Ask a document

Ask lets you have a short conversation with one document. Answers come only from that document’s pages, and each answer points to the page it came from.

What it is

Ask sends the document’s recognised text, with your question, to our AI provider and shows the answer as it arrives. The AI is told to answer only from the document. When the answer isn’t there, it says it can’t find it in the document rather than guessing from elsewhere.

Answers carry page citations, shown as small page tags such as p.2, so you can open that page and check. The conversation is kept with the document, so you can come back to it later.

When to use it

“When does this contract end?” or “How can I cancel?”
“What’s the due date?” or “How much do I owe?” on a bill.
“Summarise this document” before you file it.
“Quiz me on this” for study notes.

Step by step

Ask a question

Open a document and tap Ask in the toolbar at the bottom.
Tap Ask in the menu.
If this is the first AI action on this document in this app session, a notice appears before the Ask screen opens. Tap Continue, or Cancel to send nothing. See Turn on the AI helper.
Type your question in Ask about this document, then tap the send button. You can also tap one of the suggested questions.
The answer appears under your question. Tap the stop button while it’s writing if you’ve seen enough.

Ask follow-up questions in the same conversation. Paperwise sends the last few messages along, so “And when is it due?” works after “How much do I owe?”.

Use suggested questions

When a conversation is empty, a row of questions appears above the text field. They are picked on your iPhone from the document’s type, for example “What was the total?” on a receipt, or “Summarise my obligations” on a contract. Showing them costs nothing and sends nothing.

Tapping one asks it, like typing it yourself.

For questions written for this exact document, tap Suggest questions. This is an AI action: it sends the document’s type, title and summary to our AI provider and replaces the row with three questions written for it.

Clear a conversation

Tap Clear at the top right of the Ask screen. The conversation is deleted from the document and the suggested questions come back.

Free and Pro

Ask is part of Pro. On Free, Ask shows (Pro) in the menu and opens the plan screen.

Each question you send counts as one AI action, and so does Suggest questions. A line under the conversation shows how many you have left today, for example “12 AI actions left today”. See AI limits and usage.

Privacy

Privacy: Each question sends the document’s text, its title and the recent messages of the conversation to our server, which passes them to our AI provider (OpenAI) and doesn’t store them. Requests are sent with storage off and without your user or install identifier. OpenAI doesn’t train on API data but may keep requests for up to 30 days for abuse monitoring.

The conversation itself is stored with the document on your iPhone. Hidden items and documents marked Never send to AI can’t be used with Ask. See What AI sees and keeps.

Tips

Ask works from the text Paperwise recognised on your pages. If a page is handwritten or hard to read, check the Text view first and use Read handwriting if the text is poor.
Ask for page numbers in your question (“Where does it mention the deposit?”) and the citations will lead you straight there.
One clear question per message gives the best answers.

What if…

What if the answer says it can’t find it in the document?

The answer isn’t in the recognised text. Look at the Text view: if words are missing or garbled, the page may need Read handwriting. If the text is fine, the document probably doesn’t say.

What if a very long document gives incomplete answers?

For very long documents, Ask reads the beginning and the end of the text, so something in the middle can be missed. Ask about a specific part, or split the document into smaller ones with Edit → Split.

What if it says the conversation is too long?

There is a cap on how much document text and conversation one question can send. Tap Clear to start a new conversation, or ask a shorter question.

What if Ask says I’ve used today’s AI actions?

You’ve reached the daily limit of 20, or the monthly limit of 300. The message tells you when they reset. Nothing is sent while you’re at the limit.