PDF guides

Plain-English guides to getting more out of PDFs on your iPhone: the free tools Apple already gives you, ways to summarize and study long documents, and what AI PDF tools such as ChatPDF can and cannot do. Every guide is honest about where AI makes mistakes.

New here? Start with how to summarize a PDF on iPhone or how to ask questions to a PDF.

AI can miss or misstate things. Summaries and answers from AI tools, ChatPDF included, can leave out important details or get them wrong. Check anything that matters against the document itself, especially legal, medical, financial and exam material.

Ask your own PDFs with ChatPDF

Import a PDF from the Files app, then ask questions, get a summary or key takeaways, or make a quiz or flashcards from it. Requires a subscription; check the app for current plans.

Download on the App Store

Summarize and understand PDFs

Summaries, key points, questions, research papers, contracts and long documents.

Study with PDFs

Notes, flashcards and practice quizzes from your course material, using methods backed by learning research.

PDFs on iPhone

Files app tips, scanning, OCR for scanned PDFs, finding text and translating.

AI PDF tools: accuracy and privacy

How chat-with-PDF tools work, why they miss things, and what happens to your documents.