PDF summarizer
Paste a link to a PDF and read what it says before deciding to read all of it.
No example to hand? — a four-page arXiv paper.
Summaries you create here are kept for 7 days so you can save them by signing up.
Sumwise is a free PDF summarizer. Give it the address of a PDF that is already online — a paper, a report, a datasheet — and it extracts the text and writes a structured summary: a title, then the key points as a list you can skim.
This page works with links rather than uploads. The preview starts without an account and shows the title and the first key point; a free Sumwise account opens the rest and keeps it in your library.
How the PDF summarizer works
Paste the PDF's address
Any PDF already on the web — the link you would open in a browser. There is no upload on this page.
Sumwise extracts the text
The file is fetched and its text pulled out, scanned pages included. A document too long for the free preview is never quietly shortened — you are told, and offered the first part.
Read the summary
The title and the first key point appear straight away. Sign up free to open the rest of the key points.
What you get
- The same structure every time: a title, then the key points — one idea per line.
- Text and scanned pages alike — the text is read with OCR when a PDF has no text layer.
- Inside Sumwise, summaries in 7 languages: English, Turkish, Spanish, Italian, Arabic (full right-to-left), German and French. This page runs in English.
- A free account: 5 summaries a day, 30 a month, no credit card.
- Every summary you make is saved to your library, so you can come back to it.
Frequently asked questions
- Do I need an account?
- Not to start. Paste a link and you will see the document's title and its first key point straight away. The rest of the key points needs a free Sumwise account, and signing up pulls the summary you just made into your library.
- Can I upload a file?
- Not on this page. It takes a link to a PDF that is already on the web — the address you would open in a browser. Paste that, and Sumwise fetches the file itself.
- How long can the PDF be?
- The free preview is meant for short documents — around five pages. Anything longer is declined with a note; if it is the amount of TEXT rather than the page count that is too much, you are offered the first part instead. Either way you are told, so you always know what was and was not summarized. Account limits are on the pricing page.
- Does it work on scanned PDFs?
- Often. A scan has no text layer, so the text is read with OCR instead — but it is not guaranteed. When nothing readable comes out, Sumwise says so and names a scanned or image-only file as the likely reason, rather than returning an empty summary.
- What does it cost?
- Nothing to try here, and nothing for an account: the free plan is 5 summaries a day and 30 a month, with no credit card. Pro raises those limits — the pricing page has the current numbers.
- What happens to the PDF I paste?
- Sumwise keeps the summary it produced so you can claim it after signing up, and an unclaimed preview is deleted after seven days. The document itself is fetched to extract its text and then dropped — the source text is not stored with the summary.