the headphone icon, the AI narrates the results, useful for multitasking or accessibility.
- High Accuracy: When I asked for facts from a CSR report, it provided the correct data with precision. Humata AI can even extract numbers from bar charts, graphs, and visuals.
- References: Every answer is cited, and by clicking on a citation number, you can view the highlighted text within the original PDF.
- Thinking Mode: For reasoning-based questions, you can enable Thinking Mode. For example, when I asked about the importance of website marketing in the era of social media (indirectly), it extracted relevant points from multiple chapters and presented a strong answer.
Pricing
Free users can upload only 1 document lifetime, limited to 60 pages per PDF and 10 answers, with access to only basic features. Paid options include Student, Expert, Team, and Enterprise plans. The Student plan requires a verified academic email ID.
The Expert plan costs $9.99/month (no annual plan available) and includes up to 500 pages per upload, access to the GPT-4.0 model, and shared usage with up to 3 additional users.
What I Dislike
- 1 document upload per day is very restrictive
- Outdated interface compared to other apps
- Not ideal for scientific or highly technical academic documents
- Slowest processing time compared to all the apps tested
Who Should Use
- Teams that need a secure document analyzer
- Students who want webpage summaries or audio playback of outputs
You may not know this, but AI-powered PDF chat tools help students as well as professionals in multiple ways.
1. Instant Summaries
Whether you’re a university graduate or a busy professional, nobody has the time or energy to read 40–50 pages just to get a summary. These PDF analyzers can process entire documents and provide an overview within seconds.
2. Saves Time
Instead of going page by page to find one fact or statistic, tools like ChatPDF, Sharly, and Humata AI deliver accurate answers instantly.
3. Team Collaboration
AI tools such as SmallPDF let you share output conversations through third-party apps. You can easily send AI-generated insights via WhatsApp, LinkedIn, and more.
4. Accessible Anytime
Most Chat-with-PDF tools are available across devices. This means you can generate insights and access information on the go — from your mobile or laptop.
5. Audio Listening
Not everyone enjoys reading PDFs or even AI-generated summaries. Tools like AskYourPDF let you convert documents into podcasts for easy learning, while Humata AI also provides audio playback of outputs.
When you search Google with keywords like “AI Tools for Chatting with PDF,” you’ll find 30+ recommendations. It’s not possible to try and compare them all within a limited time, so I did the job for you over the course of a month.
I initially selected 10+ tools but rejected those that only offered free trials. To find the very best, I measured the performance of each tool against the following metrics:
- Number of documents allowed per day (free)
- Document size and page limits
- Data protection policies
- Ease of access and usability
- Ability to analyze technical/scientific documents
- Accuracy in providing factual information
- Quality of summaries
- Upload and processing speed
- Bonus features
I tested these tools with a variety of documents, including both scientific and non-scientific academic notes, as well as company reports (like CSR data). Finally, the 7 AI Tools for Chatting with PDFs listed above made the cut — each offering unique value.
Why Should You Trust Me?
I’ve been working with digital tools since 2015. Over the years, I’ve gradually built expertise in SaaS products and AI tools through constant experimenting, testing, and reviewing. My goal is to help freelancers, small startups, and tech enthusiasts discover tools and knowledge that make their work truly easier.
On my website, you’ll find detailed and practical guides such as 9 Best AI Chatbots in 2025, 11 Best Free AI Prompting Courses, How to Prepare for an Interview Using AI,and 7 Best Free AI English Speaking Apps.
Over time, this journey has boosted my confidence in identifying what really works. One thing you can always be sure of: my recommendations are honest, practical, and based on hands-on testing.
Conclusion
In this article, we explored the 7 Best AI Tools for Chatting with PDFs. Each PDF chat assistant offers its own unique features and value. Hence, these are different types of users.
I found these chat-with-PDF tools are simple to use. You just upload your file and start prompting.
- For students, ChatPDF is highly recommended.
- For professionals, Sharly is more job-oriented.
- SciSpace excels in technical analysis.
- AskYourPDF is great for turning content into podcast-style outputs.
These tools can save you both time and effort, though most come with certain daily usage limits. I encourage you to experiment with different options and find the one that best fits your needs.
FAQs
Are these tools free to use?
Yes, all the AI PDF chat tools mentioned in this article are free to use. Most of them have certain limitations, such as upload limits, file size restrictions, and a cap on the number of AI chats available for free users.
Can I use these tools without an account?
Yes. PDF chat tools like ChatPDF, SciSpace, Sider AI, and SmallPDF can be used without logging in. The rest require you to sign up, usually with a Gmail ID.
What formats are supported besides PDF?
In addition to PDFs, you can also upload presentations, text-based documents, EPUB, RTF, and scanned or image-based files via OCR. Some tools even allow you to upload links from YouTube or websites.
Can I chat with documents in languages other than English?
Yes. Many tools support multilingual outputs, including Hindi, Chinese, Japanese, Italian, and more. For example, in my test, ChatPDF, SciSpace, and Sider AI provided accurate responses in Hindi.
Which PDF chat tools provide citation-backed answers and sources?
Most AI PDF chat tools provide citation-backed answers. In my experience, SciSpace, AskYourPDF, and Humata AI offered the most reliable and accurate citations.
