Sidenote vs AskYourPDF
AskYourPDF is a mature upload-first PDF chat app: bring a file to its web app, mobile apps, Chrome extension or API, and ask questions with page-referenced answers. Sidenote takes the opposite path — it rides along in your browser side panel and reads whatever you already have open, grounding every citation against the live source.
Reads the page you already have open, and proves every answer against it.
A polished PDF chat platform with mobile apps, an API and a choice of AI models.
Should you use Sidenote or AskYourPDF?
Choose Sidenote if…
Choose Sidenote if most of what you read lives in a browser tab — web articles, Google Docs, Notion, Confluence and SharePoint pages — and you want citations that scroll to and highlight the exact passage on the live page, with a server that drops any quote it cannot ground.
Choose AskYourPDF if…
Choose AskYourPDF if you mainly work with standalone PDF files, want native iOS and Android apps to read on the go, need a developer API to add document chat to your own product, or want to pick between GPT, Claude and Gemini models.
Both let you chat with and summarise documents with cited answers, and both offer a free tier to start. The real split is where the document lives: AskYourPDF is a place you upload files to, on any device; Sidenote is a reader that rides along with the page in your desktop browser and holds every claim to the source.
Sidenote vs AskYourPDF: feature by feature.
| Capability | Sidenote | AskYourPDF |
|---|---|---|
| Reads the page or document you already have open | Yes | Partial |
| Works on private Confluence, Notion & SharePoint pages | Yes | No |
| Works on web articles & live web pages | Yes | Partial |
| Citations scroll & highlight the exact passage | Yes | No |
| Server-side citation check drops unsupported claims | Yes | No |
| One-click glossary of jargon & acronyms | Yes | No |
| Ask across many documents at once | Yes | Yes |
| Reads scanned PDFs with built-in OCR | Yes | Yes |
| Upload your own PDFs | Yes | Yes |
| Native mobile apps | No | Yes |
| Developer API | No | Yes |
| Choice of multiple AI models | Partial | Yes |
Verified against AskYourPDF's official site and pricing page in July 2026. AskYourPDF's Chrome extension can auto-open on a PDF you have open in the browser (including Google Drive PDFs), so it reads some open documents — but it ingests the file rather than reading the live page, does not summarise ordinary open web articles, and cannot reach authenticated Confluence, Notion or SharePoint pages. Its answers include page-referenced citations, but they point to a page number rather than scrolling to and highlighting a passage on a live browser page, and there is no server-side grounding check that drops unsupported quotes. OCR and the wider model choice are on paid tiers. Capabilities and pricing change — check both sites for the latest. The cross-document row is powered by Sidenote Collections.
A place you upload files to, or a reader that rides along.
AskYourPDF is built around the upload: you bring a PDF or text file to its web app, mobile apps, Chrome extension or API, and it answers with page-referenced citations. Its extension will even start up on a PDF you already have open in the browser. That model travels well across devices and into your own software, but it still ingests the file first, and it does not read an ordinary web article or an authenticated wiki page the way a side-panel reader can.
Sidenote never asks you to upload. It reads whatever is open in your browser — a PDF, a web article, a Google Doc, a Notion, Confluence or SharePoint page — and every citation scrolls the live page to the exact passage and highlights it. A server-side check validates each cited quote against the source and drops anything it cannot ground.
You are three tabs deep in a Confluence spec and a linked web report, and you need to know what the report actually claims. Sidenote answers in the side panel and clicking a citation jumps the live page to the sentence it came from — no download, no upload. AskYourPDF could ingest that report if you saved it as a PDF or gave it the URL, but the authenticated Confluence page would not be reachable at all.
Where AskYourPDF is the better tool.
AskYourPDF is a genuinely capable, well-established product, and there are real reasons to pick it over Sidenote. Here is where it clearly leads.
It goes everywhere you do
Native iOS and Android apps mean you can chat with your documents on a phone or tablet. Sidenote is a desktop browser extension with no mobile app, so AskYourPDF simply reaches places Sidenote does not.
A real developer API
AskYourPDF exposes a document-chat API with file or URL upload, multi-document knowledge bases, language control and optional source citations, so you can build PDF Q&A into your own product. Sidenote is an end-user tool with no public API.
Your pick of AI models
On paid tiers you can choose between GPT, Claude and Gemini models, plus extras like a knowledge base, AI form filling and citation-generation tools for academic writing. Sidenote keeps model choice simpler and unlocks its most capable model on higher tiers.
Sidenote vs AskYourPDF — common questions
Read anything. With citations.
Add Sidenote to your browser and ask your first question in the side panel — no upload, no card, on the page you are already reading.
7-day Pro trial · No card required · Free tier forever