Doclime vs PDF AI

Doclime lets you upload PDFs and ask questions that come back with cited answers pulled from the file. You get a built-in PDF viewer with search and page navigation, a notes editor with version history, and a split-screen layout that keeps chat, documents, and notes open at once. It also reads scanned PDFs through OCR and accepts screenshot questions through its Vision feature.

Most PDF chat tools stop at a single file and a text box. Doclime stacks a hierarchical file tree, multi-document context for one conversation, and frontier models from OpenAI and Anthropic in the same workspace. That combination targets people cross-referencing textbooks, contracts, or research papers rather than doing one-off summaries.

The homepage lists use cases like lesson planning from textbooks, chapter summaries, and pulling obligations from contract sections, with example answers showing bracketed source references. Stanford, Berkeley, Cornell, and USC logos appear on the landing page, and the interface ships in nine languages including English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, and Chinese.

PDF AI lets you upload a PDF and ask questions in plain language, with cited answers pulled from the document text. The web app handles chat across books, legal contracts, financial reports, and research papers, while a Chrome extension adds the same chat panel to local files, Google Drive, and Dropbox PDFs. Developer APIs at api.pdf.ai parse documents into JSON, extract custom fields, and split files by section.

Most PDF chat tools stop at Q&A. PDF AI also ships a Parse API (POST /api/v2/parse), Extract API for invoice and form fields, and Split API for section-aware document breaks. Ultimate and Enterprise plans add specialized AI Agents for verticals like lease review, tax documents, and medical records, plus Capture and Ask screenshot questioning. SOC 2 Type II storage and a private-document mode that skips cloud retention address teams handling sensitive files.

Researchers, legal teams, and financial analysts use the chat interface for one-off document review. Developers embed the REST APIs into automation pipelines, with commercial API credit packs starting at $50 per month for 1,000 credits. The free Hobby plan allows 1 PDF upload and 100 questions per month to test the workflow before upgrading.