# Poe vs Side Reader Poe records 5,894,702 monthly visits with +9.1% month-over-month growth and Freemium pricing. Side Reader records 355 monthly visits with -36.5% growth and Freemium pricing. | Metric | [Poe](https://openaitools.app/tool/poe) | [Side Reader](https://openaitools.app/tool/side-reader) | | :--- | :--- | :--- | | Website URL | https://poe.com | https://www.side-reader.com | | Categories | AI Chatbot, Large Language Models (LLMs), AI Assistant, AI Answer | AI PDF, AI Reader, AI Chatbot, AI PDF Summarizer | | Pricing Model | Freemium | Freemium | | Monthly Visits | 5,894,702 | 355 | | MoM Growth Rate | +9.1% | -36.5% | | Primary Market | Hong Kong SAR China | Vietnam | | Direct Visits | 4,014,057 | 149 | | Review Score | 4.7 | 2.4 | | Saved Count | 77 | 0 | | Supported Platforms | Website | Website | ## Poe Poe is an AI chat platform created by Quora. Instead of subscribing to each frontier model separately, you get a single interface where you can switch between models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, xAI and others, plus image, video and audio generators. The home feed lets you explore and use bots created by other people, so you can try specialized assistants for writing, coding, research, translation, roleplay or image creation without setting anything up. A key part of Poe is bot creation. Anyone can build a custom bot by writing a prompt, choosing a base model and optionally attaching knowledge files, then publish it for others — or keep it private. Conversations, bots and settings sync across web, iOS, Android, Windows, Mac and Linux clients, so Poe works as a general-purpose daily AI assistant rather than a single-purpose tool. Pricing is freemium: a free tier gives limited daily message allowances across a subset of models, while a paid subscription unlocks higher limits, access to more capable premium models, larger uploads and bonus compute points. Because the model catalog and quota rules evolve quickly, check the official Poe site for current plans and usage limits. **Pricing & Plans:** Freemium: a free tier offers limited daily usage across many models, while paid subscriptions raise message limits and unlock premium frontier models, bigger uploads and bonus compute points. Check the official site for current plans and limits. - **Multi-model chat:** Talk to GPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok and many other text, image, video and audio models from a single chat window. - **Custom bot builder:** Create your own bots with a prompt and a base model, then share them publicly or keep them private. - **Explore community bots:** Browse thousands of bots made by other users for coding, writing, research, study, roleplay and more. - **Cross-platform sync:** Your chats, bots and settings stay in sync across web, iOS, Android, Windows, Mac and Linux clients. - **Multimodal generation:** Generate and analyze images, video and audio alongside text in the same conversation. **Strengths:** Access to many leading models through one login and subscription; Powerful bot creation and sharing without coding; Syncs across web, mobile and desktop clients; Continuously adds newly released frontier models **Limitations:** Free tier message limits can be reached quickly with heavy use; Premium models and higher quotas require a paid subscription; Feature and quota rules change frequently as models update [Profile (Markdown)](https://openaitools.app/tool/poe.md) ## Side Reader Side Reader exists to remove the friction of working with documents and AI chatbots at the same time. Normally you either paste chunks of a PDF into a chat window or juggle two tabs and lose your place. Side Reader is a Chrome extension that renders the PDF in the sidebar of ChatGPT, Claude or DeepSeek, so the document and the conversation sit side by side. Once a PDF is open you use built-in action buttons to summarize, translate or explain content, and you can customize those button prompts so the AI answers in your preferred format. For content that cannot be selected — charts, infographics, scanned images — a screenshot question lets you ask about a region of the page directly. The reader itself supports zoom, page navigation and width adjustment, so it behaves like a normal PDF viewer rather than a stripped-down preview. Privacy is handled simply: PDFs are stored locally in your browser and Side Reader does not keep your files. Because the AI work happens inside the ChatGPT, Claude or DeepSeek session you are already using, Side Reader adds document handling rather than a separate subscription to yet another model. **Pricing & Plans:** Freemium. The core Chrome extension is available to install, with a paid upgrade for extended usage; check the extension listing for current limits. - **Read PDFs beside the chat:** PDFs render directly in the sidebar next to the chat, so your document and the AI conversation are visible at the same time. - **Summarize, translate and explain:** Summarize a whole document, translate it, or have passages explained in simpler terms using the AI you are already signed into. - **Custom action button prompts:** Built-in buttons cover the common actions, and you can edit their prompts to make the AI respond in the format and tone you need. - **Screenshot questions for non-selectable content:** Ask about charts, scans or regions that cannot be selected by taking a screenshot question instead. - **Local storage and a proper reader:** Files stay local in your browser and are not stored by Side Reader, and PDFs keep zoom, page navigation and width controls. **Strengths:** Keeps the PDF and the AI conversation visible in the same window; Works with ChatGPT, Claude and DeepSeek rather than locking you into one model; Local-only file storage — documents are not kept on Side Reader servers; Customizable action prompts for repeatable workflows **Limitations:** Requires an active ChatGPT, Claude or DeepSeek session to do the AI work; Chrome only — no Firefox, Safari or Edge-specific edition; Very new/small product, so the feature set is still evolving [Profile (Markdown)](https://openaitools.app/tool/side-reader.md) ## Frequently Asked Questions ### How do Poe and Side Reader compare in monthly traffic? Poe has 5,894,702 monthly visits, while Side Reader has 355. Traffic estimates describe audience size, not product quality. ### How do their growth rates compare? Poe has a month-over-month growth rate of +9.1%; Side Reader has -36.5%. ### How does pricing compare? Poe: Freemium. Freemium: a free tier offers limited daily usage across many models, while paid subscriptions raise message limits and unlock premium frontier models, bigger uploads and bonus compute points. Check the official site for current plans and limits. Side Reader: Freemium. Freemium. The core Chrome extension is available to install, with a paid upgrade for extended usage; check the extension listing for current limits. ## Alternatives | # | Tool Name | Monthly Visits | MoM Growth Rate | Pricing Model | Summary | Profile (Markdown) | | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | | 1 | [ChatGPT](https://openaitools.app/tool/chatgpt-4) | 6,048,022,723 | +2.2% | Freemium | Provides superior reasoning, voice, and coding agents, but lacks Poe's flexibility to switch between multiple distinct third-party model providers. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/chatgpt-4.md) | | 2 | [Google Gemini](https://openaitools.app/tool/gemini-gemini-advanced) | 2,637,398,242 | -0.1% | Freemium | Features a massive context window and Google Workspace integration, but lacks Poe's broad multi-model conversational flexibility. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/gemini-gemini-advanced.md) | | 3 | [Claude](https://openaitools.app/tool/claude-2) | 1,253,439,413 | +23.8% | Freemium | Offers exceptional coding artifacts and long-form analysis, but lacks Poe's multi-model aggregator interface and diverse bot marketplace. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/claude-2.md) | | 4 | [DeepSeek](https://openaitools.app/tool/deepseek) | 372,761,591 | +4.3% | Freemium | High-efficiency open-weight and hosted reasoning AI powered by DeepSeek-V4 and R1 at ultra-low token costs. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/deepseek.md) | | 5 | [Perplexity](https://openaitools.app/tool/perplexity-ai) | 88,310,223 | -3.7% | Freemium | Real-time AI answer engine and research workspace combining live web citations with frontier reasoning models. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/perplexity-ai.md) | | 6 | [Monica](https://openaitools.app/tool/monica-ai) | 4,512,775 | -11.3% | Freemium | All-in-one AI assistant across web, browser, desktop and mobile | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/monica-ai.md) | | 7 | [SciSpace](https://openaitools.app/tool/scispace) | 4,464,111 | +8.6% | Freemium | AI research platform for reading, understanding and writing scientific papers | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/scispace.md) | | 8 | [PDFgear](https://openaitools.app/tool/pdfgear) | 2,845,280 | -3.4% | Free | A free, AI-powered PDF editor for every device | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/pdfgear.md) | | 9 | [Sider](https://openaitools.app/tool/sider-ai-extension) | 2,644,740 | -10.6% | Freemium | Integrates multi-model chat directly into your browser workflow, but lacks Poe's dedicated standalone aggregator web and mobile application. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/sider-ai-extension.md) | | 10 | [Sider](https://openaitools.app/tool/sider) | 2,644,740 | -10.6% | Freemium | AI sidebar and browser agent for reading, writing and research | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/sider.md) | --- Source: https://openaitools.app/compare/poe-vs-side-reader More Markdown: [Categories](https://openaitools.app/categories.md) · [Traffic rankings](https://openaitools.app/rankings.md) · [llms.txt](https://openaitools.app/llms.txt)