Comparison

PDF AI vs Lumen

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

PDF AI

Features
Read full description

Chat with any PDF. Get answers instantly. Tired of reading 50-page documents? PDF AI lets you upload any document and ask questions in plain English — like having a personal assistant for every file. WHAT YOU CAN DO: - "Summarize this contract in 3 bullet points" - "What are the key deadlines in this document?" - "Explain chapter 4 in simple terms" - "Find all the prices in this invoice" KEY FEATURES: Instant AI Summaries — Get the core insights from any PDF in seconds Interactive Chat — Ask specific questions, get direct answers OCR Scanner — Scan physical paper, receipts, whiteboards into searchable PDFs Privacy First — Your documents are processed securely Multi-Format — PDFs, research papers, essays, business reports PERFECT FOR: Students — Summarize textbooks, prep for exams, create study notes Lawyers & Professionals — Analyze contracts and legal terms instantly Researchers — Extract insights from academic journals fast Business — Process invoices, reports, and business documents Download PDF AI and turn any document into a conversation.

About

Lumen

This app acts as a browser that remembers what you read, building a personal knowledge base from engaged pages. It allows you to ask questions in plain English about your reading history, with answers generated by an on-device AI. All your data remains private and offline.

Highlights
  • On-device AI knowledge base
  • Plain English questioning
  • Automatic content organization
  • Private and offline browsing
  • Tracker blocking
  • Source citation for answers
Read full description

Lumen is a browser with a memory. Most browsers forget the second you close a tab. Lumen does not. As you read, it quietly builds a personal knowledge base from the pages you actually engage with, and then lets you ask questions about any of it in plain English, answered by an AI model that runs entirely on your device. Nothing you read, nothing you ask, and nothing Lumen learns about you ever leaves your phone. WHAT IT DOES Lumen reads along with you. It distinguishes between pages you genuinely read and pages you opened and swiped away, and it extracts the meaningful content from the ones that stuck. That content gets summarized, embedded, and organized into a searchable knowledge base, all on-device. Later, when you want to find something, you do not have to dig through history or remember which tab it was in. You just ask: "What did I read about sourdough starters last week?" "Summarize that article about the new M-series chips." "What were the main arguments in that piece I read on Tuesday?" Every answer cites the pages it came from, so you can jump straight back to the source. AUTO-ORGANIZED Your reading sorts itself into a clean hierarchy: Topics, Websites, and Pages. Each level carries its own AI-generated summary, so you can scan what you have been learning at a glance. No tagging, no folders to maintain. Lumen handles it in the background. PRIVATE BY DEFAULT Lumen has no server. There is quite literally nothing to send. On-device LLM: a quantized Llama 3.2 model runs locally through Apple's MLX framework. Local SQLite storage: your reading history, summaries, and embeddings never leave the device. Built-in privacy: tracker blocking, third-party cookie blocking, and fingerprint resistance. Secure: HTTPS-only by default, with mixed-content blocking. No strings attached: no accounts, no sync, no telemetry, no ads. The AI weights download once on first launch (~700 MB). After that, everything works fully offline: browsing, reading, asking, answering. BUILT FOR iOS Lumen is written from scratch in Swift and SwiftUI, designed specifically for iPhone and iPad. It uses Apple's own frameworks wherever it can: NLEmbedding for semantic search, WKWebView for browsing, SQLite with FTS5 for full-text queries, and MLX Swift for on-device inference. Zero third-party trackers. Zero external services. WHO IT'S FOR While most browsers treat the web as a feed to scroll past, Lumen treats it as a library worth keeping. If you read a lot online and constantly think "I know I saw something about this recently but I cannot find it again," Lumen is for you. Researchers, students, writers, developers, and lifelong learners. You do not need to change how you browse. Browse normally, and Lumen takes care of the rest. REQUIREMENTS iOS 18 or later. iPhone with Apple Silicon recommended for the fastest on-device AI performance.

Screenshots

PDF AI4 screens
Lumen4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Lumen at none against PDF AI's 3. Lumen also leads on ads (none vs shown) and update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 6 weeks). PDF AI's advantage is device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 18.0). On price 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. PDF AI sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per 7 days. Lumen asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

PDF AI ships an update every 6 weeks, Lumen every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 16, 2026 and October 14, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
PDF AI versus Lumen: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPDF AILumen
PriceFreeFree
Rating—5.0 (4 ratings) — better
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings—4 — better
Update frequencyEvery 6 weeksEvery 2 weeks — better
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
Monetization—Free
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS15.0 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size7 MB28 MB
Age rating4+17+
DeveloperTECH LOGIC HOSTDaniel Kosukhin

In-app purchases

3 purchases

PDF AI

Subscriptions3
  • PDF Doc Pro Weekly$2.997 Days
  • PDF Doc Pro Monthly$7.991 Month
  • PDF Doc Pro Yearly$29.991 Year
None

Lumen

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is PDF AI free?
PDF AI is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Lumen free?
Lumen is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do PDF AI or Lumen have ads?
PDF AI shows ads; Lumen does not.
Which is updated more often, PDF AI or Lumen?
PDF AI ships an update every 6 weeks, and Lumen every 2 weeks. Most recently, PDF AI was updated on October 16, 2026 and Lumen on October 14, 2026.

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