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Top 5 PDF AI Alternatives (Detailed Comparison)

PDF AI is a software that allows you to chat with your PDFs, including asking questions, summarizing information, finding specific information, and more. While PDF AI may be a popular software, there are some limitations to PDF AI.

For example, the free version of PDF AI is very limited, which means you will need to upgrade right away (and even the paid version of PDF AI is limited to a certain number of documents). PDF AI also doesn't have a normal AI chat function, only the ability to talk with the document, and PDF AI sometimes has difficulty with long documents.

So you may want to find a PDF AI alternative, and we will discuss that in this article. When looking for a PDF AI alternative, you should think about price, ease of use, the software interface, how many files you can upload, and a few other considerations. We will discuss all of that (and more) in this article!

Part 1. 5 Best PDF AI Alternatives

Let's take a look at the 5 best alternatives to PDF AI. For each software, we'll look at how the different features compare to PDF AI, and discuss at least one major feature where that software performs better than PDF AI!

We'll start with our number one recommendation for a PDF AI alternative.

1. UPDF - The Best PDF AI Alternative on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android

UPDF is our top choice for a PDF AI alternative because it has all the same features as PDF AI, plus so many more! With UPDF AI, you can chat directly with the PDF, including summarizing information, asking questions, searching for specific information and more.

pdf ai alternative updf

In addition, you can also ask UPDF's AI questions that are not related to the PDF, or you can ask it to translate specific pages, and it has quick shortcuts for summarizing, translating, and explaining information. So all you need to do is highlight some information in the PDF, and select translate, summarize, or explain directly! You can also save all of this information as notes, which makes studying and work so much easier.

UPDF also has many other useful features, such as the ability to edit PDFs, annotate and highlight PDFs, converting PDFs to editable text, and more! You can read this review of UPDF or watch the below video tutorial to learn more.

Click the link below to download UPDF now!

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UPDF over PDF AI in:

In what areas does UPDF have better features than PDF AI and make it a better alternative? You can read through this chart to compare the features that UPDF has that PDF AI does not have.

ItemsUPDFPDF AI
Free Version LimitationsYou can try a free trial of UPDF's AI.
Limit of 3 PDF uploads,
100 pages per PDF,
10MB per file,
Can ask up to 30 questions.
Upload 1 document per month,
500 question limit per month,
Cannot use GPT-4,
No customer support.
PriceUPDF AI Standard: $59 per year, or $9 monthlyUPDF AI Unlimited: $99 per year, or $15 monthly 
UPDF Pro: $52.99 perpetual, or $32.99 yearly 
UPDF AI Standard + UPDF Pro: $83.99 perpetual UPDFand yearly AI, or $65.99 yearlyU PDF and AI 
UPDF AI Unlimited + UPDF Pro: $126.99 perpetual UPDF and yearly AI, or $108.99 yearly UPDF and AI
Hobby: $0 per month,
Pro: $15 per month,
Ultimate: $25 per user per month,
Enterprise: $35 per user per month.
Summarize PDF
Explain PDF
Chat for PDF
Translate PDF
Quick Prompt Like Summarizing, Translating, etc.
Ask Any Question That is Not Related to PDF
OCR PDF
Edit PDF
Organize PDF
Annotate PDF

UPDF is a better choice than PDF AI because you have the ability to completely customize your PDFs, including translating a PDF, choosing a quick prompt like summarizing or translating, asking questions that aren't related to the PDF, performing OCR on the PDF, and editing, organizing, and annotating PDFs.

2. LightPDF

LightPDF is an online PDF tool that allows you to do many different things with PDFs, including edit PDFs, merge PDFs, watermark PDFs, convert PDF files, perform OCR on PDFs, store and collaborate on PDFs on LightPDF's cloud system, and use AI to chat with your PDF documents.

pdf ai alternative lightpdf

LightPDF over PDF AI in:

Let's examine the features that LightPDF and PDF AI have in common, and different. You can see based on the chart below comparing their features that there are many places where you might want to choose LightPDF.

ItemsLightPDFPDF AI
Free Version LimitationsCan only upload 1 file per day,
Can ask only ask 5 questions per day,
Requests are limited during peak traffic times,
Only supports PDF format,
Maximum of 100 pages per file.
Upload 1 document per month,
500 question limit per month,
Cannot use GPT-4,
No customer support.
PriceWeekly: $13.99,
Monthly: $19.99,
Annually: $59.99,
3 Year Plan: $84.99.
Hobby: $0 per month,
Pro: $15 per month,
Ultimate: $25 per user per month,
Enterprise: $35 per user per month.
Summarize PDF
Explain PDF
Chat for PDF
Ask Any Question That is Not Related to PDF
OCR PDF
Edit PDF
Organize PDF
Annotate PDF

LightPDF is a better choice than PDF AI because it has more tools and features, including the ability to edit PDFs, perform OCR on PDFs, organize and annotate PDFs, and use the AI chatbot to ask questions that aren't related to the contents of the PDF.

3. BrainyPDF

BrainyPDF is a web-based AI-powered PDF chat tool that lets you chat with any PDF. It's used by many students, researchers, and professionals to chat with documents and get help with studying, look for specific information, summarize PDFs, ask questions about documents, and more. BrainyPDF also lets you upload PDFs in any language, and will chat in any language.

pdf ai alternative brainypdf

BrainyPDF over PDF AI in:

BrainyPDF and PDF AI are very similar, and have similar features. However, you can see from the chart below that there is one key difference that makes a big difference in choosing which tool to use.

ItemsBrainyPDFPDF AI
Free Version LimitationsPDFs are limited to 120 pages
PDFs are limited to 10MB
Can upload 2 PDFs a day
Can ask 50 questions a day
Upload 1 document per month
500 question limit per month
Cannot use GPT-4
No customer support
PriceFree
$10 per month
$60 per year
Hobby: $0 per month
Pro: $15 per month
Ultimate: $25 per user per month
Enterprise: $35 per user per month
Summarize PDF
Explain PDF
Chat for PDF
Ask Any Question That is Not Related to PDF

While BrainyPDF and PDF AI have many of the same features, we recommend BrainyPDF instead of PDF AI because the free version has much better options, including the ability to ask the AI chatbot anything, instead of just questions related to the contents of the PDF.

4. ChatPDF

ChatPDF is a very simple online AI PDF chat tool. ChatPDF can read PDFs in any language, and answer questions in any language, including uploading a PDF in one language and answering questions in another. ChatPDF also gives you the ability to chat with multiple PDFs at one time. Additionally, ChatPDF provides you with specific citations for each answer that it gives you.

pdf ai alternative chatpdf

ChatPDF over PDF AI in:

ChatPDF and PDF AI are also very similar, but you can see below that ChatPDF does have some features and advantages over PDF AI.

ItemsChatPDFPDF AI
Free Version LimitationsUpload 2 PDFs per day
PDFs limited to 120 pages
Upload 1 document per month
500 question limit per month
Cannot use GPT-4
No customer support
PriceFree
$19.99 per month
$139.99 per year
Hobby: $0 per month
Pro: $15 per month
Ultimate: $25 per user per month
Enterprise: $35 per user per month
Summarize PDF
Explain PDF
Chat for PDF
Translate PDF
Ask Any Question That is Not Related to PDF

ChatPDF is more useful than PDF AI because it can translate your PDFs into any language, which is a feature that PDF AI doesn't have.

5. CloudPDF

CloudPDF is a cloud-based PDF management service that is used by over 2500 businesses around the world. While CloudPDF is mostly a PDF storage and management system, they have a new feature where you can use AI to chat with your PDFs, including summarizing and asking questions.

pdf ai alternative cloudpdf

CloudPDF over PDF AI in:

When choosing between CloudPDF and PDF, you can see from the table that CloudPDF's main advantage is their cloud-based storage and organization system.

ItemsCloudPDFPDF AI
Free Version LimitationsThere is no free version, but you can try a 14-day free trial subscription. During the trial period, you're limited to uploading 5 documents and 30 messages with the document chat.Upload 1 document per month
500 question limit per month
Cannot use GPT-4
No customer support
PriceLight - $25 per user per month
Professional - $65 per user per month
Enterprise - Contact for customized quote
Hobby: $0 per month
Pro: $15 per month
Ultimate: $25 per user per month
Enterprise: $35 per user per month
Summarize PDF
Explain PDF
Chat for PDF
Organize PDF

Both CloudPDF and PDF AI are very similar, but since CloudPDF's AI chat is a new feature, I'm certain they will be expanding on its features in the future. CloudPDF also has an easy to use PDF management and sharing system, which is very useful.

Part 2. Which PDF AI Alternative is Better?

If you would prefer to quickly review which of the PDF AI alternatives is the best option for you, you can review this table, which compares the customer ratings, the platforms supported, the price, and the features of each product.

 PDF AIUPDFLightPDFBrainyPDFChatPDFCloudPDF
User Rating3/5 ⭐5/5 ⭐4/5 ⭐4/5 ⭐4/5 ⭐4/5 ⭐
Platforms SupportedGoogle Chrome extensionWindows, Mac, iOS, AndroidWindows, Mac, iOS, AndroidWeb browserWeb browserWeb browser
PriceHobby: $0 per month,
Pro: $15 per month,
Ultimate: $25 per user per month,
Enterprise: $35 per user per month,
UPDF AI Standard: $59 per year, or $9 monthly,
UPDF AI Unlimited: $99 per year, or $15 monthly, 
UPDF Pro: $52.99 perpetual, or $32.99 yearly 
UPDF AI Standard + UPDF Pro: $83.99 perpetual UPDF and yearly AI, or $65.99 yearly UPDF and AI 
UPDF AI Unlimited + UPDF Pro: $126.99 perpetual UPDF and yearly AI, or $108.99 yearly UPDF and AI
Weekly: $13.99
Monthly: $19.99
Annually: $59.993
Year Plan: $84.99
Free
$10 per month
$60 per year
Free
$19.99 per month
$139.99 per year
Light - $25 per user per month
Professional - $65 per user per month
Enterprise - Contact for customized quote
Summarize PDF
Explain PDF
Chat for PDF
Translate PDF
Quick Prompt Like Summarizing, Translating, etc.
Ask Any Question That is Not Related to PDF
OCR PDF
Edit PDF
Organize PDF
Annotate PDF

Based on the table above, we recommend choosing UPDF as your alternative to using PDF AI. UPDF has the most powerful features that the other tools just don't offer, including AI quick prompts such as summarizing and translating to make your workflow quick and efficient, the ability to quickly and accurately translate your document, and you can edit, annotate, highlight, and customize all of your PDFs.

Final Words

If you have been dissatisfied with using PDF AI to chat with your PDF document, we discussed five different PDF AI alternative options in this article, including UPDF, LightPDF, BrainyPDF, ChatPDF, and CloudPDF. Each tool has its pros and cons, but overall we recommend using UPDF because of its powerful AI and many amazing features.

Click the link below to download UPDF!

Windows • macOS • iOS • Android 100% secure

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