Docs & PDF Q&A
paper-qa
Ask your own PDF library and get the citation back
★ 9.2k
September 2026
Apache-2.0
Docs & PDF Q&A
What we checked ourselves
Not copied from the project's own blurb. These are things we opened and verified, with the date.
- 7 Sept 2026We checked that the link to the project still resolves.
- 13 Sept 2026We read the licence text itself (LICENSE). No unusual restrictions were stated.
- 31 Aug 2026We read the project's own documentation and found no sign that development has stopped.
Where this sits among the 62 tools we list in Docs & PDF Q&A
- Commercial use confirmed as allowed52 of 62
- Requires terminal commands19 that do not →
- Requires an API key31 that do not →
- Sends your input to the provider20 that do not →
Counted from our own checks: every tool we list is examined against the same criteria.
What it does
Retrieval-augmented QA aimed squarely at scientific literature: it answers from the PDFs, Office documents, text and source files you supply — not from the open web — and shows which document and passage the answer came from, which is what makes it checkable. Handles summarisation and contradiction detection across a corpus. Summaries still drift from sources, so open the original before citing, and remember unpublished material reaches whichever model you configure. Apache-2.0.
Summary based on the project's own description. The Japanese page has a fuller beginner guide: setup difficulty, what to prepare, and a step-by-step start.
Screenshots & visuals
Before you start
- Setup difficultySome setup needed
- Command lineRequired
- API keyRequired
- Sends data onlineYes
Judged automatically from the project's own metadata. Always confirm on the official page.
paper-qa FAQ
- Is paper-qa free?
- paper-qa itself is free, but it needs an API key for an external AI service. That service charges separately, though some have a free tier.
- Do I need to install anything or write code to use paper-qa?
- It needs the command line. If you are not comfortable typing commands, expect to get stuck during setup.
- Does paper-qa work on a phone?
- No. It needs a computer.
- Can I use paper-qa commercially?
- The licence is Apache-2.0, which permits commercial use. Conditions such as keeping the copyright notice still apply, so read the licence text before shipping it inside something.
How it compares
The conditions that decide whether you can actually use it, side by side.
| Tool | Command line | API key | Sends data out | Phone | Commercial use |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| paper-qa (this page) | Required | Required | Yes | No | Yes |
| OCRmyPDF | Required | Not needed | No | No | Yes |
| zerox | Required | Required | Yes | No | Yes |
| pdfGPT | Required | Required | Yes | No | Yes |
"Sends data out" means your input is uploaded to someone's server. Pick "No" when the material cannot leave your organisation.