Chat
Asking questions
Get useful answers by asking questions that match the evidence available in your PDFs.
Question style
ChatPDF is strongest when questions are specific enough for retrieval to find evidence. Ask for named concepts, clauses, dates, comparisons, or summaries tied to the uploaded document.
- What are the warranty exclusions in this agreement?
- Which pages mention revenue concentration?
- Summarize the evaluation metrics and cite the source pages.
How questions get routed
Before retrieval, a lightweight router rewrites your question into a standalone query and picks one of two modes. You never choose this manually — it is inferred from the question.
Chunks mode
Precise, evidence-seeking questions. Uses hybrid retrieval over chunks and returns verbatim quotes.
Summaries mode
Broad, document-wide synthesis (overviews, key findings). Uses page and document summaries.
Want the details?
The full routing, hybrid search, and ranking logic is documented on Retrieval ranking.
When evidence is weak
If retrieval cannot find supporting evidence, ChatPDF says so rather than guessing. Treat a “not enough evidence” reply or missing citations as a signal to refine the question or upload a better source.