Turn on the AI helper

The AI helper adds Ask, Extract, Translate, Read handwriting and AI naming to your documents. Nothing goes to AI until you allow it: before AI first reads a document, Paperwise tells you it isn’t fully private and waits for you to continue.

What it is

The AI helper is a set of Pro actions that use an AI model to read a document for you:

Ask: ask questions about a document and get answers with page numbers.
Extract: pull out totals, dates, line items, contact details or ID details.
Translate: translate the whole document into another language.
Read handwriting: read a page again with AI when the on-device text isn’t good enough.
Name and file with AI: give a document a clear name and put it on the right shelf.
Count objects: count things in a photo.

Everything else in Paperwise (scanning, clean-up, text recognition, search, PDFs) runs on your iPhone and never uses AI.

The AI helper switch in Account → AI helper decides whether these actions work on your documents. It’s off on a new install. The switch alone sends nothing. Each document is read by AI only after you allow it for that document, or, if you turn on Name and sort new scans (Pro), for items you add after that.

When to use it

You want a quick answer from a long contract or letter without reading it all.
You need the total and date from a receipt, or the details on an ID, typed out for you.
A letter arrived in a language you don’t read.
A handwritten page came out badly in the text view.

Step by step

Turn the AI helper on or off

Tap your avatar at the top right of the Vault to open Account.
Scroll to AI helper and turn on the AI helper switch.
If it was off, Paperwise explains what it means first. The alert reads: “Ask, Extract, Translate and Read handwriting show up on your documents. AI reads a document only after you allow it for that document. Our AI provider (OpenAI) doesn’t train on it, but may keep it for up to 30 days to check for abuse. It isn’t fully private while AI reads it. Hidden and “Never send to AI” documents are never sent.”
Tap Turn On, or Cancel to leave it off.

To turn it off, switch AI helper off again, and nothing more is sent. The Ask menu’s title then says “AI helper is off”. Ask, Extract, Translate and Read handwriting stay in the menu but only show “AI features are off. Turn them on in Account → AI helper.” Name and file with AI, Count objects, the Text view’s Read again with AI (handwriting) and Name N existing documents with AI… aren’t shown at all.

Use AI on a document for the first time

Open a document and tap Ask in the toolbar at the bottom.
Pick an action, for example Extract.
The first time you use AI on that document in this app session, a sheet appears before anything leaves your iPhone. It reads:

AI is on for this document. Its text is sent to our AI provider to answer you. Our AI provider (OpenAI) doesn’t train on it, but may keep it for up to 30 days to check for abuse. It isn’t fully private while AI reads it.

Some actions say a little more about what they send. Extract, for example, says the text and first page are sent.
Choose:
- Continue to send it. Other AI actions on the same document won’t ask again until you restart the app.
- Cancel to send nothing. Paperwise remembers this for the document, so automatic naming leaves it alone too.
- Turn on Don’t ask again for this document before you tap Continue if you use AI on this document often. The sheet won’t appear for it again.

Spot the documents that used AI

Once AI has read a document, it shows a small AI badge: on its card in your vault and next to its type at the top of the document. It’s a quiet reminder of which papers have been sent to AI.

Free and Pro

The AI helper is part of Pro. On Free, the actions show (Pro) and open the plan screen, and the Ask menu reads “AI helper is part of Pro”. Nothing is ever sent to AI from a free account. See Free and Pro.

Pro includes up to 20 AI actions a day and 300 a month. Naming with AI has its own limit of 100 a day. See AI limits and usage.

Privacy

Privacy: While AI reads a document, its text (or a page image) is readable by our server and by our AI provider. That moment isn’t end-to-end encrypted. Our server doesn’t store it, and requests go to OpenAI with storage turned off and no user or install identifier. OpenAI doesn’t train on API data, but under its standard terms it may keep requests for up to 30 days for abuse monitoring. We don’t have a zero-data-retention agreement yet.

Hidden items and documents marked Never send to AI are never sent and never show the sheet. The full list of what each action sends is in What AI sees and keeps.

Tips

Mark papers you never want read by AI with ••• → Never send to AI. The document then shows “No AI” in its details line. See Protected documents, Never send to AI and Hidden.
The Ask menu’s heading tells you where you stand: how many AI actions you’ve used today, “AI asks before it reads this document”, or “AI helper is off”.
If you want new scans named for you automatically, see Name and sort with AI.

What if…

What if an AI action says “AI features are off”?

The AI helper switch is off, which is how a new install starts. Turn it on in Account → AI helper.

What if I tapped Cancel by mistake?

Nothing was sent. Run the action again and tap Continue. That also clears the earlier Cancel for this document.

What if an action says the document is set to never be sent to AI?

The document is marked Never send to AI. Open ••• and tap Never send to AI again to remove the checkmark, then try again.

What if I don’t see the AI actions on something in Hidden?

That’s by design. Hidden items never reach AI and the AI actions aren’t offered for them.