Chat with a PDF
Upload a PDF and ask questions in plain language; every answer points to the pages it is based on.
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or paste with Ctrl/⌘+V
Try it 5× without an account. A free account includes 20 AI credits a month. See plans
What it does
Chat with PDF, explained
Chat with PDF answers questions about your document, such as “What is the notice period for ending this contract?” or “Which medications does this discharge sheet list?”, and cites the page numbers each answer is based on.
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Answers come from the document only. When the file doesn't contain the answer, the reply says it couldn't find it rather than filling the gap from general knowledge. That matters most for questions the document seems to answer but doesn't, such as a renewal date that is only defined in another agreement.
Use chat for specific questions and follow-ups. For an overview, the AI PDF summarizer is quicker; to find every passage about a concept, AI search returns ranked matches; to find an exact word or number, plain Search PDF is free and instant.
Each message costs 1 AI credit. The relevant document text and your question are sent to OpenAI's API under OpenAI's API data-usage terms, which by default exclude API data from model training. Answers can be wrong and are not legal, medical or financial advice; check the cited pages.
How to do it
Chat with a PDF in 4 steps
1Your PDF
2Ask or summarize
3Answers that cite pages
- 1
Upload the PDF
It opens in the editor with the AI chat panel. Scanned files need OCR first.
- 2
Ask a question
Be specific: name the clause, section or figure you care about.
- 3
Check the citations
Click a cited page to see the passage the answer relies on.
- 4
Follow up
Ask follow-ups in the same thread; each message uses 1 AI credit.
Example
Before and after
A 25-page employee handbook and the question “How many days' notice do I need to give before taking unpaid leave?”
An answer quoting the notice requirement with a citation to the leave policy page, plus a note that the handbook doesn't say how leave interacts with probation.
Settings & formats
What you can control
Input
Output
Good to know before you start
- Answers can be incomplete or wrong; the citations are there so you can verify them.
- Only the document's text is read; numbers that appear only in charts or images are not seen.
- The chat doesn't browse the web or read other documents, so it can't resolve references to agreements you haven't uploaded.
If something goes wrong
If something goes wrong
- It says it can't find something I know is there
- The passage may be in a scanned page or an image. Run OCR PDF, or quote a phrase from the passage in your question.
- The answer cites the wrong page
- Tell it which section you mean and ask again, or use Search PDF to find the exact wording.
Chat with PDF: questions people ask
What happens if the answer isn't in the document?
The reply says the document doesn't cover it. It doesn't fill gaps from outside knowledge.
How many credits does chatting use?
1 AI credit per message. Without an account you have 5 credits; the Free plan includes 20 a month.
Can I chat with several PDFs at once?
A chat covers one document. Merge the files with Merge PDF first if you need to ask across them.
Is chat the same as AI search?
Chat writes an answer to a question. AI search returns a ranked list of matching passages, which is better for finding every place a topic comes up.
Is my document used for training?
Text is processed by OpenAI's API under OpenAI's API data-usage terms, which by default exclude API data from training. PDFBetter doesn't train models on your files.
Can I rely on the answers for legal decisions?
No. Use them to find and understand the relevant passages, then read those pages and get professional advice where it matters.