ChatPDF vs PDF.ai API
ChatPDF
chatpdf.comPDF.ai API
api.pdf.aiSide by side
| Figure | ChatPDF | PDF.ai API |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $7.50/mo | $599/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| iOS | Yes | — |
| Android | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 5 | 3 |
| Spec score · AI PDF Tools | 9.3 (#3) | 7.7 (#22) |
| Spec score · AI PDF Assistants | 9.3 (#3) | 7.8 (#16) |
| API purpose | The backend API supports programmatic PDF ingestion, extraction, and custom chatbot creation. | PDF.ai API v2 provides PDF parsing, structured extraction, section splitting, and question answering through HTTP endpoints. |
Plans
ChatPDF
- FreeFree
- FreeFree
- ChatPDF Plus monthly$14.99 a month
- ChatPDF Plus yearly$89.99 a year
- ChatPDF PlusPriced on request
In their own words
ChatPDF
ChatPDF lets users summarize documents and ask questions about their contents using conversational AI. Answers include citations that point to references in a PDF, and users can organize files in folders or discuss multiple PDFs in one conversation. It accepts PDFs in any language and supports conversations in any language; listed file types also include Word, PowerPoint, Markdown and text. Sharing links can be created, with access permissions managed or revoked. ChatPDF says documents are encrypted during transfer and storage and can be deleted by the user. Queries are routed dynamically between GPT-4o and GPT-4o-mini. The service works in a browser on any device and is listed for Android, iOS, Linux, macOS and Windows. Its backend API accepts uploaded PDFs or public URLs and lets users query them to build custom PDF chatbots. The API documentation limits each PDF to 2,000 pages or 32 MB and describes the chat API as stateless. The Free plan costs nothing and allows two documents per day.