How Onhand and ChatPDF differ
| Onhand | ChatPDF | |
|---|---|---|
| Where you read | On the page itself in Chrome, with answers in a side panel | On ChatPDF's site or apps, after you upload a file or paste a link |
| What it reads | Webpages and PDFs open in Chrome, including pages you're signed in to | PDF, Word, PowerPoint, Markdown and text files, and links you paste |
| Showing sources | Highlights the passages on the page, with notes in the margin | Citations that jump to the source in its side-by-side view |
| Price and code | Free tier with a daily limit, or your ChatGPT plan or own API key; open source | See ChatPDF's website |
ChatPDF details are from ChatPDF's website as of October 2026. ChatPDF is a trademark of its owner; Onhand isn't affiliated with it.
Why read in place
- No upload step: open a page or PDF and ask. Nothing to download first, and nothing to paste.
- Pages behind a sign-in work: course sites, library journal access and docs you're signed in to, because Onhand reads the page in your browser.
- The page becomes the answer: highlights and margin notes sit on the text you're reading, so you check each point where it appears.
- More than one source: Onhand reads clearly related open tabs and highlights each claim in the tab it came from.
- Built for learning: Learning mode asks guiding questions and quizzes you instead of only answering.
When ChatPDF may fit better
If most of your documents are Word or PowerPoint files, or you want to chat with them outside Chrome or on your phone, ChatPDF supports those. Onhand is a Chrome extension for webpages and PDFs.
Try it
Add Onhand to Chrome, open the page you're reading, and click the
Onhand icon or press Ctrl+Shift+Space
(⌘+Shift+Space on a Mac). Onhand Free needs no account
or API key and has a daily limit; you can also sign in with your
ChatGPT plan or use your own OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini or
OpenRouter key.