7 AI Tools That Answer Questions From Your PDFs

Whether for your studies or work, going through lengthy PDF files to find particular information can become extremely tedious. However, you can make things easier using AI tools that answer questions from your PDFs, cutting down the time you spend searching for specific data.

AskYourPDF is a ChatGPT-powered tool that allows you to upload PDFs and get relevant information within minutes. Once you’ve uploaded your documents, you can enter a question about anything in the PDF and get a to-the-point answer.

By using different AI prompting techniques like assigning it the role of a teacher, you can use AskYourPDF to understand complex topics discussed in your file. Besides PDFs, you can upload other file types, including PPT, TXT, CSV, and more.

You can export your chat as a PDF for future reference, too. Likewise, there’s an option to share a unique link that allows others to chat with your uploaded document. Rest assured, it won’t display your chat history to them.

AskYourPDF has both free and paid plans. The free plan supports files up to 15 MB and limits conversations to one per day. The paid plans start from $11.99 monthly and offer OCR support and increased file size limits.

Though AskYourPDF works well, you’ll have to learn to write effective prompts for the best results.

ChatPDF is another tool that does exactly what it says on the tin—it lets you chat with your PDFs. To get started, upload a PDF from your device or fetch it from a URL.

ChatPDF uses GPT 3.5 and supports multiple languages. While it can’t read images in PDFs, the tool can somewhat understand tabular data. It also saves your chat history and lets you export it. Like AskYourPDF, it has a feature allowing you to share the document via a link.

Beware that ChatPDF responses can also contain information not mentioned in the uploaded file—so be sure to double-check any answers.

It has both free and paid plans. A ChatPDF free account restricts file size to 120 pages and document uploads to two per day. Upgrading to the ChatPDF Plus plan (for $11.99 monthly) increases these limits.

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

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

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

Another interesting Documind feature is that you can upload PDFs to create your own chatbot and add it to your website. This way, you can use it as your customer support agent. Of course, you can also use it internally within your team.

However, Documind provides a single free credit, which equates to a single question, so make sure it counts. Beyond that, you must upgrade to the Premium+ tier, which costs $19.93 per month and provides API access.

LightPDF has dozens of tools for converting, protecting, and editing PDFs, including an AI chatbot for reading PDF files. The tool provides quick answers to your questions and generates summaries, outlines, and tables from the uploaded document.

One of LightPDF’s handiest features is that it displays the page number of the file where the information was extracted so you can quickly double-check it.

From Settings, you can change the language or switch to a more precise or creative mode. LightPDF isn’t limited to PDFs; the tool also supports Excel, Word, and PPT files. To upload PDFs with more than 100 pages or files in a format other than PDF, you’ll have to upgrade to a paid plan.

Though LightPDF works seamlessly in the browser, it also has mobile and desktop apps.

PDF.ai has quite a clean yet handy interface. It splits the tab into two columns, showing your document on one side and the chatbot on the other. Similarly, you can access all the uploaded documents and your chat history from the dashboard.

With each answer, PDF.ai mentions the source (the page number of the file), and clicking it takes you directly to that page. You can adjust the file’s display and zoom to review the document yourself.

The free account lets you upload a single PDF only, so it’s just for testing purposes. But if you are willing to spend $17 monthly, you can upload 100 documents and ask 5000 questions monthly. PDF.ai also has a Chrome extension for PDF.

Though costly, PDF.ai is a great, user-friendly tool, especially if you prefer to view the document yourself instead of solely relying on AI.

If you’re looking for a tool for your team, Humata is perhaps the best option. It lets you arrange the files in folders, offers role-based access, and uses 256-bit SHA encryption.

With Humata, you can combine answers from multiple files. It also adds clickable references to responses and highlights the section from which it extracted the answer.

Humata doesn’t limit the file size and lets you ask unlimited questions (except for the free plan). However, it caps the number of pages you can analyze each month, charging $0.01-$0.02 for each page beyond that limit.

The tool supports various file types, including PDF, DOCX, and PPT. With Teams plan, you can use its OCR feature to ask questions from scanned PDFs. You can also upload a file to Humata and embed your custom chatbot on any webpage.

The free plan allows you to upload up to 60 pages and ask ten questions, while the paid plans start from $9.99 per month. There’s also a $1.99 per month plan for students.

If you prefer a pay-as-you-go model, Bunni is a great option. It lets you upload multiple documents and chat with them together, and with each answer, Bunni provides multiple references, allowing you to double-check the information. It supports multiple languages and can also summarize PDFs for you.

With Bunni’s free plan, you get 20 credits and can upload files up to 5MB. Buying credits increases the file size limit to 20MB. Credits cost between $0.02 to $0.008, depending on the pack size. However, though a handy tool overall, Bunni can’t read scanned PDFs or tabular data.

These tools make finding relevant information from a 100-page PDF as easy as sending a few messages to your friends. These tools search the entire PDF and provide a relevant, concise answer, much like a ChatGPT response.

However, if you’re comfortable using ChatGPT, you can upgrade to ChatGPT Plus and analyze your documents.