PDF Pals

The application lets users interact with PDF documents on macOS by typing questions and receiving AI‑generated answers, eliminating the need to read the files manually. It works locally, using the user’s own API key for language models from providers such as OpenAI, Azure OpenAI Service, or OpenRouter, and stores all data in a local SQLite database and Apple Keychain. An integrated OCR engine enables the same chat functionality for scanned PDFs and complex forms.

Target users include researchers, academics, legal professionals, and software developers who need to extract, summarize, or compare information across one or many PDFs quickly. The tool supports unlimited file sizes, runs natively on macOS Ventura 13 and later, and does not upload documents to external servers, preserving privacy and security.

Distinctive aspects are the lack of cloud‑based vector storage, the ability to configure model settings and system prompts, and the combination of fast native performance with a flexible API‑key‑based backend, all packaged as a single macOS application.