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Tool · Chat with PDF

Chat with a PDF — with your own AI, not our server

Ask a document questions, summarise it, or compare what two clauses say, using your own OpenAI, Claude or Gemini key or a free local model. The file itself never leaves this tab.

Processed in your browser

  • Your AI, your choice

    Your own OpenAI, Claude or Gemini key, or Ollama / LM Studio on your computer. With a key, only your question and the matching passages go from your browser to that provider, under your account. With a local model, nothing leaves your machine. Hosted chat-with-PDF services keep your whole document on their server; PDFMacro never receives it.

  • Never uploaded to us, never indexed

    Text is extracted in the tab and the relevant passages are handed to your AI as you ask. No embedding on a server, no copy retained. The first send to a provider asks you first, and every request is listed in Settings → AI.

  • Search is free, and often the better tool

    If you know roughly what was written, full-text search finds the passage instantly with no model and no plan. Chat earns its place when the answer is a judgement rather than a passage — a summary, a comparison, what a clause actually means.

Chat with PDF is part of PDFMacro Pro and runs on your own AI; PDFMacro sells no AI and has no free AI allowance. You can open the tool and see how it works on any plan; asking a question is what requires the licence. Search inside a PDF is free and needs no model.

Common questions

Frequently asked questions

Where does the AI run when I chat with a PDF?
On the AI you connect. With your own OpenAI, Claude or Gemini key, your question and the matching passages go from your browser straight to that provider, under your account. With Ollama or LM Studio on your computer, nothing leaves your machine. Nothing ever goes to PDFMacro, which is the difference from the hosted chat-with-PDF services: with those, the whole document is on their server the moment you ask your first question.
Is my document sent anywhere to be indexed?
No. The text is extracted in the tab and the relevant passages are given to your AI as context at the moment you ask. The document is never uploaded, nothing is embedded on a server, and no copy is retained after you close the tab. The passages go only to the AI you connected: your provider, under your key, or your own machine.
How is this different from Search inside PDF?
Search finds passages; chat answers questions about them. Search is free, instant, needs no AI and is the right tool when you know roughly what was written. Chat can summarise, compare clauses and explain what something means, using your own AI on the Pro plan. Many people use Search first and only reach for chat when the answer is not a passage but a judgement.
Does it work on a scanned document?
Only once the pages carry a text layer. A scan is an image until OCR has run over it, and there is nothing for the model to read until then. Make Searchable does that on-device too, so a scanned contract can go through the whole path — OCR, then chat — without leaving your machine.
Does Chat with PDF upload my PDF to a server?
No. The file is opened, processed and saved back by code running in this browser tab — there is no upload endpoint on our servers to send it to. You can watch the Network panel in your browser's developer tools while you work and confirm nothing carrying the document leaves the page.
Is Chat with PDF free?
Chat with PDF is part of PDFMacro Pro and runs on your own AI — your OpenAI, Claude or Gemini key, or a local model. You can read what it does and open the tool on any plan; running it requires the lifetime licence. AI is not part of the free trial. The tool opens and explains itself on any plan; asking a question is what requires the licence.
Does it work offline?
With Pro, yes. Once the page has loaded, every tool keeps working with the network disconnected, because the processing never depended on a server round-trip; OCR's language packs need one download the first time. A free account needs a connection to save, for its daily count. AI features need your AI: your provider online, or your local model running.
Related
Search Inside PDFOCROutline & Bookmarks

Chat with PDF runs in your browser. Try it now.

Your file is never uploaded. Work on it right away; a free account saves it. Open a file and see for yourself — the network panel is right there if you want to check.

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