Reading long PDF files is time-consuming and summarizing them is tedious. Luckily, you can take advantage of free AI tools to summarize PDF files quickly. What might take minutes or even hours can now be completed within moments. Here are a few AI-powered PDF summarizing tools that would work in any browser.
Note: You will need to upload the PDF file to the website which raises privacy and security concerns. Proceed only if you are okay with it. While most sites claim that they do not store these files and that they are deleted after a few hours, there is still a risk.
Table of Contents
1. PDF.AI
First up is PDF.ai. All you have to do is upload the PDF file, and PDF.ai will be ready to take questions within seconds. During our test, we uploaded a 30MB file with 194 pages, and the PDF AI tool took less than 3 seconds to scan the document. While uploading the PDF, there is an option to mark the file as private, which is neat.
PDF.ai will answer the questions, and reference the page number if you want to cross-check which instills a sense of confidence while helping in further research. Answers are generated instantly and are accurate. Also, if you aren’t sure what questions to ask, PDF.ai can recommend a few to get you started.
Some advanced features like whitelabel, ChatGPT-4 support (requires credits), and API access are locked under paid plans that start at $10 per month.
Pros:
- File size is capped at 10MB
- Can ask up to 500 questions per month
- Supports OCR
- Privacy feature
Cons:
- Requires sign-in
- Free plan allows only 1 PDF file upload
Pro Tip: Since you can sign in using Gmail and GitHub accounts, you can use different IDs to get around this limit. That’s useful if you have a few PDFs to summarize.
2. ChatPDF
ChatPDF works like PDF.ai, but with some differences. You can upload up to 2 PDFs daily for free – a lot better than PDF.ai. Each PDF can be up to 120 pages long. However, we uploaded our 194-page long report and it worked. We asked ChatPDF to summarize the report in English, and then in French. A complete list of supported languages is not listed.
Its Pro plan costs $6.99 and unlocks the ability to upload unlimited PDF files each up to 2,000 pages long and 32MB in size, ask unlimited questions, and save PDFs in folders.
Pros:
- No sign-is required for free plan
- Upload 2 files daily in free plan
- PDF is visible at all times for perusal
- Page numbers are referenced
- Clicking page number opens that page in PDF
- Supports several languages
Cons:
- Doesn’t cite Page numbers for every response
3. PrivateGPT
PrivateGPT is for those who value privacy and security. It is available on GitHub, but requires some knowledge of Windows/Linux. The installation process is a little advanced and requires installing Python and Poetry. The documentation has detailed steps to install and run them using Terminal or PowerShell app.
After that, you get to use your private GPT.
Pros:
- Free and open-source
- Offline Usage
- No limits on file size, number of questions, or number of pages
- Windows and Linux supported
Cons:
- No macOS support
- Installation and upgrades require advanced Terminal/PowerShell skills
You get a local, offline, and private GPT with no limits on file size, number of questions, or PDFs that you can play around with.
4. KnowledgeGPT
If PrivateGPT sounds too much of a hassle for peace of mind (privacy and security), there is another option. KnowledgeGPT is an open-source, free web app you can use on any browser. No installations or advanced skills are needed.
You do need an OpenAI API key that is free to generate and use. Simply copy-paste the key in the left sidebar and you are good to go.
Pros:
- Free and open-source
- Not ad-supported
Cons:
- File upload limit is set to 25MB
Read More in Less Time
AI tools like the ones mentioned above make it much faster and easier to summarize PDF reports. All you have to do is scan and upload the file to one of the AI tools for PDF that meets your needs and begin asking questions. But why stop at creating summaries? You can ask many different types of questions depending on the contents of the file, making the learning experience fast and fun.
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