Octavo Reader vs Quirely
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Octavo Reader
Read full descriptionHide full description
Octavo - Academic PDF Reader for iPad Transform your academic reading experience with Octavo, the iPad-first PDF reader designed specifically for researchers, students, and professionals. Discover Papers Effortlessly Built-in arXiv browser lets you discover, search, and download academic papers directly within the app. No more switching between Safari and your PDF reader. AI-Powered Intelligence • Tap any paragraph for instant translation in your target language • Generate structured document summaries with key insights • Support for OpenAI, Anthropic Claude, Google Gemini, and Azure OpenAI • Your API keys, your control - complete privacy Smart Document Management • Bookmark important documents for quick access • Navigate through PDF outlines and chapters • Seamless file integration with iPadOS document picker • Share extension support for opening PDFs from any app Privacy by Design • Documents processed entirely on your device • Only necessary text snippets sent for AI processing • No data collection or tracking • Secure API key storage in device Keychain iPad Optimized Native iPadOS experience with full trackpad, keyboard, and Apple Pencil support. Also works beautifully on Mac with Catalyst. Perfect for reading research papers, academic journals, technical documentation, and any PDF that benefits from intelligent analysis.
Quirely
Organize your PDF documents, extract metadata, and ask questions about your library using AI. Get answers with citations and explore your research papers on Mac, iPad, and iPhone.
- Organize PDF library with folders
- Extract and edit bibliographic metadata
- Filter PDFs by author, title, and full text
- Ask AI questions with cited sources
- Compare ideas across documents
- Control AI data sharing and permissions
Read full descriptionHide full description
Organize your PDF library and ask questions with references to your documents. Quirely PDF Library Manager helps researchers, engineers, clinicians and students manage papers, find relevant passages and explore their own collections on Mac, iPad and iPhone. ORGANIZE YOUR LIBRARY • Add folders and monitor them for new PDFs. • Extract and edit titles, authors, venues, years and DOIs. • Complete bibliographic metadata using online reference sources. • Filter by author, title, journal, year, tags and full text. • Open PDFs, reveal files and copy formatted citations. • Use familiar citation styles including MLA, APA, AMA and Chicago. ASK QUESTIONS WITH SOURCES With an active AI subscription, ask questions about material in your library, find supporting passages and compare ideas across documents. Answers include citations and references you can open to inspect the source. Examples: • Find the method used to measure fluorescence in these papers. • Compare the assumptions behind two experimental results. • Locate the passage that defines an equation or reports a sample size. AI can make mistakes. Check the cited passages and original documents, particularly when using results for research, professional or clinical decisions. Quirely is a library and research tool, not a diagnostic service. CONTROL AI DATA SHARING Your PDF library is managed locally. Cloud AI features send extracted PDF text, questions and relevant conversation context through Cloudflare to OpenAI. In version 1.52, these requests require your explicit permission, which you can revoke in Settings. When sharing is enabled with a subscription, Quirely can automatically build missing search embeddings from library text. Optional hosted reranking and GROBID extraction require separate permission for the configured service address. GROBID may receive complete PDF files. Bibliographic metadata lookups and enabled web or local-network features are separate from the cloud AI sharing setting. See the privacy policy for details. SUBSCRIPTIONS Local library organization and filtering are free. Cloud AI chat, AI metadata extraction and embeddings require an active Basic, Pro or Lab subscription. AI usage limits apply. Apple handles purchases; use Restore Purchases to restore an eligible subscription on another device. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://quirely.ai/privacy.html Support: https://quirely.ai/support.html
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Octavo Reader at none against Quirely's 3. Octavo Reader also leads on update cadence (daily vs every 3 weeks). Quirely's advantage is device support (3 vs 1). On price, ads and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Quirely sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. Octavo Reader asks for nothing beyond the download.
Octavo Reader ships an update daily, Quirely every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 30, 2026 and November 5, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Octavo Reader | Quirely |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | — | 4.5 (8 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | — | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | — | 8 — better |
| Update frequency | Daily — better | Every 3 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | — | Freemium |
| Devices | iPad | iPhone, iPad, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 18.5 | 18.5 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 1 MB | 1.1 GB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Desheng Xu | Reggie Fisher |
In-app purchases
Octavo Reader
No in-app purchases
Quirely
- Basic$3.991 Month
- Pro$6.991 Month
- Lab$49.991 Month









