Side Reader is a Chrome browser extension for users of ChatGPT, Claude, and DeepSeek. Its core purpose is to give these three AI chat websites PDF reading and conversation capabilities similar to PDFAI and ChatPDF: within interfaces that originally only supported text chat, it can directly open and read PDFs, and let users ask AI questions about the document content.
In terms of main capabilities, according to official information, it supports uploading PDFs and chatting with PDFs within the ChatGPT, Claude, and DeepSeek websites, provides split screen reading and PDF zoom viewing, supports copying input content, and retains upload history. The lifetime version additionally provides features such as capture ask, custom prompt, and customer support. The official statement says its goal is to make ChatGPT, Claude, and DeepSeek have the same functionality as PDFAI and ChatPDF.
To use it, after installing the Chrome extension, upload a PDF through the extension on the above-mentioned websites, and then you can read and ask questions in a split-screen interface.
Use cases include: needing to process PDF documents in ChatGPT, Claude, or DeepSeek, read long texts, and quickly get answers about the document; users who want to complete PDF upload and Q&A without switching web pages.
Regarding pricing, the official page lists two plans, Free and Lifetime. The Free version includes items such as upload limit, file size limit, split screen, PDF zoom, copy input, and upload history. The Lifetime version includes items such as upload limit, file size limit, split screen, PDF zoom, copy input, capture ask, upload history, customer support, and custom prompt, but the specific values and prices for each item are not yet provided.
Regarding limitations, this tool is used only as a Chrome extension and mainly serves the ChatGPT, Claude, and DeepSeek websites; the specific values for limits such as upload count and file size in the Free and Lifetime versions, as well as whether it supports other browsers or platforms, are not yet provided in the official materials.
