With the overwhelming number of papers to read every day, using AI to understand and research papers faster is no longer an option but a necessity. If you’ve ever felt the burden of not being able to keep up with the numerous papers uploaded to Hugging Face’s papers, you no longer need to worry.
Here are 7 products that help you read papers more effectively with AI.
1. Typeset
Pros
- Specialized for academic papers
- Displays the source of answers clearly by referencing specific sections, which enhances credibility
- Podcast feature: listen to the content of the document in audio form, and the quality is quite high
- Supports basic markup functionality
Cons
- Answer quality is decent but can be a bit wordy
Usage Tips
- Listen to a paper on your commute using the Podcast feature to understand the content
2. Moonlight
Pros
- Specialized for academic papers
- Automatically detects figures, tables, formulas, etc., allowing you to view explanations with a single click without having to take screenshots
- Smart Citation feature specialized for academic papers, enabling you to see the title, authors, abstract, etc. of cited references without having to scroll down the paper
- Supports basic markup functionality such as highlight and comments.
Cons
- Difficult to verify the source of answers
Usage Tips
- With a single click, you can get explanations for formulas, figures, and tables within your paper, allowing you to quickly and intuitively understand various elements without typing in additional questions.
3. Popai
Pros
- Provides high-quality answers and offers highlight, annotation, and note features all in one place
- You can organize important parts of the document in a structured way using separate notes
- Offers a prompt library to explore a variety of use cases
Cons
- Shows reference to the answers at the “page level”, so it’s hard to pinpoint exactly what part of the text the answer is referencing
Usage Tips
- Convenient for summarizing long texts spread over several pages and accumulating important ideas using the note feature
4. ChatPDF
Pros
- Quickly reprocess PDF content through explanation, summarization, and rewriting
- Conversations persist across multiple documents within a folder, making it convenient for project-based management
Cons
- No markup or annotation features, so highlighting or adding direct notes is limited
Usage Tips
- For related papers, you can group them in one folder and have a collective conversation with ChatPDF to guide your research direction
5. AskyourPDF
Pros
- Quickly reconfigure PDF content with explanation, summarization, and rewriting features
- Supports Zotero plugin, making reference management convenient
Cons
- Weak citation display and no markup features, making it difficult to manage papers effectively
Usage Tips
- For zotero users, integrate it with AskyourPDF for easy data collection and management
6. PDF.ai
Pros
- Structures the document and presents it clearly; answer quality is also fairly polished
Cons
- No markup features, making it difficult to add highlights or annotations
- Lacks special extension features
Usage Tips
- If you just need quick Q&A and a basic grasp of the document, this is sufficient
Conclusion
Although most products in the “Chat with PDF” family share similar core functionalities, there are noticeable differences in usability, performance, and utility features.
- If you want to listen to your paper in a podcast format during your commute, go with Typeset.
- If you want to quickly understand a paper without typing questions and check references as you read, try Moonlight.
- If you’d like to systematically manage highlights and annotations for future review, Popai is a good choice.
- If you want to group similar papers into a single folder and talk to them all at once, choose ChatPDF.
Choose the product that best suits your research style and workflow!