Ask your files Ask your own files a question.
Normi answers questions from documents you upload — PDFs, docs, spreadsheets, and photos of handwritten notes — and attaches the exact source it answered from, so you can check it.
Unlike a general chatbot, your files stay put between conversations, so you upload a reading once and can still ask about it in week nine. It is genuinely worse than ChatGPT at explaining things you have not uploaded; it is built for the opposite job, which is answering from material that is already yours.
iOS, Android and the web app. 3-day free trial.
How it works
Three steps, and the second one is the one people underestimate.
Upload the material
A lecture PDF, a tenancy agreement, a spreadsheet, a photo of your handwriting. Text is extracted on arrival, so it is searchable immediately.
File it into a project
This is what makes the answers hold up later. A project is a durable bundle of files, notes, chat and reminders, so a question in November can still reach a September reading.
Ask in plain language
The answer comes back with the source pinned to it. Tap the source to open the file at the passage it used.
What a cited answer changes
It changes what a wrong answer costs. When the source is attached, a bad answer is visibly bad — the passage either says the thing or it does not. That is a much safer failure mode than a fluent paragraph with nothing behind it, which is the argument we make at length here.
Normi vs a general chatbot vs NotebookLM
Honestly: for a one-off question about a single document you have open right now, a free chatbot is fine and faster. The differences show up over a term, not over an afternoon.
| What you need | Normi | ChatGPT | NotebookLM |
|---|---|---|---|
| Files persist between chats | Yes | Re-upload per chat | Yes |
| Answers cite your source | Yes | Rarely your own | Yes |
| Built for phone-first use | Yes | Yes | Desk-leaning |
| Explains topics you never uploaded | Web search on request | Best in class | Limited |
| Carries into next week | Reminders, goals, quizzes | No | No |
| Shareable with a group | Up to 25 people | No | Limited |
| Price | From £7.99/mo | Free tier | Free |
NotebookLM is free and excellent at understanding a pile of sources in one sitting, and we would use it for that. What it does not do is carry anything forward — the notebook does not remind you, quiz you, or notice that the reading never got done. Normi is built for the part that happens between sessions, which is the job we think decides outcomes.
Then do something with the answer
An answer you read once is an answer you forget. Because the files are already in Normi, the same material can be turned into a quiz that tests you on it, scheduled into your week as recurring reminders, or shared with the people doing the same module. That is the difference between a search box and something that moves work forward.
Questions, answered.
What file types can Normi read?
PDFs, documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and photos. Text is extracted automatically, including OCR on images, so a photo of handwritten notes or a whiteboard becomes searchable and answerable alongside everything else.
Do I have to re-upload my files every conversation?
No. Files stay in Normi and stay available to every future question. That is the main practical difference from a general chatbot, where each new chat starts from nothing and you paste the same document again.
How do I know the answer actually came from my document?
Every answer carries the source it came from, so you can open the exact file or note behind it and check. If Normi cannot find the answer in your material, it says so rather than filling the gap.
Can Normi search the web too?
Yes, when you ask it to. Normi is honest about which answers came from your own files and which came from the web, so the two never blur together.
Is my data used to train AI models?
No. Your data is encrypted in transit and at rest, it is never sold, and it is never used to train AI models. You own it.
What does it cost?
Every new account starts with a 3-day free trial of the full app. After that, plans start at £7.99/month. Plans scale by real AI usage rather than a fixed message count, so a quick question counts for less than deep research across many documents.
Related reading
Upload one file and ask it something.
Three-day free trial of the whole app. If the cited answers do not earn their place in the first session, cancel and you are not charged.