ChatPDF vs OpenRead
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
ChatPDF
Ask questions about PDFs and get answers with citations
Free plan · from $89.99/yr
OpenRead
AI platform for searching, reading and comparing papers
Free plan
Where they differ
- Only ChatPDF lists macOS, Windows, iOS and Android apps.
- ChatPDF also covers citations.
- OpenRead also covers notes.
In commonFree planWebChat assistantAI searchResearch
At a glance
| ChatPDF | OpenRead | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Starts at | $89.99 per year or $14.99 per month (US App Store in-app purchase) | Not published |
| Free plan | 2 documents a day, usable without an account. A free account adds saved history and multi-file folders. Free files are capped at 120 pages or 10 MB. | The homepage shows a Free label on its AI tools and a separate Pro option; what the free plan includes could not be confirmed. |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| macOS | ||
| Windows | ||
| iOS | ||
| Android | ||
| Made by | ChatPDF GmbH | OpenRead, Inc. |
| Price read from | apps.apple.com | Not confirmed |
| Checked | Oct 5, 2026 | Oct 5, 2026 |
Who each one suits
ChatPDF
- Students and researchers who want quick answers from a paper or textbook chapter
- Asking questions across several files kept in one folder
- Trying a document chat tool without creating an account
- Turning course material into flashcards or slides
OpenRead
- Readers who want paper search, questions and notes in one place
- Comparing the findings of several papers side by side
- Keeping up with newly published and trending papers
Worth knowing
ChatPDF
- The website shows Plus prices only in an upgrade dialog and sets them per visitor; the prices here are US App Store in-app purchases, and web checkout may differ.
- The free plan covers 2 documents a day, and the site's limits cap free use at 20 messages a day and files of 120 pages or 10 MB.
- AI Research summaries are built from abstracts, and chatting with a full paper works only for open-access papers.
- The best model is reserved for Plus; ChatPDF says it routes queries between GPT-4o and GPT-4o-mini.
OpenRead
- Plan prices and free-plan limits are not recorded: the pricing and FAQ pages were behind a browser security check when this entry was researched.
- The homepage links only to the web app; it lists no mobile apps or browser extension.
Key features
ChatPDF
- Chat with documents
- Ask questions about a PDF, Word, PowerPoint, Markdown or text file with the chat and the document side by side. Clickable citations scroll to the passage an answer came from.
- Multi-file folders
- Put files in a folder to ask questions across all of them in one conversation. Folders and saved chat history need a free account.
- AI Research
- Ask a question to find academic papers and get a summary with citations, built from the papers' abstracts. Filters narrow results to recent or influential work.
- YouTube and website chat
- Paste a YouTube or website link to ask questions about it. Video answers include clickable timestamps and an interactive transcript.
- Flashcards, slides and writing
- Makes flashcards that export to Anki, Quizlet, Brainscape or CSV, and slides that export to PowerPoint. The AI Writer drafts text with citations and exports to Word or Markdown.
- Developer API
- A backend API adds PDFs by URL or file upload and answers questions about them, with optional page references. API files are limited to 2,000 pages or 32 MB.
OpenRead
- Paper and web search
- AI search runs over papers or the open web. The homepage says new papers arrive every 5 minutes from more than 20,000 journals.
- Paper Compare
- Sets several papers side by side to compare their findings and spot contradictions, with options such as an expert review or a comparison of frameworks.
- Reading tools
- The reading view brings together Paper Espresso, Paper Q&A, a Related Paper Graph and note taking, so a paper can be read and annotated in one place.
- Oat chat assistant
- Oat, short for OpenRead AI Technology, is a chat assistant with a choice of AI models plus web access, diagram drawing and image editing.
- Trending papers
- A trending page lists the papers that other readers on the platform are opening most.
Plans
ChatPDF
Free$0
2 documents and 20 messages a day, with files of up to 120 pages or 10 MB and folders of up to 5 files.
Plus$14.99
per month on the US App Store; $89.99 for the yearly plan
Unlimited questions and documents, files of up to 2,000 pages or 150 MB, 50 PDFs per folder and the higher-quality model.
OpenRead
Pricing could not be confirmed. See openread.academy.
Ways to pay less
ChatPDF
- Annual discount
About 50% off with the yearly plan
On the US App Store the yearly Plus plan is $89.99 against $14.99 a month. That works out to about $7.50 a month, half the monthly rate.
OpenRead
No public discounts listed.
