scid.aiWhich formats are supported?
PDF, TXT, Markdown, DOC and DOCX, RTF, CSV and TSV, JSON, XML, HTML, TeX and Excel workbooks. Scans without a text layer need OCR first.
Feature
Chat with PDF: ask questions to research papers and your own files
Upload a PDF or another document to the library, select it as a source and ask: what is the method, what are the results, where are the limitations. The answer relies on the file text and shows where each claim comes from.
Upload a PDF to the library
The file appears in the list with its format and size. From here it can be attached as a source to any research session, alone or together with papers found in search.
Ask a question and check where every claim comes from
The answer arrives with a source reference on every claim. Clicking the reference opens the passage it was taken from, so a claim can be verified before it goes into a review.
How chat with PDF works in scid.ai
The file goes into the research library and becomes a source in the same way as a paper found in search. You select one or more documents and the chat answers only from them: no guessing and no unrelated material mixed in.
Every claim in the answer is tied to a passage of the file. You can open it, check the context and only then use it in a review, a table or a document.
- Upload the document. A paper PDF, a DOCX report or a spreadsheet: the library accepts working formats and keeps the file next to the research.
- Select it as a source. Tick the file in the sources panel and add found papers or other files if you need a comparison.
- Ask a question. "Which method was used", "which limitations do the authors admit", "compare the conclusions of two reports". The answer comes with passage references.
- Keep going. Turn the answer into a table, include it in a literature review or save it to a document with a bibliography.
What it is for
- Understand a long paper quickly: method, sample, results, limitations, what remains open.
- Extract specific data from a PDF: experiment parameters, numeric results, term definitions.
- Compare two or more documents: where the authors agree, where they contradict each other, how the methods differ.
- Check your own draft against sources: does the paper support the claim you cite.
- Work with tables: ask a question to CSV or Excel rows and get a summary of the data.
How this differs from uploading a PDF to a general chatbot
A general chatbot answers from the file but does not keep it in a research context or link it to the literature. In scid.ai the file lives next to the found papers, the topic graph and the review: you can ask how the conclusions of an uploaded report relate to publications on the topic and get an answer with sources on both sides.
Full-text access to third-party papers depends on the licence: scid.ai does not bypass paywalls. You upload your own PDF; for found papers, open versions and metadata are used.
Frequently asked questions
Can I ask several PDFs at once?
Yes. Select several files as sources and the chat answers across all of them, noting which document each claim comes from.
Do I need a paid plan?
Chat with files is available on the free plan within the starting credits; sign-up needs no card.
Can the answer be verified?
Yes, every claim leads to a passage of the file or to the paper page. scid.ai does not guarantee that a generated statement is always correct, so the source is always next to it.
Ask your PDF right now
Upload a paper or a report and ask the first question. Free, no card.