Summary

This free PDF summarizer turns the text of a PDF into its most important sentences. Copy the text from your document, paste it into the box, and choose a summary of 3, 5, or 8 sentences as bullets or a paragraph. It scores sentences by how often their topic words appear and returns the best ones in their original order, so nothing is invented. It also shows words in, words out, and the reading time you save at 238 words per minute. Everything runs in your browser and nothing you paste is uploaded.

Summarize a PDF by pasting its text

This free PDF summarizer returns the key sentences of your document in seconds. Paste the text, pick a length. It runs in your browser and invents nothing.

Summarize a PDF
Printed report with one highlighted paragraph beside a cup of tea

PDF summarizer

Copy the text from your PDF, paste it below, and choose how many sentences you want back.

How it works

What happens to your text

It counts the topic words

The tool lowercases your text, removes common words such as the, and, and with, and counts how often each remaining word appears. The words that come up most often describe what the document is about.

It scores every sentence

Each sentence earns points for the topic words it contains. Very short lines, such as headings, are ignored. Very long sentences are scored down, and the opening sentence gets a small bonus because it usually states the subject.

It keeps the best and skips repeats

The top sentences are returned in their original order, so the summary reads like the source. A sentence that repeats the same words as one already chosen is dropped, which keeps the result from saying one thing twice.

Getting started

From PDF to summary in four moves

  1. 1

    Open the PDF and copy the text

    Select all with Ctrl+A or Cmd+A, then copy. If the PDF is long, copy only the chapters you need.

  2. 2

    Paste it into the box

    Remove page numbers or a table of contents if you notice them. They are short lines and mostly get ignored anyway.

  3. 3

    Choose length and format

    Three sentences suit a quick triage. Eight sentences suit a report you will act on. Bullets scan faster, and a paragraph reads better.

  4. 4

    Read the result, then decide

    If the summary answers your question, you are done. If it points to a section that matters, go back to the PDF and read that part in full.

Where it helps

A summary is a map, not the territory

A good extractive summary tells you where to slow down. It will not replace a careful read of a contract, a study, or anything you are about to sign or cite. Use it to sort a pile of documents into three groups: the ones you can skip, the ones you can skim, and the ones that deserve an hour.

  • Triage a stack of reports before a meeting
  • Check whether a paper is on topic before you read it
  • Pull the key sentences out of a long email thread
  • Keep a short note next to each saved document
Hands holding a long stapled document next to a single short sheet of notes

Common questions

Does this PDF summarizer upload my file?
No. You paste text, and the sentence scoring runs in your browser. Nothing you paste is sent to a server. The only thing recorded is an anonymous count that the tool was used.
Why do I paste text instead of uploading the PDF?
Reading a PDF file needs a separate parsing library, and this page keeps everything inside one small script. Opening the PDF, selecting all, and copying takes a few seconds, and it also lets you drop the cover page or references before you summarize.
Is this an AI model?
No. It is an extractive summarizer. It counts how often each topic word appears, scores every sentence by those counts, and returns the best ones in their original order. A language model can rephrase and combine ideas. This tool only selects sentences that already exist in your text.
How accurate is the summary?
Every sentence is quoted from your source, so nothing is invented. What it cannot do is judge which point matters to you. It works best on structured text such as reports, articles, and papers, and less well on tables, lists, or text full of numbers.
Where does the reading time saved come from?
It uses 238 words per minute, the average adult silent reading speed for non-fiction found in a 2019 meta-analysis by Marc Brysbaert. The figure is a rough guide, since technical text is read more slowly.
Which languages does it handle?
English works best, because the list of ignored common words is English. Other languages that separate words with spaces still produce a usable result, but common words may rank higher than they should.
Can I use it on a scanned PDF?
Only if the text can be selected. A scan is an image, so copying gives you nothing. Run it through optical character recognition first, then paste the recognized text here.

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