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Chat with PDF

Upload a PDF and ask it questions in plain English. Text is extracted in your browser, then sent to PDFly's server to generate an answer.

Last Updated: August 2026Written by Ayaz

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How it works

Upload your PDF and its text is extracted directly in your browser using the document's existing text layer — the file itself is never uploaded. When you ask a question, that extracted text plus your question (and the last few turns of the conversation) are sent to PDFly's server, which forwards them to Google Gemini to generate an answer.

The AI is instructed to answer only from what's in your document, and to say so plainly if the answer isn't there rather than guess.

What you can ask

Specific facts: "What's the deadline in section 3?"
Summaries: "Give me a summary of the main findings."
Comparisons: "How does this year compare to last year?"
Lists: "List all the action items in this document."

A note on privacy

The file itself is opened and its text extracted locally, right in your browser — the original file is never uploaded anywhere. But to generate an answer, that extracted text and your question are sent to PDFly's server, which forwards them to Google Gemini. If you're working with something you'd rather not have leave your device at all, PDFly's non-AI tools (merge, split, compress, and similar) process everything locally with nothing sent anywhere — see the privacy page for details.

Limitations

Works from the PDF's existing text layer only — it doesn't perform OCR. For scanned/image-only PDFs, run OCR PDF first.
The extracted document text is capped at 40,000 characters (roughly 10,000 tokens). Longer documents are automatically truncated to this limit before you can start chatting.
Each question is capped at 2,000 characters.
Answers do not include page references or citations — check anything important against the original PDF.
AI features share a daily capacity limit; if it's reached, try again later.

Frequently asked questions

Does Chat with PDF work with scanned PDFs?

Only if the PDF already has a selectable text layer. This tool doesn't perform OCR itself — for an image-only scan, run OCR PDF first, then paste the extracted text into a tool that accepts plain text.

Is my PDF data private when I chat with it?

Your original PDF file is never uploaded — it's opened and its text extracted locally in your browser. That extracted text, along with your question, is sent to PDFly's server, which forwards it to Google's Gemini API to generate an answer.

How accurate are the answers, and does it cite page numbers?

The AI is instructed to answer only from what's in your document and to say so if it can't find the answer. It does not cite page numbers or highlight source passages — AI-generated answers can still contain errors, so verify anything important against the original PDF.

Is there a limit on document or question length?

The extracted document text is capped at 40,000 characters (roughly 10,000 tokens), and each question is capped at 2,000 characters.

AI PDF Tools hub OCR PDF Summarize PDF Read the guide