Guide PDFs

PDF Chat and Analysis

Upload any PDF to Scholarly and interact with it through AI. Ask questions about the content, get summaries, edit the document, and generate study materials directly from your files.

Uploading a PDF

Drag and drop a PDF anywhere on the page, or click the upload button to browse your files. Files can be up to 8 MB on the free plan, or 300 MB on premium. On the free plan, generating flashcards from a PDF uses up to 32 pages — enough for a full lecture chapter without upgrading; premium goes up to 1,000 pages so you can cover an entire textbook in a single deck.

If your PDF is password-protected, Scholarly asks for the password during upload and retries with the unlocked file — no need to remove the lock yourself first. Scanned PDFs and photographed notes (including CamScanner exports) are fully supported and work with every AI feature.

After uploading, you are prompted with follow-up actions:

  • Ask AI -- Open the AI chat sidebar to start asking questions about the PDF.
  • Create Flashcards -- Generate a flashcard set from the PDF content.
  • Create Quiz -- Build a quiz based on the material.
  • Create Podcast -- Turn the PDF into a multi-voice audio podcast.
  • Create Video Lecture -- Generate a narrated video lecture from the PDF.
  • Create AI Slides -- Generate a slide deck from the PDF.

What You Can Generate from a PDF

A PDF in your library can feed almost every AI create flow in Scholarly — beyond the follow-up actions above, you can turn the same file into an AI Study Pack, study guide, worksheet, timeline, SOP, flowchart, lesson plan, outline, spreadsheet, mind map, or infographic. Pick the PDF from the Library tab of any create modal.

Choose exactly which pages to use. Every AI create flow includes a page selector for PDFs — expand the file in the create modal and pick a page range, so a 400-page textbook can power a deck about just chapter 7.

PDF Viewer

The built-in viewer lets you read your PDF without leaving Scholarly. Navigate between pages using the page controls. On phones, wide pages automatically fit to your screen width when the document opens, so nothing is cut off.

Slides View

PDFs can be displayed in two layouts:

  • PDF View -- The default scrolling layout. Pages stack vertically and you scroll through the document.
  • Slides View -- A presentation-style layout with a thumbnail sidebar on the left and one large slide in the main area. Navigate between slides by clicking thumbnails or using arrow keys.

Switch between views using the toggle above the document. AI-generated slide decks open in Slides View by default.

Presentation Mode

From Slides View, click the play button to enter full-screen presentation mode. Navigate with:

  • Arrow keys (left/right)
  • Page Up / Page Down
  • Space bar
  • Click left or right half of the screen

Press Esc to exit. The shortcuts work the same way as Google Slides.

AI Chat

Open the AI chat sidebar to ask questions about your PDF. The AI reads the document content and gives grounded answers based on what is actually in the file.

Key capabilities:

  • Page awareness -- The AI knows which page you are currently viewing and uses that as context.
  • Page-specific reading -- The AI can read specific pages when answering questions, so it can reference material from anywhere in the document.
  • Quick suggestions -- Use preset prompts like "Give me the gist" or "Summarize" to get started fast without typing a question.

AI PDF Editing

You can ask the AI chat assistant to edit your PDFs directly. In the chat, describe what you want changed -- for example:

  • "Add a watermark"
  • "Rotate page 3"
  • "Merge these pages"
  • "Redact this section"

The AI modifies the file and your viewer updates automatically.

Renaming

Click the PDF title at the top of the viewer to rename it. The new name appears across your home page, sidebar, and anywhere the PDF is referenced.

Sharing

Share a PDF with others directly from within Scholarly using a share link. Recipients can view the document and its content without needing an account.

Limits

  • File size -- 8 MB per file on the free plan; 300 MB on paid plans.
  • Uploads -- The free plan includes 1 lifetime file upload; paid plans remove the cap.
  • Pages used for generation -- Up to 32 pages of a PDF feed AI generation on the free plan; up to 1,000 pages on paid plans.
  • AI creations -- Generating study material from a PDF uses your shared AI creation allowance (3 lifetime credits on Free; uncapped on paid plans).

See Plans and Limits for the full breakdown.

FAQ

My PDF is over the size limit — what can I do? Compress the PDF or split it into smaller files before uploading, or upgrade for the 300 MB limit. If you only need part of the document, exporting just those pages keeps the file small.

Does Scholarly work with scanned or handwritten PDFs? Yes. Scanned PDFs and photographed notes are fully supported and work with every AI feature.

Can I use only part of a PDF for flashcards or a quiz? Yes — every create modal includes a page selector. Expand the PDF in the modal and choose the page range you want the AI to use.

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