PaperLabWho it's for · PhD students
For PhD students who read hundreds of papers
A PhD means reading hundreds of papers and, months later, finding the exact passage behind a claim in your thesis. PaperLab is a free, open-source reader that keeps every note attached to the passage it came from, answers questions about a paper with citations you can click, groups papers by chapter in workspaces, and maps how your literature connects. It runs on your laptop, with no account, and works with free local AI models.
What gets in the way, and what helps
“Where did I read that?”
Every note keeps its page and position; click it and the paper opens there.
Anchored notes →Summaries you can’t trust
Answers cite the passages they used, so you check a claim in one click.
Ask a paper →Too many papers per chapter
One workspace per chapter, with all its notes together and a chat across its papers.
Workspaces →Missing key references
References several of your papers cite are ranked first, and import in a click when free.
References and similar papers →No budget for AI subscriptions
Free local models through Ollama; cloud models only if you add a key.
Any model →
A workflow that works
- Add the papers your chapter rests on, or find free copies by title or DOI.
- First pass: skim, highlight the claims, write a line on each.
- Ask the paper about what you didn’t follow, and keep useful answers as AI notes.
- Before writing, read the workspace’s notes, not the papers again.
Guides for you
- How to read a research paper efficiently — The three-pass method, what to skip, and how to keep what you read.
- How to take notes on research papers — Notes you can find again and trace back to the passage they came from.
- How to map the literature on a topic — Citation graphs, co-citation and coupling, and tools that draw the map.
Questions people ask
Is PaperLab free for students?
Yes, for everyone. It is open source under Apache-2.0. Cloud AI models you connect bill you directly; local ones cost nothing.
Will it work on my laptop?
It runs on macOS, Windows and Linux with Docker. Reading and notes need little; a local AI model is comfortable with 16 GB of memory.
Can I use it alongside Zotero?
Yes. Zotero manages references and citations while you write; PaperLab is where you read and think.
Also for: Master’s students · Librarians · Research groups · Developers