A few documents a day
Daily upload meters for quick questions about a paper, contract or report.
Independent desk-research guide
Free AI PDF summarizers and chat tools
Free PDF tools meter different things: documents per day, pages per month or questions in total. Two of the eight have no free AI plan (SciSpace is paid-only and Adobe offers only an Acrobat trial), so read the unit before assuming a plan is generous.
Quick answer
ChatPDF is the simplest free start: 2 documents a day, no account needed. AskYourPDF allows 1 document a day of up to 100 pages, PDF.ai gives 100 questions a month on one upload, and Humata meters 60 pages a month. ChatDOC allows 10 uploads and 100 questions in total but only 3 pages per file. Scholarcy fits research papers, Adobe Acrobat AI Assistant is a paid add-on with only a plan trial, and SciSpace lists no free plan.
Free plans at a glance
Limits below are from official pages checked on 2026-11-02. “Not verified” means the official page did not publish the detail.
| Tool | Free plan | Free allowance | Other free limits | Signup | Formats and languages |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ChatPDF | Free plan | The free plan lets you analyze 2 documents every day; no page or question quota is published. | No page, question or upload-size limit is stated on the homepage. The core free features need no account, but saved history and multi-document chats require a free account. | Not required | PDF, Word (.doc/.docx), PowerPoint (.ppt/.pptx), Markdown (.md) and text (.txt); the page says it accepts PDFs in any language and can chat in any language. |
| AskYourPDF | Free plan | The free plan covers 1 document per day, up to 100 pages per document, 50 questions per day and 3 conversations per day. | The maximum upload size is 15 MB, and the free plan is limited to the GPT-5 Mini model; no export or language limits are stated. | Not verified | Chats with PDFs, slide decks, notebooks and other documents; the site names PDF, TXT, PPT, PPTX, EPUB and RTF formats, but the pricing page gives no language list. |
| PDF.ai | Free plan | The Hobby plan is $0 and free forever, with a monthly limit of 100 questions and a PDF upload limit of 1. | Maximum file size is 10 MB, OCR is limited to 2 pages per file, the AI model is Basic, and chatting with all PDFs and AI Agents are not included; the Chrome extension is included. | Required | PDF uploads on the free plan, with OCR on 2 pages per file for scanned documents; supported languages are not stated. |
| Humata | Free plan | The free plan includes up to 60 free pages of use per month. | Free is limited to 1 user and 60 pages per month with no additional-page option; chat support, OCR, permissions, personalization and SOC 2 are not included, and no per-document page or file-size limit is stated. | Required | Free usage is metered in pages from uploaded PDFs; supported languages and non-PDF formats are not stated. |
| ChatDOC | Free plan | The free plan lists 10 file uploads and 100 questions in total, with 3 pages per file. | Free is PDF-only, OCR is not available, and the maximum file size is not published; the pricing section labels both limits as total rather than monthly. | Required | Free supports PDF only; Pro adds PDF, DOC, DOCX, scans, websites, EPUB, Markdown and TXT, and languages are not stated. |
| Scholarcy | Free plan | The free Article Summarizer card lists a limit of 10 summaries, while the FAQ on the same page says up to 1 summary per day; the two statements conflict. | Free users can export flashcards one at a time; unlimited summarization, enhanced summaries, saved flashcards, notes and the Literature Matrix are paid-only. | Not verified | The free Article Summarizer imports a range of research-article file formats; specific formats and supported languages are not listed. |
| Adobe Acrobat AI Assistant | Free trial | No free plan: AI Assistant is included with Acrobat Studio or sold as an add-on, and only a free trial of Acrobat plans is offered, with no published AI query or document allowance. | The add-on is listed at US$1.99/month or US$19.99/year on the US pricing page checked here; trial length and AI usage caps are not stated, and Acrobat Standard and Pro list AI Assistant as not included. | Required | PDF documents; AI Assistant supports English, Japanese, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Korean, Norwegian, Dutch, Finnish, Swedish and Danish. |
| SciSpace | Paid only | No free plan is listed: the pricing page shows only paid Premium, Advanced, Max, Teams and Enterprise plans, with Premium at $20/month or $12/month billed annually. | No free tier, free trial, credit allowance or free file/page limit is shown; paid plans advertise unlimited chat with PDF. | Not verified | The pricing page lists chat with PDF among its tools but gives no free-plan input formats, page limits or language support. |
Choose by reading workflow
Start with the job you need to finish, then check the free limit that would interrupt it.
A fixed page or question budget
A fixed allowance to track: PDF.ai and Humata reset monthly, while ChatDOC counts uploads and questions in total and Scholarcy publishes conflicting limits.
Paid or trial only
No lasting free tier: budget for a subscription or a trial of a wider suite.
Tool notes
Use these notes to shortlist a tool; confirm the current limit on its official page before relying on it.
ChatPDF
Free planBest for
Asking questions about a couple of documents a day with no account step.
Consider something else when
Tracking a research library: the free plan meters 2 documents a day and publishes no saved-history allowance.
- Free allowance
- The free plan lets you analyze 2 documents every day; no page or question quota is published.
- Other free limits
- No page, question or upload-size limit is stated on the homepage. The core free features need no account, but saved history and multi-document chats require a free account.
- Signup
- Not required
- Formats and languages
- PDF, Word (.doc/.docx), PowerPoint (.ppt/.pptx), Markdown (.md) and text (.txt); the page says it accepts PDFs in any language and can chat in any language.
AskYourPDF
Free planBest for
Mixed document formats, with a daily page and question allowance on one upload.
Consider something else when
Long documents or heavy questioning: one file a day, 100 pages, 50 questions and 3 conversations.
- Free allowance
- The free plan covers 1 document per day, up to 100 pages per document, 50 questions per day and 3 conversations per day.
- Other free limits
- The maximum upload size is 15 MB, and the free plan is limited to the GPT-5 Mini model; no export or language limits are stated.
- Signup
- Not verified
- Formats and languages
- Chats with PDFs, slide decks, notebooks and other documents; the site names PDF, TXT, PPT, PPTX, EPUB and RTF formats, but the pricing page gives no language list.
PDF.ai
Free planBest for
A clear monthly question budget on a single PDF, with a Chrome extension.
Consider something else when
Scanned documents or several files at once: OCR covers 2 pages per file and the free upload limit is 1 PDF.
- Free allowance
- The Hobby plan is $0 and free forever, with a monthly limit of 100 questions and a PDF upload limit of 1.
- Other free limits
- Maximum file size is 10 MB, OCR is limited to 2 pages per file, the AI model is Basic, and chatting with all PDFs and AI Agents are not included; the Chrome extension is included.
- Signup
- Required
- Formats and languages
- PDF uploads on the free plan, with OCR on 2 pages per file for scanned documents; supported languages are not stated.
Humata
Free planBest for
A monthly page budget for asking questions across PDFs.
Consider something else when
Large reports or teams: the free plan covers 60 pages a month for one user.
- Free allowance
- The free plan includes up to 60 free pages of use per month.
- Other free limits
- Free is limited to 1 user and 60 pages per month with no additional-page option; chat support, OCR, permissions, personalization and SOC 2 are not included, and no per-document page or file-size limit is stated.
- Signup
- Required
- Formats and languages
- Free usage is metered in pages from uploaded PDFs; supported languages and non-PDF formats are not stated.
ChatDOC
Free planBest for
Testing table and figure extraction on a few short PDFs.
Consider something else when
Scanned files or long reports: free is PDF-only, 3 pages per file, with no OCR.
- Free allowance
- The free plan lists 10 file uploads and 100 questions in total, with 3 pages per file.
- Other free limits
- Free is PDF-only, OCR is not available, and the maximum file size is not published; the pricing section labels both limits as total rather than monthly.
- Signup
- Required
- Formats and languages
- Free supports PDF only; Pro adds PDF, DOC, DOCX, scans, websites, EPUB, Markdown and TXT, and languages are not stated.
Scholarcy
Free planBest for
Turning research articles into summary cards and flashcards.
Consider something else when
Unlimited summarization or saved flashcards, which the pricing page lists as paid features.
- Free allowance
- The free Article Summarizer card lists a limit of 10 summaries, while the FAQ on the same page says up to 1 summary per day; the two statements conflict.
- Other free limits
- Free users can export flashcards one at a time; unlimited summarization, enhanced summaries, saved flashcards, notes and the Literature Matrix are paid-only.
- Signup
- Not verified
- Formats and languages
- The free Article Summarizer imports a range of research-article file formats; specific formats and supported languages are not listed.
Adobe Acrobat AI Assistant
Free trialBest for
Summaries inside an Acrobat workflow you already pay for, in 13 languages.
Consider something else when
Free use: AI Assistant is an add-on or part of Acrobat Studio, and only the Acrobat plans have a trial.
- Free allowance
- No free plan: AI Assistant is included with Acrobat Studio or sold as an add-on, and only a free trial of Acrobat plans is offered, with no published AI query or document allowance.
- Other free limits
- The add-on is listed at US$1.99/month or US$19.99/year on the US pricing page checked here; trial length and AI usage caps are not stated, and Acrobat Standard and Pro list AI Assistant as not included.
- Signup
- Required
- Formats and languages
- PDF documents; AI Assistant supports English, Japanese, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Korean, Norwegian, Dutch, Finnish, Swedish and Danish.
SciSpace
Paid onlyBest for
Research papers with unlimited chat, if you are ready to pay for a plan.
Consider something else when
A free tier: the pricing page lists only paid plans, with no free trial or credit allowance.
- Free allowance
- No free plan is listed: the pricing page shows only paid Premium, Advanced, Max, Teams and Enterprise plans, with Premium at $20/month or $12/month billed annually.
- Other free limits
- No free tier, free trial, credit allowance or free file/page limit is shown; paid plans advertise unlimited chat with PDF.
- Signup
- Not verified
- Formats and languages
- The pricing page lists chat with PDF among its tools but gives no free-plan input formats, page limits or language support.
Common questions
Which free PDF tool needs no account?
ChatPDF says the core free features need no account, although saved history and multi-document chats require one. The other tools either require signup or do not state it on the pages checked here, so treat those as unverified.
How is free use measured?
ChatPDF allows 2 documents a day, AskYourPDF 1 document and 50 questions a day, Humata 60 pages a month, PDF.ai 100 questions a month, ChatDOC 10 uploads and 100 questions in total, and Scholarcy either 10 summaries or 1 a day, depending on which statement on its pricing page you read.
Do the free plans handle scanned PDFs?
PDF.ai includes OCR for 2 pages per file on its free plan, while ChatDOC and Humata exclude OCR on Free. ChatPDF, AskYourPDF, Scholarcy and Adobe do not state free-plan OCR limits on the pages checked, so do not assume scanned files will work.
Which formats can I upload for free?
ChatPDF lists PDF, Word, PowerPoint, Markdown and text files. AskYourPDF lists PDF, TXT, PPT, PPTX, EPUB and RTF, and PDF.ai accepts PDF only. ChatDOC is PDF-only on Free, Humata meters PDF pages and Scholarcy does not list formats. Adobe works on PDFs and names 13 languages; other language lists are missing from these pages.