Humata AI alternatives: 11 ways to chat with your PDFs, checked (October 2026)
Short answer: for free in the cloud, NotebookLM; to keep your PDFs on your own computer, an app that runs the AI locally. Humata's free plan covers 60 pages a month; after that Expert is $9.99 a month. NotebookLM is free with up to 50 sources per notebook and cites where each answer comes from. Adobe Acrobat's AI Assistant also cites pages but comes with a paid plan. If you don't want to upload your files, GreenCube (€9.99 once) or the free apps LM Studio, Jan, GPT4All and AnythingLLM read PDFs on your PC, with no page limit.
What Humata is, and why people look for alternatives
Humata is a web app where you upload PDFs and other files and ask questions about them; its answers link back to the part of your file they come from (Humata). People usually look for an alternative for one of three reasons: the free plan runs out (60 pages a month, up to 10 answers), they don't want a monthly bill, or they'd rather not upload their documents to a company's cloud. The table below is built around those three questions.
The alternatives, side by side (official pages, 21 October 2026)
Every fact comes from the tool's own website or help pages, linked in each row. Where a tool's pages don't say something, we write "not stated". We haven't tested the quality of each tool's answers; these are limits, prices and what they say they do with your files.
| Tool | Free plan | Paid | Trains on your files? | Where your files go |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Humata (pricing) | 60 pages a month, up to 10 answers | Expert $9.99 a month (500 pages, then $0.02 a page); Team $49 per user a month | No (security FAQ) | Its cloud (AWS, Google Cloud, Supabase). Web app |
| NotebookLM (Google) | 100 notebooks, 50 sources each (Google) | Not checked | No, unless you send feedback (Google) | Google's cloud. Needs a Google account |
| ChatPDF (site) | 2 documents a day | Plus: unlimited documents; price not shown on the pages we could read | Not stated on the pages we could read | Its cloud; it says it answers with OpenAI's GPT-4o models. Web, desktop and phone apps |
| Adobe Acrobat AI Assistant (site) | No free AI Assistant stated (Acrobat Reader is free) | Acrobat Studio $24.99 a month on a yearly plan, or $34.99 month to month (pricing) | No: "never used to train Adobe's AI models" | Adobe's cloud. Desktop, phone and web |
| ChatGPT | File uploads limited, no number published (OpenAI) | Go $8, Plus $20 a month | Yes by default; can be turned off (OpenAI) | OpenAI's cloud |
| Claude | Up to 20 files per chat, 500 MB each, PDFs up to 1,000 pages (Anthropic) | Pro $20 a month, or $17 a month paid yearly (pricing) | Only if you allow it | Anthropic's cloud |
| Gemini | Up to 10 files per message, limits refresh every 5 hours (Google) | Google AI Plus €4.99, AI Pro €21.99 a month | Yes, while Keep Activity is on (Google) | Google's cloud |
| GreenCube (site) | No free version | €9.99 (US$9.99) once, no limits on files or pages | No: your files never reach us (privacy) | Stays on your PC. Windows 10 and 11. Works offline |
| LM Studio | Free | — | No: "none of your messages, chat histories, and documents are ever transmitted" (privacy) | Stays on your computer. PDF, DOCX, TXT (docs). Windows, Mac, Linux |
| Jan | Free, open source | — | No: conversations "never leave your computer" (privacy) | Stays on your computer. PDF and Office files (docs) |
| GPT4All | Free, open source | — | No; sharing chats is opt-in and off by default | Stays on your computer. PDFs with LocalDocs (docs). Last release February 2025 |
| AnythingLLM | Desktop free, open source | — | No; anonymous app usage data you can turn off (privacy) | Stays on your computer. PDF, TXT, DOCX (source) |
ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude prices are from our subscription check on 18 October 2026; their training rules are in which AI trains on your chats.
Which one fits you?
You want it free and don't mind the cloud: NotebookLM
Up to 50 sources per notebook, answers that cite the part of your files they come from, and Google says it doesn't train on your uploads unless you rate an answer. You need internet and a Google account, and your files go to Google.
You need answers that point to the exact page
Humata, NotebookLM, Adobe Acrobat's AI Assistant and ChatPDF all say their answers link back to the source in your document. That matters for essays and research, where you have to check and quote. Acrobat's AI comes with a paid plan; NotebookLM is free.
You don't want to upload your files, or you hit page limits
An app that runs the AI on your own computer reads PDFs from your disk, so nothing is uploaded and there's no page limit; the only cost is your computer's time. GreenCube (Windows, €9.99 once) picks the AI that fits your PC by itself. LM Studio, Jan, GPT4All and AnythingLLM are free; there you choose a model yourself. For more on these apps, see our comparison of 12 offline AI chatbots.
You're comparing monthly costs
Humata Expert is $9.99 a month: $119.88 a year. Acrobat Studio is $299.88 a year. ChatGPT Plus and Claude Pro are $20 a month. A local app is free or paid once; GreenCube is €9.99 once.
How fast is a PDF AI on your own PC? What we measured
We measured GreenCube on a normal 16 GB laptop with no graphics card, using its small AI, on long study documents (the full test). We haven't measured the other apps on the same laptop.
| What you ask for | Measured time |
|---|---|
| One specific question about a long document | about 15 s (11 of 12 right) |
| A full study guide of a chapter of about 5,000 words | about 15 min |
With a graphics card it's much faster: see your card's measured speed in Can my PC run AI? A cloud tool answers in seconds whatever your computer is, because a data center does the work; that's the trade-off.
What to watch for, whichever you pick
- Check what matters. Every AI here can misread a document. In our test, GreenCube got 1 question in 12 wrong. Check anything you'll quote or be graded on against the PDF.
- Read the limits before a deadline. Free plans count pages, documents or messages differently: Humata counts pages a month, ChatPDF documents a day, Gemini files per message.
- Someone else's documents. If the PDF is your school's, your employer's or a client's, check whether you're allowed to upload it to a cloud service first.
How we checked
On 21 October 2026 we read each tool's own website, pricing page, help center and privacy or security page, not reviews or other lists, and linked the page each fact comes from. Some pages couldn't be read (ChatPDF's pricing and privacy policy); there we say "not stated" instead of using other sites' numbers. GreenCube's times come from our own tests. We make GreenCube, so we've stuck to facts anyone can check and haven't ranked the tools. We'll check again every month and update the date at the top.
Questions
Is Humata AI free?
There's a free plan with 60 pages a month and up to 10 answers. Expert costs $9.99 a month for 500 pages (then $0.02 a page), and Team $49 per user a month.
What is the best free alternative to Humata?
In the cloud, NotebookLM: free, up to 50 sources per notebook, answers that cite your sources, and Google says it doesn't train on your uploads unless you send feedback. If you don't want to upload your files anywhere, LM Studio, Jan, GPT4All and AnythingLLM are free apps that read PDFs on your own computer.
Does Humata train on my documents?
Humata says it doesn't use users' data to train its AI models. Your files are stored in its cloud (it names Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud and Supabase), and document data used by its model isn't kept beyond 30 days.
Is there a Humata alternative that works offline?
Yes: an app that runs the AI on your own computer. GreenCube (Windows, €9.99 once) and the free apps LM Studio, Jan, GPT4All and AnythingLLM read PDFs without uploading them. Speed depends on your PC.
Which alternatives cite the page an answer comes from?
Humata, NotebookLM, Adobe Acrobat AI Assistant and ChatPDF all say their answers point back to the source in your document.
Your own AI, on your own PC
GreenCube runs on your computer: no usage limits, no subscription, works without internet. €9.99 (US$9.99), paid once.
Get GreenCube