ChatDOC vs PDF.ai (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 12, 2026, ChatDOC grades higher than PDF.ai: 2.6 against 2.4 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 5, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 · graded Oct 10, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA
ChatDOC grades higher on value for money. They get the same grade on the free plan, features, ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
ChatDOC
Chat with PDFs and documents, with answers traced to the source
Which one is for you
Pick ChatDOC if
- Fits if your papers are full of tables, formulas or scanned pages
- Makes sense if you'd rather answer with your own OpenAI, Gemini, DeepSeek or Grok API key
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you read on your phone, as the web app says it doesn't work on mobile and there's no app
- Not for you if you want a free plan to stay on, since free is a one-off 10 uploads and 100 questions, PDFs only
- Watch out: image analysis is a paid add-on, and GPT-4o messages are sold as separate packages
- Tight if you might want a refund, which needs asking for within 7 days and before any Pro feature is used
- Too light for finding papers, since it only reads the files you give it
Pick PDF.ai if
- Fits if you ask questions of one PDF at a time
- Works for developers who want a PDF parsing API
Look elsewhere if
- Tight if you stay free: 1 PDF and OCR on 2 pages per file
- Watch out: the Ultimate plan's API is non-commercial only, and commercial use needs the credit add-on
- Watch out: the chatbot widget is a separate paid plan
- Watch out: monthly-billing prices weren't readable, and the pricing page would not load for us
How we grade them
| 2.6GPAChatDOCGood | 2.4GPAPDF.aiFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | BPro is $89.9 for 360 days, about $7.50 a month, and paid plans in this category start at $10 in the cheaper quarter. For that you get 300 uploads per 30 days, 300 questions a day and no page limit. It misses an A because image analysis and GPT-4o messages are bought separately. | CPro is $10 a month billed yearly, the research middle. Ultimate is $20 per user, which is where the dearest tenth begins. |
| Free plan and trial | CThere's no free plan to settle on. A free account is a one-off 10 uploads and 100 questions, PDFs only, and no more than 5 files and 20 questions in a day. No card is asked for, so it counts as a card-free trial, but once it's spent it's spent. | CThe Hobby plan is $0 for 1 PDF and 100 questions a month. That's one document at a time, so a normal reader outgrows it quickly. |
| Features | CIt does chat-with-your-document completely, awkward files included: footnotes that open the passage, table or figure behind an answer, cross-page tables, formulas, OCR scans, folder-wide questions, translation that holds its layout. That's the smaller half of research, though — it never goes looking for papers. | CChat with a PDF, OCR, chat with all PDFs, capture and ask, an API and a chatbot widget. The listing shows only 1 PDF on Hobby and OCR capped at 2 pages per file, but the core chat job is covered. |
| Ease of use | BNo store rating on record, so the B rests on the listing, and the listing shows nothing to set up: drop a file in, ask. One snag worth knowing first — the web app says it doesn't work on mobile and asks you to open it on a computer. | BNo store rating on record. Upload a PDF and ask: nothing to set up. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb with Chrome and Edge extensions, a developer API, and your own model key for OpenAI, Gemini, DeepSeek or Grok. But it only runs in one place, a desktop browser: no phone app, no desktop app, and the site says mobile isn't supported. | BWeb and a browser extension, with an API. |
| Best for | PDFs full of tables, formulas and scans | asking questions of PDFs |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: ChatDOC and PDF.ai. How we grade
Price against what you get
ChatDOC starts at $7.49 a month when paid by the year and scores 2.7 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. PDF.ai starts at $10 a month and scores 2.7.
They score the same, and ChatDOC starts $2.51 a month lower. Of the other AI research tools on the chart, 2 score higher than ChatDOC for less, and 3 score higher than PDF.ai for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- ChatDOC also covers citations.
- PDF.ai also covers documents.
At a glance
| ChatDOC | PDF.ai | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free trial | Free plan |
| Starts at | $89.9 per 360 days (a 30-day plan is also sold) | $10 per month, billed yearly |
| Free plan | None | Hobby: 1 PDF, 100 questions a month, 10 MB files and OCR on 2 pages per file. |
| Free trial | Free account, no card needed: 10 file uploads and 100 questions in total, at most 5 files and 20 questions a day. | None listed |
| Web | ||
| Browser extension | ||
| Made by | ChatDOC | PDF.ai |
| Price read from | chatdoc.com | pdf.ai |
| Checked | Oct 5, 2026 | Nov 12, 2026 |
Worth knowing
ChatDOC
- The Free plan is a one-time allowance of 10 uploads and 100 questions, and it accepts PDF files only.
- The web app says it does not work on mobile and asks users to open it on a computer.
- Image analysis is a paid add-on, and GPT-4o messages are bought as separate question packages.
- Refunds must be requested within 7 days of purchase and only if Pro features have not been used.
PDF.ai
- Monthly-billing prices were not readable; the prices shown are those billed yearly.
- The Ultimate plan's API is for non-commercial use only; commercial use needs the credit add-on.
- The chatbot widget is a separate paid plan.
Key features
ChatDOC
- Cited answers with TapSource
- Each answer carries footnotes that open the passage it came from, and figures quoted in an answer can be traced back to the table or data behind them.
- Collections
- Put files in a collection, or upload a folder, and ask questions across all of them. Free accounts can hold 30 files in a collection; Pro has no limit.
- Tables, formulas and scans
- Recognizes cross-page tables and formulas and reads scanned files with OCR. The changelog says OCR became free for all users in December 2025.
- Document translation
- Translates a whole PDF or Word file while keeping its layout. Free accounts can translate 3 pages per file; Pro is unlimited.
- Bring your own model
- Besides the built-in models, users can enter their own API key to answer with models from OpenAI, Gemini, DeepSeek, Grok and others.
- Browser extensions and API
- Chrome and Edge extensions open local files and web documents in ChatDOC. A separate API sells document parsing and question answering as prepaid packages.
PDF.ai
- Chat with PDFs
- Ask questions about an uploaded PDF; limits on uploads and questions depend on the plan.
- OCR
- AI-powered OCR for scanned files, from 2 pages per file on Hobby up to 100 on Enterprise.
- Chat with all PDFs
- Ultimate and above can question the whole library at once.
- Capture and ask
- Ultimate and above can capture a screenshot and ask about it.
- API
- Parsing, extraction and splitting API; commercial use is an add-on from $50 a month for 1,000 credits.
- Chatbot widget
- Ultimate users can add a paid widget so visitors chat with PDFs hosted on a site.
Plans
ChatDOC
Free$0
A one-time allowance of 10 PDF uploads and 100 questions, at most 5 files and 20 questions a day, with files of up to 300 pages and 60 MB.
Pro$89.9
per 360 days; the 30-day price sits behind a toggle
300 uploads per 30 days, 300 questions a day, no page limit, 200 MB files, and Word, EPUB, Markdown, text, scanned and website sources.
PDF.ai
Hobby$0
1 PDF, 100 questions a month, 10 MB max file, OCR on 2 pages per file.
Pro$10
per month, billed yearly
100 PDFs, 1,000 questions a month, 50 MB files, OCR on 10 pages per file.
Ultimate$20
per user / month, billed yearly
Unlimited PDFs and questions, advanced AI model, chat with all PDFs, team members.
Enterprise$30
per user / month, billed yearly
Unlimited use, 100 MB files, OCR on 100 pages per file, white-labeled PDF embed.
Ways to pay less
ChatDOC
No public discounts listed.
PDF.ai
- Annual discount
Save 25% with yearly billing
The pricing page shows a Payment frequency toggle with Annually labeled as saving 25%.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, ChatDOC or PDF.ai?
As of Nov 12, 2026, ChatDOC is cheaper to start with: $7.49 a month when paid by the year, against $10 a month for PDF.ai. ChatDOC starts at $89.9 per 360 days (a 30-day plan is also sold), and PDF.ai starts at $10 per month, billed yearly.
Which has a free plan, ChatDOC or PDF.ai?
As of Nov 12, 2026, only PDF.ai has a free plan. ChatDOC does not, though it has a free trial.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.