7 AI tools that answer your PDF questions

Whether it’s for your studies or your work, browsing long PDF files to find a particular piece of information is the most boring thing to do. However, you can make things easier by using AI tools that answer PDF questions.

Most of these are GPT-based and work like ChatGPT. But they can provide answers from the PDF you upload. Here, we list the top seven of these tools.

AskYourPdf is a ChatGPT-based tool that allows you to upload PDFs and get relevant information in minutes. After uploading your documents, enter a question about anything in the PDF and get an accurate answer.

Using different suggestion techniques such as assigning the teacher role, you can use AskYourPdf to understand complex topics discussed in your file. Best of all, the tool is completely free.

Besides PDFs, you can upload other file types as well, including PPT, .TXT, CSV, and more. AskYourPdf supports up to 40MB files.

You can export your chat as a PDF for future reference as well. Likewise, there is an option to share a unique link which allows others to chat with the uploaded document. Rest assured, it won’t show them your chat history.

AskYourPdf is also available as a ChatGPT extension, but you must be a ChatGPT Plus user to install the plugins. While the tool works well, you’ll need to learn how to write effective tips to get the best results.

ChatPDF is another tool that does exactly what it promises: it lets you chat with your PDFs. To get started, you can upload the PDF from your device or retrieve it from a URL. It also has a search feature that lets you find PDFs from the Internet.

The tool uses GPT 3.5 and supports multiple languages. While it can’t read images in PDFs, the tool can somewhat understand tabular data. ChatPDF saves your chat history and allows you to export it. Just like AskYourPdf, it has a feature to share the document via a link.

Please note that ChatPDF replies may also contain information not mentioned in the uploaded file. So, be sure to double check all the answers.

It has both free and paid plans. The free account limits file size to 10MB and 120 pages, number of questions to 50 per day, and documents uploaded to three. Upgrading to the Plus plan (for $5 a month) increases these limits.

Perhaps the best thing about Documind is that you can search for information from multiple PDFs together.

First, the tool lets you upload documents, individually and in bulk. Then, you can visit the dashboard and start asking questions. Documind will scan all documents to find the answers.

Besides letting you find specific information from your PDF, Documind can also generate summaries of long documents.

Another interesting use case of Documind is that you can upload PDFs to create your own chatbot and add it to your website. This way, you can use him as a customer support agent. Of course, you can use it within your team as well.

However, Documind only provides 15 free credits. Beyond that, you’ll need to upgrade to one of three paid plans, with prices starting at $5 per month. It also provides API access.

LightPDF has dozens of tools to convert, secure and edit PDFs. One of them is an AI chatbot for reading PDF files. The tool not only provides quick answers to your questions but also generates summaries, diagrams and tables from the uploaded document.

Perhaps one of the most useful features is that it shows the page number of the file the information was extracted from, so you can quickly double-check it.

From Settings, you can change the language or switch to a more precise or more creative mode. LightPDF is not limited to PDFs only, as the tool also supports Excel, Word and PPT files. To upload PDFs with more than 200 pages or files in a format other than PDF, you’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan.

While LightPDF works great in the browser, it also has mobile and desktop apps.

PDF.ai has a fairly clean but practical interface. Split the card into two columns, showing your document on one side and the chatbot on the other. Similarly, from the dashboard, you can access all uploaded documents and your chat history.

With each response, PDF.ai mentions the source (the page number of the file), clicking on it takes you directly to that particular page. You can adjust the view and zoom of the file to review the document yourself.

The free account only allows you to upload a single PDF, so it’s for testing purposes only. But if you are willing to spend $15/month, PDF.ai removes all restrictions except 50MB per PDF. PDF.ai also has a PDF Chrome extension.

While expensive, PDF.ai is a great, easy-to-use tool, especially if you’d rather view the document yourself instead of relying solely on AI.

As the name suggests, FileGPT answers queries from different file types, not just PDFs. These include documents, web pages, audio and even video. Paid versions also support handwritten text and unstructured PDFs.

Just like Documind, FileGPT allows you to ask questions from multiple files at once. Better yet, you can create a chat with a collection of files and ask questions from it. This way, you can keep all your uploaded files but include or exclude specific ones from any chat. Thus, it is an ideal AI tool for researchers who want to search multiple files at the same time.

FileGPT also displays clickable references. Clicking these brings up excerpts from the original file. You can also open the loaded document in the sidebar, similar to how PDF.ai splits the screen.

Paid plans start at $18/month. If you choose Growth or higher account, you can integrate the tool with your website and provide live AI chat support to your customers. Another benefit of the upgrade is access to GPT-4 and GPT-3.5-turbo 16K, which are much more powerful than GPT-3.5.

ClarifyPDF allows you to upload up to 10MB of file and ask questions from it, as well as generate summaries. However, it only supports English language.

Unlike other tools listed here, ClarifyPDF lets you share your chat messages and documents with your friends via a unique link. It promises to keep your chat history forever.

One of the drawbacks of ClarifyPDF is that it doesn’t have a free plan. And even the paid plan costs $1.99 per PDF, making it more expensive for power users.

Find relevant information with just a few clicks

Thanks to these tools, finding relevant information from a 100 page PDF is as easy as sending a few messages to your friends. These tools search the entire PDF and provide a relevant and concise response, just like a ChatGPT response.

However, if you’re comfortable with ChatGPT and don’t want to spend money on another tool, there are ways to let ChatGPT read PDFs.