A document-chat platform aimed at research-heavy students and small teams. Upload PDFs (and other formats), ask questions, get cited answers. SOC-2 compliant and SSO-capable on higher tiers.
System Verdict
Pick Humata if you need more than 2 PDFs per day with GPT-5 reasoning at a fair price. Expert at $9.99/mo now bundles 500 pages, 3 user seats, and GPT-5 support, which is competitive against ChatPDF Plus for academic and solo-professional volume. Team at $49/user adds department-level folders, OCR for scanned documents, response personalization, and a SOC-2 certificate.
Skip it for casual single-doc use. ChatPDF free (2/day, 120-page cap) handles most one-off needs without paying. Also skip if you’re already paying for ChatGPT Plus, Claude Pro, or Gemini Advanced, all of which handle PDFs natively.
Who pays which tier: Free for occasional single-paper workflows. Expert $9.99/mo for solo academics or small student teams that want GPT-5-grade citations on up to 500 pages a month. Team $49/user/mo for regulated small teams (legal, medical, finance) where SOC-2, OCR, and folder permissions matter.
Key Facts
| Free tier | 60 pages/month, 1 user, no overage |
| Expert plan | $9.99/mo, 500 pages, 3 users, GPT-5 support, chat support |
| Team plan | $49/user/mo, 5,000 pages, up to 10 users, GPT-5, OCR, folder permissions, SOC-2 certificate, response personalization |
| Enterprise | Custom pricing, uptime SLA, early access, enterprise support |
| LLM stack (June 2026) | GPT-5 support listed in the public pricing matrix; verify exact model access if contractual |
| Compliance | SOC-2 certificate on Team and Enterprise; SHA-256 encryption |
| File types | PDF, DOCX, TXT, more |
| Additional pages | $0.02/page (Expert), $0.01/page (Team) |
When to pick Humata
- Academic researchers on Expert. $9.99/mo covers 500 pages and 3 seats with GPT-5 reasoning. That is competitive with ChatPDF Plus on volume and ahead on model quality.
- Small professional teams. Team at $49/user with 5,000 pages plus folder permissions covers most legal or medical small-firm use cases.
- OCR for scanned PDFs. Team tier handles image-based PDFs that free tools often fumble.
- SOC-2 requirements. Required for regulated use. Humata ships a SOC-2 certificate on the Team plan without bumping to enterprise pricing immediately.
When to pick something else
- Free, occasional use: ChatPDF free tier (2 PDFs/day).
- Multi-document research: NotebookLM (free, Gemini-powered, handles 50 sources per notebook).
- Self-hosted / privacy-first: AnythingLLM (open source, MIT license).
- Already paying for ChatGPT/Claude/Gemini: Use native PDF upload. No need for a second subscription.
Pricing
| Plan | Price | Pages / Features |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 60 pages/month, 1 user, no overage |
| Expert | $9.99/mo | 500 pages, 3 users, GPT-5 support, $0.02/page overage |
| Team | $49/user/mo | 5,000 pages, up to 10 users, GPT-5, OCR, folder permissions, SOC-2 certificate, $0.01/page overage |
| Enterprise | Custom | Unlimited + uptime SLA + early access + enterprise support |
Prices verified 2026-06-12 via humata.ai/pricing. The current public pricing page shows Free, Expert, Team, and Enterprise; it does not show a self-serve Student tier on the rendered pricing grid.
Best plan recommendation
Use Free only for a few papers or one small project. Expert is now the obvious first paid plan for academic users and solo professionals because the page allowance (500/mo) fits regular reading and the GPT-5 backbone improves citation quality versus prior models. Team is the first plan to consider for shared folders, OCR, response personalization, and departmental document workflows that require a SOC-2 certificate.
Before paying, upload the actual documents you care about: scanned PDFs, tables, long contracts, academic papers, and mixed-format files. The value depends less on the chat interface and more on whether citations point to the right pages, OCR works on your scans, and the plan limit matches your monthly page volume.
Failure modes
- Page cap is enforced strictly. Upload 10 PDFs averaging 60 pages = 600 pages, which blows through Expert tier fast. Monitor usage.
- Citation quality varies. Works well for factual questions against well-structured documents. Struggles on inferential questions requiring cross-document synthesis.
- No multi-document chat on lower tiers. Folder-level access is a Team-tier feature.
- Mobile experience is limited. Web-first product; PWA exists but lacks some features.
- Figure and chart interpretation is weak. Like most RAG-based tools, charts and diagrams inside PDFs often get skipped.
Against the alternatives
| Humata | ChatPDF | NotebookLM | AnythingLLM | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free tier | 60 pages/mo | 2 PDFs/day | Unlimited (50 sources/notebook) | Self-hosted |
| Starting paid | $9.99 (Expert) | $19.99/mo | Gemini Advanced $19.99 | $0 self-host or $25 cloud |
| Team features | SOC-2 certificate + folder permissions | Custom | No team tier | Multi-user native |
| OCR | Team tier | Yes | Yes (Gemini) | Depends on vector DB |
| Best for | Student + small team | Quick single-doc | Multi-source research | Self-hosted enterprise |
Methodology
Produced by the aipedia.wiki editorial pipeline. Last verified 2026-06-12 against humata.ai/pricing, humata.ai, and Humata security.
FAQ
Is Humata really cheaper than ChatPDF? At Expert tier ($9.99/mo for 500 pages), Humata is roughly half the cost of ChatPDF Plus ($19.99/mo) at comparable academic volume. For very high volume, Team or Enterprise pricing applies.
Does Humata support OCR? Yes, on the Team tier. Useful for scanned contracts, historical documents, or image-based PDFs.
Which model powers Humata? Humata’s public pricing matrix lists GPT-5 support as of June 12, 2026. Verify model access in procurement if the exact model is a hard requirement.
How accurate is Humata for legal documents? Decent for direct factual questions with citation verification. Always review cited pages. Not a substitute for attorney judgment on material questions.
Is the free tier usable for a term paper? Yes, if your source material fits within 60 pages/month. One textbook chapter, a few papers, done. Heavy reading requires the Expert tier at $9.99/mo.
Related
- Category: AI Research
- See also: ChatPDF · NotebookLM · AnythingLLM
