Buddy: The Free AI PDF Assistant That Runs the Tools for You (2026)
Every online PDF site works the same way: find the right tool in a menu, open its page, upload your file, click through the options, download, then start over on a different page for the next step. Fine for one job. Tedious the moment you need two.
Buddy skips all of that. He is the chat assistant in the corner of every iHatePDF page — the little red-and-blue robot. Attach your files, tell him what you want in plain language, and he runs the actual tools for you and hands the result back in chat. One conversation instead of five tool pages.
- Open any page on ihatepdf.com and click Buddy in the bottom-right corner.
- Attach your PDFs, Word, PowerPoint, Excel files or photos with the paperclip — up to 40 MB total.
- Type what you need: "compress this", "merge them and convert to Word", "translate to German".
- Download the result right there in the chat. No signup, no watermark.
Why chat beats clicking through tool pages
Because most real-world jobs are not one job. A landlord wants your last three payslips as a single small PDF. A recruiter wants the Word version of something you only have as a scan. A client wants the deck as a PDF, compressed, by email. Each of those is two or three tools chained together — and on a normal site, two or three uploads, downloads, and page switches.
In chat, a chain is one sentence. Buddy understands the request, picks the right tools, runs them in order on the server, and returns the finished file. The upload happens once. The thinking happens once. You never see a menu.
Everything Buddy can do in chat
- Merge — combine PDFs, images, Word and PowerPoint files into one PDF.
- Compress — shrink a PDF, with targets like "get it under 1 MB".
- Convert — PDF to Word, PowerPoint, Excel or JPG, and each of those back to PDF.
- OCR — turn scanned documents into searchable, copyable text.
- Protect & unlock — add a password or remove one you know.
- Remove photo backgrounds — AI cutout, transparent PNG back in chat.
- Webpage to PDF — paste a URL, get the page as a PDF.
- Translate PDFs — layout preserved, 60+ languages.
- QR codes — "make a QR for https://mysite.com" and it appears in chat.
- Optimise your CV — attach it and let the AI rewrite it ATS-friendly.
- Answer questions about any PDF — summaries, clauses, numbers, plain-language explanations.
Three tools need their own workspace and cannot live in a chat bubble: Sign PDF, the Editly editor, and the document scanner. Ask for those and Buddy takes you straight there instead.
The killer feature: chained requests
Buddy's real advantage over a toolbox is that he chains steps the way you think about them:
Each of those is a single message. The intermediate files flow from step to step on the server — you only ever download the final result.
How to use Buddy in 4 steps
Step 1. Open the chat
Buddy sits in the bottom-right corner of every page — the waving robot. Click him once. There is no account, no onboarding, no email form; the chat is ready immediately.
Step 2. Attach your files
Use the paperclip below the message box. PDFs, Word, PowerPoint, Excel and photos are all fine, mixed freely, up to 40 MB combined. From Google Drive or Dropbox? Download first, then attach.
Step 3. Say what you need
Plain language works: "compress this", "make these one PDF", "convert to Word", "what does page 3 say?". Buddy confirms what he is doing, shows progress, and asks if anything is ambiguous.
Step 4. Download in chat
The finished file appears as a card in the conversation — download it, rename it, or send it onward to another tool. Everything is deleted from the server when your session ends.
Privacy and limits
Attachments are capped at 40 MB per chat session, processed over HTTPS on our servers, and deleted immediately after the session. Nothing is stored, nothing is read by humans, and nothing is used to train AI models. For bigger single files, the dedicated tool pages accept up to 80 MB each.
And if your connection drops: merging PDFs, turning images into a PDF, exporting PDF pages as JPG, and QR codes all run offline, right in your browser.
Frequently asked questions
Is Buddy really free?
Yes. Buddy and every tool he runs — merge, compress, conversions, OCR, translation, QR codes — are free. No signup, no watermark, no trial countdown. You can attach up to 40 MB of files per chat session.
What files can I attach in the chat?
PDFs, Word documents (.doc, .docx), PowerPoint (.pptx), Excel (.xlsx), and photos (JPG, PNG, WEBP, HEIC) — up to 40 MB combined. Attach them with the paperclip button, then tell Buddy what you need.
Can Buddy run several steps in one request?
Yes — that is his best trick. Say "merge these and convert the result to Word" and he runs the whole chain: merge first, then the conversion, and hands you the final file. No re-uploading between steps.
Can Buddy answer questions about my PDF?
Yes. Attach any PDF and ask in plain language — "summarise this", "what does clause 4 say?", "list the payment terms". Buddy reads the document and answers with specifics, powered by AI.
What about signing, editing, or scanning?
Tools that need their own workspace — Sign PDF, the Editly editor, and the document scanner — cannot run inside a chat window. For those, Buddy takes you straight to the right tool instead, with one tap.
Are my files kept private?
Files are processed on a secure server over HTTPS and deleted immediately after your session. Nothing you attach is stored, shared, read by humans, or used for AI training.
Does Buddy work on mobile?
Yes. The chat runs in any modern browser on iPhone, Android, tablet, or desktop. Some jobs — merging PDFs, images to PDF, PDF pages to JPG, and QR codes — even run offline, right in your browser.