Summarize a PDF
A PDF summarizer that lets you chat with the PDF and organizes it in your AI knowledge base.
Upload a PDF or paste a link, and Recall generates a structured summary, even from scanned pages. Listen to the summary, search the document later, or ask a question about any page.
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How to summarize a PDF with AI in Recall
To summarize a PDF with AI in Recall, upload the file or paste a link, choose a summary type, and save it to your notebook. Recall reads the text, including scanned pages with OCR, keeps the original PDF, and lets you chat with it. PDFs can be up to 250 MB and 2,000 pages.
Add the PDF
Upload the file or paste a link, click the extension on an online PDF, or share it from your phone. Recall saves it and reads the text, using OCR on scanned pages.
Get the summary
Choose a summary type and save it to your notebook. Recall keeps the original PDF, so you can check the summary against the source.
Chat with the PDF, listen, or review
Ask questions about the PDF or across your whole knowledge base. You can also listen to the summary, or turn the PDF into quiz questions.
See how Recall summarizes a PDF
Upload a PDF, and Recall generates a structured summary you can chat with. Recall keeps the file.
3 ways to add a PDF and get an AI summary
Upload a file, paste a link, or share one from your phone.
Upload a PDF or paste a link
Open the web app, where Add Content is already open. Upload a PDF from your computer, or paste a link to one.
Click the extension on an online PDF
Open the PDF in Chrome, Edge, Firefox, or Safari and click the Recall AI extension. One click saves the PDF you are on and summarizes it.
Share a PDF from your phone
On iPhone or Android, share a PDF to Recall from the share menu. If Recall is missing the first time, tap More and turn it on. Share one file at a time.
What Recall can summarize
Text PDFs, scanned PDFs, and books. Recall saves each one.
A text PDF
Reports, research papers, contracts, and PDFs of books. Recall reads the text and generates a summary.
A scanned PDF
Scanned and image-heavy pages are read with OCR, so the text is searchable too.
A book
Upload an EPUB or a PDF of a book. Recall summarizes the file you have, not a book looked up by title.
What Recall does with a saved PDF
Summarizing is the first step. Recall then keeps the document and builds on it. Recall's supported content
Recall saves the PDF
Recall saves the PDF in your second brain, with everything else you keep.
Recall summarizes the PDF
Choose a summary type and save it to your notebook. Listen to it, or turn the PDF into quiz questions. Recall keeps the original file.
Scanned pages become text
Image-heavy and scanned pages are read with OCR, so you can search them like any other text.
Recall organizes the PDF
Recall organizes the saved PDF for you, so the summary lives with everything else in your second brain.
Chat with a PDF
Ask what the findings are, or ask across several PDFs you saved. The answer comes from what you saved.
Recall connects the PDF
Recall links the saved PDF to related saves on the same idea.
Recall vs other PDF summarizers
Recall vs a typical online PDF summarizer
Most online PDF summarizers give you a summary and forget the file. Here is how Recall compares on limits, scanned PDFs, chat, listening, and price.
| Feature | Recall | Typical online PDF summarizer |
|---|---|---|
| Capture | ||
After the summary | Recall keeps the PDF in your knowledge base | Often just the summary, then the tab closes |
Scanned PDFs | Read with OCR, except scans over 400 pages | Varies by tool, and some skip scans |
Several files | Up to 10 PDFs at once on Plus and Max | Often one file at a time |
A book | Upload the EPUB or PDF you have | Often a plot summary of a famous book |
| Memory | ||
Chat with a PDF | Ask about this PDF or across your whole knowledge base | Varies, and usually limited to the one file |
Listening | Listen to the summary inside Recall | Often a separate audio converter |
Finding it later | Search the PDF with everything else you saved | Only if you copied the text yourself |
| Limits | ||
File size and pages | Up to 250 MB and 2,000 pages | Varies, and often a lower cap on the free tier |
| Value | ||
Price to start | Free to start, with unlimited saves and 10 AI summaries a month | Varies, and many cap or charge per file |
Scroll horizontally to compare all columns.
Why people make Recall part of their day
“Think of it as a library of everything you've read and watched, with an AI sitting on top that has read it too. Recall makes that easier than anything else we tried.”
“Recall works the way your brain works! Perfect for deep research or growing your knowledge on any topic.”
“I love [Recall’s] interface, its speed, and its overall user experience… it is scratching my web-hoarding itch unlike anything else has quite been able to do to date.”
“One of my favorite AI apps is Recall. I've used it constantly for almost a year to manage and transcribe all the videos we create and work with. It's the kind of AI app that's just become part of my daily workflow, the highest compliment you can pay a piece of software.”
“After just a few months, Recall has become one of my most-used apps on both desktop and mobile. Frankly, I'd rather give up Microsoft Word than Recall.”
“I've tried practically every AI tool out there, and Recall is among the very few that I've actually found myself using. It has completely changed the way I study.”
“I didn't expect much from Recall. But it completely blew me away. It does everything NotebookLM does and also fills in all its shortcomings.”
“I run two parallel careers, which means staying current across rapidly evolving topics. Recall is the front door to my entire knowledge workflow.”
Fernand
Head of Technology
“Recall has revolutionized how I manage information! As a power user, its AI-driven summarization and storage capabilities have boosted my productivity tenfold, allowing me to effortlessly access and recall key details whenever I need them.”
William Peltier
Senior Director at Moody's
“I use Recall on a daily basis to cultivate and build a hand-picked database of information. The end result is like having a personalized AI loaded with sources pre-screened for quality.”
Roses
Human Rights Worker
“I use Recall every day. It helps me quickly condense important information from thought leadership articles and educational YouTube videos. It's great to have a place where I can easily store this information knowing that I will come back to it again in the future. I've greatly developed as a founder and leader thanks to Recall.”
Jason Patel
Co-founder at Open Forge AI
“I've been building several second brains for years and whenever I see a new way to do it, I don't like changing because my other systems already work. But I'm always willing to try because you never know which one would be a drastic improvement on what you're already using. Recall is one of them.”
Dave Katague
AI Educator
“Recall has become an essential part of how I learn, think, and explore the world.”
Maire
Student, Data Analyst
