How does Shorty summarize a PDF?

Shorty reads the PDF's text layer — the text you can select in a PDF viewer — page by page, and the AI turns it into a title, a short overview and titled sections, each with a page label the AI estimates. A book-length PDF is summarized from its opening part, because the text is capped before it reaches the AI.

How large a PDF can Shorty summarize?

Shorty's PDF Summarizer takes PDFs of up to 100 MB each, on every plan. A PDF that contains no extractable text — a pure scan with no OCR layer — cannot be summarized, and Shorty says so rather than returning an empty summary.

Can Shorty summarize a password-protected PDF?

No. Shorty refuses every encrypted PDF, including one that opens without a password but blocks copying or printing, and says so instead of summarizing it. Save an unlocked copy of the document and upload that one.

Do I need an account to summarize PDFs?

No. Shorty summarizes PDFs without an account and without a credit card. Signing in only adds a saved, searchable history of everything you have summarized.

Is Shorty free to use?

Yes. Shorty is free to use and does not require an account for the summarizer tools — paste or upload something and read the result. A free Shorty account keeps your history in a searchable library, and paid Premium and Pro plans raise the size and volume limits.

Does a failed job still use up my quota?

No. A Shorty job that ends in an error or is cancelled never counts against a quota — the usage is refunded automatically, so a failure costs nothing.

What language is the summary written in?

Shorty's Audio, PDF and Word Summarizers write every summary in English. Shorty's YouTube, Webpage, Article and Text Summarizers let you pick the summary language from a menu of 113 languages before you start.

Does Shorty have an API?

Yes. Shorty has a public REST API at https://aishorty.com/v1, an official TypeScript SDK (@aishorty/sdk), and an OAuth 2.1 MCP server at https://aishorty.com/api/mcp that lets Claude and other AI assistants summarize, transcribe and search on your behalf.

Upload a PDF, get the key points

Free AI PDF Summarizer

beta

Drop a PDF — research papers, legal contracts, textbooks, or business reports. Shorty reads the document's text and returns a concise, structured summary, usually in seconds.

Processed on our servers

AI-powered

Any formatYour choiceUp to 3 files · 250 MB (100 MB for PDF/Word) max

Drag & drop files here

Up to 250 MB (100 MB for PDF/Word) per file · 3-file batch limit

Try other summarizersWebpages, PDFs, audio & more

How It Works

Upload a PDF

Drop a PDF of up to 100 MB — a research paper, a report, a contract or a set of lecture notes.

Shorty Reads Its Text

Press Summarize: Shorty pulls the text out of the PDF page by page, and the AI works out the document's main points.

Open the Summary

Usually within seconds, View Summary opens a titled overview with section-by-section key points.

Why Use Shorty to Summarize PDFs?

Up to 100 MB per PDF

The same size ceiling applies on the free plan and on every paid plan.

Sections, Not a Blob

A title, a short overview and titled sections you can scan, instead of one long paragraph.

Kept Out of Search

Shorty marks the summary of an uploaded PDF noindex and leaves it out of its sitemap. No account is needed to make one.

What the PDF Summarizer Reads and Returns

PDFs it can read

Any PDF with selectable text, up to 100 MB per file on every plan: research papers, reports, contracts, manuals, e-books and slide decks exported to PDF. Shorty reads the PDF's text layer — the same text you can highlight and copy in a PDF viewer — page by page. A bigger file is turned away as soon as you drop it, before any upload starts.

A quick test before uploading: open the PDF and try to select a sentence. If you can, Shorty can read it. If the whole page behaves like a single picture, the file is a scan.

Scans and locked files

Shorty does not run OCR (optical character recognition). A scanned PDF saved as page images has no text layer, so there is nothing to summarize, and Shorty says so instead of returning an empty or invented summary. Run the scan through an OCR tool first, or paste its text into the Text Summarizer.

Encrypted PDFs are refused too, including files that open without a password but restrict copying or printing. Save an unlocked copy of the document and upload that one instead.

Very long documents

The document's text is capped before it reaches the AI, so a book-length PDF is summarized from its opening part rather than cover to cover. For a long book or report, split out the chapters you need and summarize them one at a time.

What comes back

A title, a short overview and titled sections covering the document's main points. Each section carries a page label such as "Page 3". The AI estimates those labels from the text, so use them to find a passage rather than to cite it.

Summaries of uploaded files are written in English. Uploaded PDFs are treated as private, so their summaries are kept out of search engines. Signing in keeps every summary in a searchable history.

Example output format — an illustration for a 30-page annual report from a local charity, not a real summary

Riverside Food Bank: Annual Report

The food bank served more families than in any earlier year, held its costs steady by leaning on volunteers, and plans a second pantry.

Page 2A record year for demand
More households came to the pantry every month than the year before, most of them working families.
Page 9Where the food came from
Supermarket surplus replaced bought-in stock as the largest source, which cut spending on food.
Page 17Volunteers kept costs flat
Volunteer hours rose sharply, so the charity took on more work without hiring more paid staff.
Page 26The plan for next year
A second pantry on the east side, funded by a grant that has been agreed but not yet paid.

Shorty reads the text of a PDF — a research paper, a report, a contract or a textbook chapter — and summarizes it into a title, an overview and titled sections, usually in seconds. PDFs with selectable text up to 100 MB, free with no account needed.

Use Cases for Different Roles

For Students

Condense textbook chapters, journal articles and lecture handouts into notes you can revise from.

For Professionals

Get the main terms of a contract or the findings of a long report before the meeting about it.

Content Creators and Marketers

Pull the key arguments out of industry reports and white papers you want to write about.

For Researchers

Skim a stack of papers quickly and decide which ones deserve a full read.

Frequently asked questions

How does Shorty summarize a PDF?: Shorty reads the PDF's text layer — the text you can select in a PDF viewer — page by page, and the AI turns it into a title, a short overview and titled sections, each with a page label the AI estimates. A book-length PDF is summarized from its opening part, because the text is capped before it reaches the AI.
How large a PDF can Shorty summarize?: Shorty's PDF Summarizer takes PDFs of up to 100 MB each, on every plan. A PDF that contains no extractable text — a pure scan with no OCR layer — cannot be summarized, and Shorty says so rather than returning an empty summary.
Can Shorty summarize a password-protected PDF?: No. Shorty refuses every encrypted PDF, including one that opens without a password but blocks copying or printing, and says so instead of summarizing it. Save an unlocked copy of the document and upload that one.
Do I need an account to summarize PDFs?: No. Shorty summarizes PDFs without an account and without a credit card. Signing in only adds a saved, searchable history of everything you have summarized.
Is Shorty free to use?: Yes. Shorty is free to use and does not require an account for the summarizer tools — paste or upload something and read the result. A free Shorty account keeps your history in a searchable library, and paid Premium and Pro plans raise the size and volume limits.
Does a failed job still use up my quota?: No. A Shorty job that ends in an error or is cancelled never counts against a quota — the usage is refunded automatically, so a failure costs nothing.
What language is the summary written in?: Shorty's Audio, PDF and Word Summarizers write every summary in English. Shorty's YouTube, Webpage, Article and Text Summarizers let you pick the summary language from a menu of 113 languages before you start.
Does Shorty have an API?: Yes. Shorty has a public REST API at https://aishorty.com/v1, an official TypeScript SDK (@aishorty/sdk), and an OAuth 2.1 MCP server at https://aishorty.com/api/mcp that lets Claude and other AI assistants summarize, transcribe and search on your behalf.