Gloss vs BeyondRead
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Gloss
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Gloss turns anything you read into a conversation with its author. Highlight any passage — in a book, a PDF, an article you saved, or your own notes — and a margin note appears, explaining it more deeply in a voice informed by the author's style (or a thoughtful guide when there's no single author). Ask a follow-up and the note answers, staying right beside the text. The AI lives in the margins, never as a chat window — it reads like a thoughtful annotation, beside the text. Read anything: • EPUB books (DRM-free) — your files, Project Gutenberg, Standard Ebooks, author-direct. (Kindle and Apple Books DRM files aren't supported.) • PDFs — papers, manuals, anything you've saved. • Articles — paste a link and Gloss pulls the readable text to annotate. • Your notes — write or paste text and gloss it like a book. • Select text → Gloss, Go deeper, Define, or Ask — the note streams into the margin (a side column on iPad, an anchored card on iPhone). • Distraction-free reading — three themes (light, sepia, dark), adjustable font, size, spacing, and margins. • Your highlights and notes are saved on your device and travel with each document. Reading is free forever. Your first 10 glosses are free; Gloss Unlimited ($5.99/month or $49.99/year) unlocks unlimited notes. Your files stay on your device — only the highlighted passage and a small amount of surrounding text are sent to generate a note. Author "voices" are an AI interpretation, not the real author, and may be inaccurate. Gloss Unlimited is an auto-renewable subscription: $5.99/month or $49.99/year. Payment is charged to your Apple Account at purchase confirmation. The subscription renews automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period; manage or cancel anytime in your Apple Account settings. Terms of Use (EULA): https://gloss.nyrai.ai/terms.html Privacy Policy: https://gloss.nyrai.ai/privacy.html
BeyondRead
This app is an EPUB and PDF reader that includes a library of over 20,000 public-domain classics. It offers AI-powered features to explain, translate, or discuss any sentence within a book, and can generate concise AI Digests of entire books. All reading data is stored locally for enhanced privacy.
- AI sentence explanation, translation, and chat
- AI book digests
- Library of 20,000+ public-domain classics
- EPUB, PDF, and MOBI support
- Local-first data storage
- Customizable reading experience
- Quote card creation and sharing
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BeyondRead is a local-first ebook reader for your own EPUB, PDF and MOBI files, now with a built-in library of more than 20,000 public-domain classics. Select any sentence and ask AI to explain it, translate it, or keep the conversation going in the context of the book. AI Digest turns a whole book into an article you can read in a few minutes. BROWSE (NEW) • More than 20,000 public-domain classics in over 40 languages, free to download and keep • Shelves of great books, browsing by language and genre, and a "Surprise me" pick • Search by title, author or subject, with several words in any order READ • EPUB, PDF and MOBI (MOBI is converted to EPUB on import), on iPhone and iPad • Full-page bookmarks with notes; every book reopens where you left off • Quote cards in three styles: save them to Photos or share them • In-book search, table of contents, adjustable font size and background • Reading, bookmarks, quotes and search need no account ASK AI ABOUT ANY SENTENCE • Translate, Explain and Chat, with as many follow-up questions as you like • Only the passage you select and about 300 characters around it are sent, never the whole book • Translation, explanation and chat on the same passage merge into one highlight you can reopen AI DIGEST • Built from the title, the author, the real table of contents extracted on your device, and roughly the first 200 characters of each chapter • The full text is never uploaded; scanned PDFs and DRM-protected books cannot be digested • You are notified when a digest is ready PRIVACY • Books, bookmarks, quotes, reading positions and AI history live only on your device; our server stores no book content • AI can be switched off entirely, and then nothing leaves the device PLANS • Reading is free, and so is the public-domain library • AI features require signing in (Sign in with Apple) • AI translation is free and does not use your allowance (a fair-use monthly limit applies) • Free plan: 10 AI chats every month, plus 3 AI Digests to keep • Subscriptions raise your monthly chat and digest allowance. They renew automatically, are charged to your Apple ID and can be cancelled at any time in Settings; prices are shown in the app • AI Top-Up packs (new): buy chats and digests without subscribing. Credits never expire and are only used after your monthly allowance runs out LANGUAGES • Interface in English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, French, German and Russian • The AI reply language can be set separately Questions or suggestions? Use "Report a problem" in the app or visit the support page. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ BeyondRead Terms of Use: https://beyondread.app/terms Privacy Policy: https://beyondread.app/privacy
Screenshots
Verdict
Gloss and BeyondRead are too close to call on the numbers: across 5 compared parameters — price, ads, in-app purchases and device support among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.
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. Gloss sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $5.99 per month and BeyondRead sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
| Parameter | Gloss | BeyondRead |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | — | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Number of ratings | — | 1 — better |
| Update frequency | — | Every 4 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | — | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 13 MB | 15 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 9+ |
| Developer | NYRAI LLC | 章 刘 |
In-app purchases
Gloss
- Gloss Monthly$5.991 Month
- Gloss Yearly$49.991 Year
BeyondRead
- Plus Monthly$0.991 Month
- Pro Monthly$4.991 Month
- Max Monthly$8.991 Month
- AI Top-Up · Small$0.99
- AI Top-Up · Medium$2.99
- AI Top-Up · Large$4.99








