PDF.chat
PDF.chat lets users upload documents, ask questions, and receive answers tied to exact pages in over 100 languages.
What PDF.chat is
PDF.chat lets users upload documents, ask questions, and receive answers tied to exact pages in over 100 languages. It accepts PDFs, Word and PowerPoint files, text, and images, and OCR models on its own infrastructure read scanned or photographed documents. Long files are indexed so questions can retrieve relevant pages from lengthy reports, textbooks, and dockets. Users can compare answers from Claude, GPT, Gemini, Llama, and DeepSeek side by side, then export results as plain text, Markdown, DOCX, searchable PDF, CSV, or JSON. The service runs in a browser without a download or installation. Its REST API ingests documents, returns per-page text and metadata, and supports chats with page citations; API use is metered per page. The free plan’s pages reset at midnight UTC. Starter costs $5 a month and includes 750 pages per month. PDF.chat says uploaded files are deleted automatically shortly after processing and are not sold, shared, or used for training; on paid tiers, relevant passages may go to third-party AI providers.
Good
- Answers include citations to exact pages.
- OCR reads scanned and photographed documents.
- Compares five named AI model families side by side.
- Exports results in six formats.
Watch out
- Free-plan pages reset at midnight UTC.
- Paid plans may send relevant passages to third-party AI providers.
- API usage is metered per page.
- No free trial is listed.
Who it suits
It suits readers who want to question documents and check answers against page citations, including scanned files. The API is also relevant to developers needing document ingestion and page-level responses.
Verdict
PDF.chat combines page-cited document questions with OCR, exports, and model comparison. Consider the free-page reset and paid-tier third-party processing when choosing how to use it.
Plans and prices
From PDF.chat's own pricing page, checked 1 Oct 2026.
| Plan | Price | What it gives you |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | free pages reset at midnight UTC · no credit card |
| Small pack | $5, paid once | 300 pages · pages never expire · highest-accuracy AI models · TXT, MD, DOCX, searchable PDF, JSON, CSV · API access · one-time payment |
| Starter | $5 a month | 750 pages/month · highest-accuracy AI models · TXT, MD, DOCX, searchable PDF, JSON, CSV · email support · monthly; page shows $9 crossed out and $5/mo |
| Medium pack | $15, paid once | 1,200 pages · pages never expire · highest-accuracy AI models · TXT, MD, DOCX, searchable PDF, JSON, CSV · API access · one-time payment |
| Pro | $19 a month | 3,000 pages/month · highest-accuracy AI models · TXT, MD, DOCX, searchable PDF, JSON, CSV · API access · batch processing · monthly; page shows $29 crossed out and $19/mo |
| Large pack | $40, paid once | 4,000 pages · pages never expire · highest-accuracy AI models · TXT, MD, DOCX, searchable PDF, JSON, CSV · API access · one-time payment |
| Starter | $48 a year | 9,000 pages/year · highest-accuracy AI models · TXT, MD, DOCX, searchable PDF, JSON, CSV · email support · annual payment |
| Business | $49 a month | 10,000 pages/month · highest-accuracy AI models · TXT, MD, DOCX, searchable PDF, JSON, CSV · API access · batch processing · priority queue and support · monthly; page shows $79 crossed out and $49/mo |
| Pro | $182 a year | 36,000 pages/year · highest-accuracy AI models · TXT, MD, DOCX, searchable PDF, JSON, CSV · API access · batch processing · annual payment |
| Business | $470 a year | 120,000 pages/year · highest-accuracy AI models · TXT, MD, DOCX, searchable PDF, JSON, CSV · API access · batch processing · priority queue and support · annual payment |
The facts
Each one read from PDF.chat's own pages, with the date it was checked.
What it does
- Accuracy limitation
- The terms warn that AI answers and extraction can be wrong, especially for poor scans, handwriting, complex layouts and rare languages.checked 15 Oct 2026
- AI model comparison
- Pro users can compare Claude, GPT, Gemini, Llama, DeepSeek and other model answers side by side in one conversation.checked 15 Oct 2026
- API
- The public API is a REST interface for document upload, OCR, polling jobs, page-cited chat, history retrieval and format downloads.checked 15 Oct 2026
- API authentication
- API calls use a bearer token from the account page, with query-parameter tokens also supported.checked 15 Oct 2026
- API error behavior
- Document processing can return 400, 401, 402, 404 or 409 errors for invalid files, authentication, exhausted pages, unknown jobs or premature downloads.checked 15 Oct 2026
- API inputs and outputs
- API input includes PDF, Word, PowerPoint, text and image files; extracted output includes text, Markdown, DOCX, PDF, CSV and JSON.checked 15 Oct 2026
- API limits
- Files of five pages or fewer return inline, while larger jobs are asynchronous and require polling; paid plans raise per-file caps.checked 15 Oct 2026
- API processing tiers
- The API offers a CPU tier for fast printed documents and a premium VLM tier for handwriting, complex layouts, math and translation.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Automatic deletion
- Uploaded files are deleted by an hourly cleanup job shortly after processing, while conversation history and extracted text remain until deleted.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Core function
- PDF.chat lets users upload PDFs or other documents, ask questions, and receive answers cited to the exact page in over 100 languages.checked 1 Oct 2026
- Exports
- Results can be downloaded as TXT, Markdown, DOCX, searchable PDF, CSV or JSON, with tables exportable as Markdown or CSV and equations as LaTeX.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Independent listing coverage
- Trademarkia's owner page lists four pending Muddy Holdings marks, including PDF.CHAT, alongside FREE.AI, STT.AI and TTS.AI.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Integrations: AI providers
- Paid-tier question passages may be sent to Anthropic, OpenAI, Google or OpenRouter to generate answers.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Integrations: payments
- Stripe and PayPal process payments, while PDF.chat says it receives only transaction confirmation rather than full card numbers.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Licence
- The product licence is not identified as open source; the about page instead says PDF.chat is built using open-source projects such as PaddleOCR, PaddleOCR-VL, DeepSeek-OCR, PyMuPDF, python-docx and openpyxl.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Limit: no customer self-hosting
- The public documentation describes a hosted browser service and REST API; it does not document a customer-deployable self-hosted edition.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Limit: third-party processing
- On paid tiers, relevant document passages are sent to external AI providers; only the free self-hosted model tier keeps model processing on PDF.chat infrastructure.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Long-document retrieval
- The service indexes long documents and retrieves relevant pages for reports, textbooks, books and dockets.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Long documents
- PDF.chat indexes long documents and retrieves relevant pages for questions about hundred-page reports, textbooks and dockets.checked 1 Oct 2026
Where it runs
- Browser delivery
- PDF.chat runs entirely in a browser and has nothing to download or install.checked 1 Oct 2026
The company
- Company founder
- Muddy Holdings says it was founded by software developer John Nader.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Company founding year
- Muddy Holdings lists 2026 as its founded year and describes itself as 100% bootstrapped.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Company owner
- PDF.chat is operated by Muddy Holdings LLC, according to its privacy policy and site footer.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Company portfolio
- Muddy Holdings says it operates seven products, including PDF.chat, OCR.chat, TTS.ai, STT.ai, Free.ai, Best.Free and Clip.video.checked 15 Oct 2026
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