Meet Bookie: Your AI Reading Companion

A PDF AI assistant that usesyour own API key.

Bookie is PDFBook's built-in AI reading companion, and it's bring-your-own-key by design. You plug in your own OpenAI, Claude, or OpenRouter API key (or run it fully local with Ollama), so prompts go straight from your machine to your chosen provider. PDFBook's servers never see your data, and there is zero markup on tokens. The Free tier is chat-only; Pro unlocks Bookie's full tool access and Vision, so it can read your cover and current page, open books, organize your library, edit metadata, add bookmarks, and launch the Floating Reader, all by conversation.

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Bring your own key (BYOK)

Use your own OpenAI, Claude, or OpenRouter API key, a custom endpoint, or run fully local with Ollama. PDFBook charges zero markup on tokens: you pay your provider directly, or nothing at all with local Ollama.

Private by architecture

Because it's BYOK, your prompts and keys go directly from your machine to the provider you chose. PDFBook's own servers never see your chats, your documents, or your key. Local Ollama means nothing leaves your device at all.

An agent, not just a chatbot

On Pro, Bookie takes real actions through an agentic loop: open a book, navigate pages, edit metadata, batch-update, add or remove bookmarks, search your library, and launch the Floating Reader, all by conversation.

Vision reads what's on screen (Pro)

On Pro, Bookie can read a book's cover image and your current open page, rendering it and sending it to your model for multimodal understanding. Vision is a Pro feature. The Free tier is chat-only.

Your files never leave your computer

What Bookie can do in PDFBook

  • Bring your own key: OpenAI, Claude, OpenRouter, or a custom endpoint
  • Run fully local with Ollama: nothing leaves your device
  • Zero token markup: you pay your provider directly, PDFBook takes no cut
  • @-mention library books in chat (type @ to reference a book)
  • Pro tool use: open books, navigate pages, and launch the Floating Reader
  • Pro library actions: edit metadata, batch-update, add/remove bookmarks, search and get stats
  • Vision (Pro): read a book's cover image or the current open page
  • Multi-conversation management with persistent conversation history
  • Agentic loop chains up to 6 tool calls to finish a task on its own

Your AI reading companion, on your own key.

Bring your own OpenAI, Claude, or OpenRouter key, or run local with Ollama. Zero token markup, private by design. Free is chat-only; Pro $6.99/mo unlocks full agent tools and Vision.

Download PDFBook freeSee Lifetime ($89)

Frequently asked questions

Does Bookie use my own API key, or does PDFBook charge for AI?+
Bookie is bring-your-own-key. You supply your own OpenAI, Claude, or OpenRouter API key (or a custom endpoint), and PDFBook adds zero markup on tokens: you pay your provider directly. You can also run Bookie fully local with Ollama at no per-token cost. PDFBook never resells or marks up inference.
Is my data private when I chat with a PDF in PDFBook?+
Yes. Because Bookie is BYOK, your prompts and API key go directly from your machine to the provider you chose, and PDFBook's own servers never see your chats, documents, or key. If you run Bookie with local Ollama, nothing leaves your device at all. This is why PDFBook is a strong local alternative to cloud AI-PDF tools that route your documents through their servers.
Can Bookie actually do things, or is it just a chatbot?+
On the Pro tier, Bookie is a true agent: it runs an agentic loop of up to six tool calls to open books, navigate pages, edit metadata, batch-update, add or remove bookmarks, search your library, and launch PDFBook's Floating Reader, all from a conversation. The Free tier is chat-only (no tool use and no Vision), so the agentic actions and Vision are Pro features.
Can Bookie run completely offline with a local model?+
Yes. PDFBook supports Ollama as a local provider, so Bookie can run entirely on your own machine with no internet and no external API. This makes PDFBook a practical local NotebookLM alternative for people who want AI reading help without sending documents to the cloud.
What is Vision in Bookie and what can it read?+
Vision lets Bookie see images, not just text. It can read a book's cover image and read your current open page by rendering it and sending it to your model for multimodal understanding. In PDFBook, Vision is a Pro feature. The Free tier is chat-only.
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