This tool reads a long PDF and produces a summary, short, detailed, or as bullet points, whichever you need, using an AI model accessed through OpenRouter. It's built for skimming a long report, a research paper, or a contract quickly, when reading the whole thing isn't practical.
Unlike every other tool on this site, this one genuinely isn't fully private: text extraction from your PDF happens locally in your browser, but that extracted text is then sent through OpenRouter to a third-party AI model provider to generate the summary, since running a capable AI model entirely on-device isn't realistic yet. We're upfront about this with a clear notice before you use it, and only the extracted text is sent, never the original file itself.
There are real limits worth knowing: documents are capped at 50 pages or 100,000 characters, whichever comes first, since AI summarization quality and cost both degrade on very long inputs. If a PDF is a scanned image with no real text layer (and hasn't been OCR'd first), there's nothing for this tool to extract or summarize: run it through the OCR tool first in that case.
This is built for getting the gist of something long before deciding whether to read the whole thing, a research paper you're evaluating for relevance, a lengthy contract before a call with a lawyer, a long report before a meeting where you need the key points rather than every detail. The bullet-point format works well for scanning key facts quickly, while the detailed option is better when you need enough context to discuss the document intelligently without having read every page yourself.
The short option is useful for quickly checking whether a document is even relevant to what you're looking for, before spending time on a more detailed summary or the full document itself.
How to Summarize PDF
- Upload your PDF (up to 50 pages or 100,000 characters).
- Choose a summary style, short, detailed, or bullet points.
- Tap "Summarize with AI."
- Read or download the generated summary as a text file.
Frequently asked questions
Is this tool as private as the others on the site?
No, and we say so clearly before you use it, text extraction is local, but the extracted text is sent through OpenRouter to a third-party AI model provider to generate the summary. The original file itself is never uploaded.
Is there a document length limit?
Yes. Up to 50 pages or 100,000 characters, whichever limit is reached first, to keep summaries fast and accurate.
Can I choose how long the summary is?
Yes, pick short (a couple of sentences), bullet points, or a detailed multi-paragraph summary.
What happens if my PDF is a scanned image?
If there's no real text layer to extract, there's nothing to summarize: run the document through the OCR tool first, then summarize the result.
Is this free, and is there a rate limit?
It's free to use. There are modest rate limits in place to keep the tool available for everyone, since each summary has a real API cost behind it.
Related tools
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- OCR Scanned PDF: Make scanned PDFs searchable and selectable with OCR.
- Compress PDF: Shrink file size with five presets, or target an exact size.