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ChatPDF vs Sider

Two fact sheets from our own research, side by side — pricing, platforms, API access and status re-checked by us rather than quoted from the vendors. Sider publishes a starting price ($10); ChatPDF does not. Both have a free tier. Only ChatPDF ships a public API.

ChatPDFAsk questions about PDFs, documents and videosSiderBrowser sidebar that puts GPT, Claude, Gemini, and other models next to any page you're reading.

Side by side

FactChatPDFSider
CategoryPDF ToolsBrowser Extensions & Copilots
Pricing modelFreemiumFreemium
Starts at—$10 month
Public APIYesNo
PlatformsWeb, macOS, APIWeb, Chrome Ext, Windows, macOS, iOS, Android
CompanyChatPDF GmbHSider
Launched2023—
Last verifiedSep 6, 2026Sep 1, 2026

What our research says

ChatPDF

The quickest way to interrogate one long PDF without building retrieval yourself, and the page-level citations are what keep it honest. But ChatGPT and Claude now read PDFs natively, so ChatPDF only earns its subscription if you need those citations, the multi-file view, or the API.

Pros

  • answers cite specific pages, so you can check them instead of trusting them
  • handles Word, PowerPoint, Markdown and text files, not only PDF
  • REST API supports streaming and multi-turn conversations
  • free tier works with no account and no card

Cons

  • two documents a day on free runs out fast during real research
  • Plus pricing is not published anywhere on the site
  • no team plan, SSO or shared document library
  • hard per-file limit of 2,000 pages or 32 MB

Sider

Sider puts a chat panel on top of whatever page you're on, so you can ask about an article or PDF without copying it into a separate tab. The catch is that heavier use beyond the free daily cap needs a paid tier, and pricing quoted across review sites is inconsistent, so the entry price is worth confirming before committing.

Pros

  • Works as a sidebar on any web page rather than a separate chat tab
  • Routes one prompt to several models (GPT, Claude, Gemini, DeepSeek, Grok)
  • Ships native apps for iOS, Android, Windows, and Mac plus browser extensions
  • Can chat with PDFs and YouTube videos, not just plain text

Cons

  • Free tier is capped at a small number of daily uses
  • Independent pricing write-ups disagree on exact plan costs depending on where you check
  • No public API for developers

Which one fits

Choose ChatPDF if you need

  • students and researchers pulling verifiable quotes out of long papers
  • checking claims inside a contract or report you did not write
  • developers wanting a hosted PDF-Q&A endpoint instead of rolling their own RAG stack

Choose Sider if you need

  • Reading and summarizing long articles or PDFs without leaving the page
  • Comparing answers from several models in one panel
  • People who want one subscription instead of several separate chatbot logins

More comparisons

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