Comparison
Looking for a ChatPDF alternative
Most tools in this category do much the same thing with your question. What separates them is what happens to your document afterwards, and that part is rarely on the landing page. Here are four questions worth asking any of them — including this one — and what the answer is here.
Try it on a PDF PDF, Word, PowerPoint, PNG, JPG, WebP, Text · XLSX, CSV, Parquet, JSONWhere does the file end up?
Uploading a document and chatting with it normally means a copy now sits on a server, which is what lets you reopen the conversation next week. The convenience is the storage — the two are the same fact. CypherScan does not store the document: it goes to the model with your question, the answer comes back, and there is nothing to reopen tomorrow. That is a real cost, not a free win. You open the file again to ask again.
How long is it kept, and who can read it?
A retention period is not the same as no retention. Worth asking: is the content written to a log, can support staff open it, how long do backups hold it. Here there is no document store to back up and no content log to read — what is recorded is how many files you used this week and, if you have an account, your email address.
Does your document train anything?
Some services reserve the right to improve themselves using what you send. This one does not. The analysis runs through a paid AI provider whose terms exclude the content from training, and nothing is retained here to train on either.
What does it cost to find out?
Three files and twenty questions a week, free, and the first ones need no account at all — no card, no trial that quietly starts billing. If it turns out to fit, a one-off pass is $5.99 for 25 files and 150 questions that never expire, and Pro is $12.99 a month for 50 files a week. There is no plan you have to cancel to stop paying for the pass.
Where this is the wrong choice
If what you want is a library — documents you upload once, organised in folders, searchable across all of them, shared with colleagues — a tool built around storage will serve you better, because that is a feature and it needs the copy on the server to work. CypherScan is for the other case: a document you would rather not leave anywhere, answered now and gone after. Word and text files are read entirely in your browser and never leave the device; a PDF is sent, and the page says so before you press the button.
Can I move a conversation over from another tool?
There is nothing to move — open the same PDF here and ask again. Since nothing is stored on either side of the change, the switch costs you one upload.
Does it read scanned documents?
Yes. Scans and photographed pages are read directly, so a contract someone sent as a picture works the same as one exported from Word.
How large can the document be?
About 3.5 MB per request. Longer reports are best split, or asked about a section at a time.
Which languages does it answer in?
It answers in the language you ask in, and the interface itself is in English, German, Turkish, Spanish, Russian, French and Portuguese.
Is there a free tier without a card?
Three files and twenty questions a week, with no account and no card. The paid tiers start at a one-off $5.99 that expires never and cancels nothing.
What is actually different, in one line?
Other tools keep your document so you can come back to the conversation. This one does not keep it, so there is no conversation to come back to.
How do I check any of this myself?
Open the network tab while you use it. Word, text and spreadsheet files produce no upload at all; a PDF produces one request, and nothing comes back to fetch it again.