PDF Pals

PDF Pals is a macOS tool for working with PDF documents through a chat-style interface. Upload a PDF, ask questions about its contents, and get answers or summaries in real time.

How it works

• Import PDFs on your Mac
• Ask questions in a chat interface
• Get answers and content summaries
• Use built-in OCR to extract text from scanned documents

Privacy and setup

All processing happens locally on your device, so your files aren’t sent to the cloud. PDF Pals also lets you customize the AI model settings and system prompts to fit your workflow. To use it fully, you’ll need an API key from a third-party provider. There’s a limited free version, and a license purchase is required for ongoing use.

Typical use cases

• Quickly find clauses in long contracts without manual scrolling
• Generate a concise summary of a textbook or report
• Work with sensitive PDFs while keeping data on-device