Locus is live · free plan, paid from $7.50/mo billed annually · last verified 22 Oct 2026 · viability monitor
Locus
Locus replaces Ctrl+F with natural-language search across web pages and PDFs in Chrome and Edge.
Locus is a focused upgrade to Ctrl+F and it earns a place in your browser if you read dense web pages and PDFs every day. Natural-language search, PDF support, page summarization, note cards, and Favorites cover the real find-and-retain workflow, and the free tier's 3-documents-daily cap is enough to test it against your own material. Professional is $7.50/mo billed annually ($90/yr) with a 30-day free window, or $9/mo billed monthly with 14 days free, and adds unlimited documents, a faster processing engine, a choose-your-AI-role option, and GPT-4o, Claude 3 Haiku, and Gemini 1.5 Flash. Pair it with Notion or Zotero if you need note organization or citation management rather than expecting
Verdict generatedVerified 8d ago · liveness 67/100 · cite: rightaichoice.com/tools/locus
- Researchers reading dense papers and synthesizing across multiple PDFs
- Analysts who scan news and reports quickly before work
- Students navigating online textbooks with natural-language queries
- Anyone who regularly needs to find specific information in long web articles
- Users needing a full knowledge management system with notes and organization tools
- People who rarely read long-form web content or PDFs
- Those needing offline search or a desktop app — browser extension only
We scan live Reddit threads, YouTube comments, X posts, G2 reviews and other communities — and hand you an honest verdict in under a minute.
- Honest verdict, not marketing
- Real pros & cons from real users
- Attributed quotes with receipts
3 free scans · no card needed
Skip Locus if you need a desktop or offline reading tool, a note-and-tag knowledge base, or multilingual document search — it is a browser extension built around English-language web pages and PDFs.
The free tier's 3-documents-daily cap and daily limits on AI actions bite mid-research, so heavy reading days push you toward Professional quickly.
The free tier suits casual readers testing the workflow at 3 documents daily. Professional at $7.50/mo billed annually ($90/yr) or $9/mo billed monthly fits daily long-form readers — students, analysts, researchers — and undercuts most research-assistant subscriptions, though it doesn't match a full reference manager like Zotero, which is free but does a different job.
In short
Locus — Locus replaces Ctrl+F with natural-language search across web pages and PDFs in Chrome and Edge. Best for Researchers reading dense papers and synthesizing across multiple PDFs, Analysts who scan news and reports quickly before work, Students navigating online textbooks with natural-language queries. Free to start; paid plans from $7.50/mo billed annually.
What is Locus?
Locus — Locus replaces Ctrl+F with natural-language search across web pages and PDFs in Chrome and Edge. Best for Researchers reading dense papers and synthesizing across multiple PDFs, Analysts who scan news and reports quickly before work, Students navigating online textbooks with natural-language queries. Free to start; paid plans from $7.50/mo billed annually.
Locus is a Chrome and Edge browser extension that replaces Ctrl+F with natural-language search. Instead of guessing exact keywords, you ask something like "What does this page say about climate adaptation?" and Locus jumps to the relevant section of a web page or PDF, then highlights the answer in context. Alongside search, it includes AI helpers that summarize whole pages or selected portions, brainstorm related research topics, and generate note cards for memorization. Favorites let you save highlighted answers across documents, and a search history tracks what you've looked up. The free tier covers 3 documents daily with smart search, AI helpers, web and PDF support, Favorites, search history, daily index refresh, and AI-based summarization, with daily limits on documents and AI actions. Professional removes the document limits and adds a faster processing engine, a choice of AI role, unlimited tokens when you bring your own OpenAI API key, and access to OpenAI GPT-4o, 4o mini, and 3.5, Anthropic Claude 3 Haiku, and Google Gemini 1.5 Flash. The vendor states it updates AI models within a few days of a new release. Locus is deliberately narrow: a semantic search and reading aid, not a knowledge management system like Notion or a citation manager like Zotero. It is built for people who read long-form material daily — researchers working through dense papers, analysts scanning news before work, and students navigating online textbooks.
Key features
- Natural-language search on any web page
- Natural-language search inside PDF documents
- Jumps to and highlights the relevant section in context
- AI summarization of entire pages or selected portions (TLDR)
- Note card generation for memorizing key facts
- Brainstorm related research topics
- Save highlighted answers as Favorites across documents
- Search history of past lookups across documents
- Daily refresh of the search index on the free tier
- Choose your AI role on the Professional tier
- Supports OpenAI GPT-4o, GPT-4o mini, and GPT-3.5
- Supports Anthropic Claude 3 Haiku
- Supports Google Gemini 1.5 Flash
- Bring your own OpenAI API key for unlimited tokens on OpenAI models
- Faster processing engine on the Professional tier
Behind the verdict
Locus solves one job and mostly stops there, which is the right call. The core mechanic — typing a question in plain English and being dropped at the relevant passage in a web page or PDF — is genuinely different from Ctrl+F, because it works when you can't recall the exact wording. Read a 40-page white paper and want the passage about methodology? Describe what it was about and Locus finds it. The AI layer on top is coherent rather than bolted on: summarize a whole page or a selection to get the TLDR, brainstorm adjacent research topics after an article, generate note cards from what you read, and save the answers worth keeping as Favorites. Search history means a section you read yesterday is recoverable by description rather than by keyword archaeology. Strengths: the search interaction itself, PDF parity with web pages (many competitors handle one but not the other), and a free tier that isn't crippled — 3 documents daily with smart search, AI helpers, web and PDF support, Favorites, search history, daily index refresh, and AI summarization is enough to run a real trial against your own reading list. The paid jump is cheap by category standards. Professional at $7.50/mo billed annually ($90/yr, 30 days free) or $9/mo billed monthly (14 days free) removes document limits, adds a faster processing engine, lets you choose the AI role, and opens GPT-4o, GPT-4o mini, GPT-3.5, Claude 3 Haiku, and Gemini 1.5 Flash. Bringing your own OpenAI key unlocks unlimited tokens on the OpenAI side, which is a fair trade for high-volume readers. Weaknesses and where it doesn't fit: it is a browser extension, full stop. There's no desktop app and no offline mode, so anything outside a browser context is out of scope. It is not a knowledge base — no nested notes, no tagging, no cross-document linking — so heavy organizers should keep Notion alongside it. It is not a citation manager, so Zotero stays. There is no evidence of multilingual support, so non-English reading is not a supported workflow. The vendor's model list is a snapshot (GPT-4o, 4o mini, 3.5, Claude 3 Haiku, Gemini 1.5 Flash) with a stated policy of updating within a few days of new releases, so treat the exact roster as current-but-moving. Where it fits: researchers synthesizing across dense PDFs, analysts who scan news and reports before work, and students working through online textbooks. If your day involves long-form reading and you've ever scrolled a page hoping your eye catches the right paragraph, the trade is straightforward — especially at the free tier.
Models under the hood
as of 2026-10-25
Limitations
- The free tier caps you at 3 documents per day plus daily limits on AI actions; Professional removes those document and action limits.
- Professional is $7.50/mo billed annually ($90/yr, 30 days free) or $9/mo billed monthly (14 days free).
- The listed model set is OpenAI GPT-4o, 4o mini, and 3.5, Anthropic Claude 3 Haiku, and Google Gemini 1.5 Flash, and the vendor says it updates models within a few days of a new release, so the roster may move.
- Unlimited OpenAI tokens require bringing your own GPT API key.
- It is a browser extension, so it works inside web pages and PDFs in the browser rather than as an offline or desktop tool, and there is no evidence of multilingual support.
- It is a reading and search aid, not a knowledge management system or citation manager.
as of 2026-10-11
Researching Locus? Get your full AI stack in 60 seconds.
Free, no signup — tell us your goal and get tools matched to your budget & existing stack.
Is Locus still active?
Locus is live · free plan, paid from $7.50/mo billed annually · last verified 22 Oct 2026 · viability monitor.
Viability score
How well maintained and how widely used is Locus? Built from what the vendor actually publishes (docs, changelog, tutorials, integrations, pricing), whether the site is live, and how much real users discuss it. How we calculate this
Last calculated: October 2026
How we score →What do users say about Locus?
What people actually say about Locus — is it worth it?
We ran a structured research pass across product reviews, community discussions, and post-purchase forum threads to surface the patterns vendors won't publish themselves. Below: the recurring strengths, the hidden costs people mention most, and the cohort that consistently regrets adopting this tool.
ResearchedDiscussed by users across 5 sources (Hacker News, YouTube, Product Hunt, App Store, Lemmy) · researched Oct 22, 2026.
Weighted by the 66 posts each of 5 sources contributed.
- +Natural-language search across web pages and PDFs replaces keyword guessing
- +Highlights the answer in context rather than just jumping to a match
- +BYO OpenAI API key unlocks unlimited tokens on Professional
- +Supports multiple model providers: OpenAI, Claude, Gemini
- +Combo of search plus TLDR summarization suits long-form reading sessions
- −Almost no independent user feedback exists to validate the claims
- −Heavy promotional YouTube content makes honest assessment difficult
- −Free tier's 3-document daily cap is tight for daily long-form readers
- −Frequent model churn (3.5, 4o, Haiku, Flash) risks inconsistent answer quality
- −Requires per-query AI latency vs. instant native Ctrl+F
- • Annual cost was implied for a related app at $24/year; Professional tier pricing isn't public in the data
- • BYO OpenAI key means you pay OpenAI directly for heavy usage
How we verified this
Every listed fact about Locus— pricing, features, links, status — is re-read from the vendor's own pages by our verification pipeline and each change is logged with a date; the last pass ran on 22 Oct 2026. Pages mix model-assisted synthesis with human review; see how we verify.
Verification history
We have re-verified Locus 12 times since . Each pass re-reads the vendor's own pages and re-checks every listed field against that evidence; passes where nothing had changed are marked as such.
- — changed SSL certificate
- — changed description, hidden costs, our verdict, features, who it suits, limitations, switching in, switching out, pricing tiers, pricing fit, setup time, who should skip it, summary
- — changed who it suits, setup time, description, features, hidden costs, pricing tiers, who should skip it, use cases, pricing fit, summary, switching in, our verdict, limitations, switching out, models
- — changed limitations
- — changed domain expiry, SSL certificate
- — changed pricing page, limitations
Showing the 6 most recent of 12 verification passes.
Free to cite with attribution — this page re-verifies continuously.
How much does Locus cost in 2026?
Locus: Free to start; paid plans from $7.50/mo billed annually. Pricing last verified 22 Oct 2026.
Plans compared
Every published Locus tier, its price as the vendor publishes it, who it fits, and what it adds over the tier below. The 12-month cost projection follows.
| Plan | Price | Billing | Who it's for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | — | Students and casual readers who want to test natural-language search on up to 3 documents a day before paying.Adds: Starting tier at $0 — smart search, AI helpers, web and PDF support, Favorites, search history, daily index refresh, and AI summarization with daily limits. |
| Professional (Annual) | $7.50/mo billed annuallyVendor: “$7.50/mo billed annually ($90/yr)” | monthly, billed annually | Daily long-form readers — researchers, analysts, and students — who read more than 3 documents a day and want the lower effective rate.Adds: Adds no document limits, Advanced AI models, OpenAI integration, a faster processing engine, and a choice of AI role; $7.50/mo billed annually at $90/yr with 30 days free. |
| Professional (Monthly) | $9/mo | monthly | Readers who want the same Professional capabilities without a year-long commitment, or who want a short 14-day trial before deciding.Adds: Same Professional feature set as the annual plan — no document limits, newest AI models, choose your AI role, faster processing engine, unlimited tokens with your own OpenAI key — billed at $9/mo monthly with 14 days free. |
12-month cost
Project the real annual outlay, including the implied monthly cost when only an annual tier is published.
Vendor list price only. Add-on usage, seat overages, and contract minimums are surfaced under Hidden costs & gotchas.
Where the pricing makes sense
The company stage and team size where Locus's pricing actually pencils out — and where peers do it cheaper.
The free tier suits casual readers testing the workflow at 3 documents daily. Professional at $7.50/mo billed annually ($90/yr) or $9/mo billed monthly fits daily long-form readers — students, analysts, researchers — and undercuts most research-assistant subscriptions, though it doesn't match a full reference manager like Zotero, which is free but does a different job.
Has Locus' pricing changed?
No plan price for Locus has moved since we began logging in Aug 2026; the pricing page is re-read on every verification pass.
Who should pick Locus?
Pick Locus if you are Researchers reading dense papers and synthesizing across multiple PDFs, Analysts who scan news and reports quickly before work, Students navigating online textbooks with natural-language queries, Anyone who regularly needs to find specific information in long web articles.
Look elsewhere if you are Users needing a full knowledge management system with notes and organization tools, People who rarely read long-form web content or PDFs, Those needing offline search or a desktop app — browser extension only, Non-English content — no evidence of multilingual support.
Skip it if Skip Locus if you need a desktop or offline reading tool, a note-and-tag knowledge base, or multilingual document search — it is a browser extension built around English-language web pages and PDFs.
GeneratedReal-world workflow fit
Concrete scenarios for the personas Locus actually fits — and what changes day-one when you adopt it.
You open five news articles before work, ask Locus what each one says about your sector, and let it jump to the relevant paragraphs rather than skim the whole page.
Outcome: You decide which articles deserve a full read in minutes instead of working through every word.
You load a stack of papers, search by description ("what does this paper say about sampling error?"), summarize sections, and hit the free tier's 3-documents-daily cap before upgrading to Professional.
Outcome: Professional at $7.50/mo billed annually ($90/yr) removes the document limit, and a faster processing engine plus chosen AI role speeds up long review sessions.
You read a chapter, pull key facts into note cards for memorization, and later describe a section you read yesterday to jump straight back to it.
Outcome: You retain more per chapter and stop re-scrolling through Ctrl+F matches to find a passage again.
Use cases
- Find a specific argument in a long white paper without knowing the exact keywords.
- Summarize a 30-page PDF report into key takeaways using AI.
- Create note cards from a textbook chapter for exam prep.
- Revisit a section you read yesterday by describing what it was about.
- Brainstorm related topics after reading an article to deepen research.
- Save favorite answers from multiple documents for quick reference later.
- Scan morning news articles quickly to decide which parts deserve attention.
Setup time & first value
How long it actually takes to get something useful out of Locus — broken out by persona, not the marketing-page minute.
Install the Chrome or Edge extension and you can run a natural-language search on your first page in under a minute — no configuration required on the free tier. Adding your OpenAI API key on Professional takes a couple of minutes if you want the unlimited-token path. Most readers hit first value on their first long article or PDF.
Switching to or from Locus
How to bring data in from common predecessors and how to get it back out — written for the switcher, not the buyer.
- →From Ctrl+F / browser find: keep the same reading habit but type a description instead of exact keywords, then let Locus highlight the matched section.
- →From manual page skimming: import nothing — open your usual PDFs and articles in the browser and run natural-language queries directly.
- →From a generic AI chatbot: stop pasting page text into a chat window and query the live page or PDF inside the extension instead.
- →From PDF reader search: open the PDF in the browser where Locus runs and replace keyword search with descriptive queries plus AI summarization.
- ↗To Zotero: move citation and reference management there, since Locus is not a citation manager.
- ↗To Notion: rebuild notes, tagging, and cross-document organization in a knowledge base, which Locus deliberately is not.
- ↗To a desktop PDF reader: if you need offline reading, move your documents to an offline-capable app since Locus is extension-only.
Resources & guides
Tutorials & Learning
YouTube returned 6 videos for “Locus”, and we withheld 6: 6 could not be judged, because “Locus” is a single word that other videos use for other things. We are showing none, because we could not prove any of them are about Locus.
Official links
What are the best Locus alternatives?
The closest alternatives to Locus we list are Sharly AI, Casper AI and Reddit Summarizer. Ranked by direct product-type match, not category overlap.
| Alternative | Pricing | Starts at | Last verified |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sharly AI | Freemium | Pricing not published | — |
| Casper AI | Freemium | Pricing not published | — |
| Reddit Summarizer | Freemium | Pricing not published | — |
Alternatives to Locus
View all
Sharly AI
Sharly AI is a document research assistant that summarizes, cross-compares, and citations your PDFs and reports across a single thread.
Reddit Summarizer
Reddit Summarizer is a Chrome extension that AI-summarizes any Reddit thread, subreddit, or search page and lets you chat follow-ups in-tab.
Tools that pair well with Locus
Common stack mates teams adopt alongside Locus, with the specific reason each pairing earns its keep.
Sharly AI
Sharly AI is a document research assistant that summarizes, cross-compares, and citations your PDFs and reports across a single thread.
Casper AI
Casper AI summarizes web pages and PDFs into short, shareable notes in Chrome
Reddit Summarizer
Reddit Summarizer is a Chrome extension that AI-summarizes any Reddit thread, subreddit, or search page and lets you chat follow-ups in-tab.
Locus vs its closest rival
Locus's closest head-to-head is with Praktika — Praktika and Locus serve entirely different needs—Praktika is for language learners who want AI-powered speaking practice, while Locus is a research tool for semantic search across web pages and PDFs. Choose Praktika if you're an intermediate language learner aiming to improve conversational fluency with instant feedback; pick Locus if you're a student or researcher who needs to quickly find meaning in long documents without exact keyword matching. They are complementary, not competitors. Verdict generated
Head-to-head comparisons
Locus vs Praktika
Praktika and Locus serve entirely different needs—Praktika is for language learners who want AI-powered speaking practice, while Locus is a research tool for semantic search across web pages and PDFs. Choose Praktika if you're an intermediate language learner aiming to improve conversational fluency with instant feedback; pick Locus if you're a student or researcher who needs to quickly find meaning in long documents without exact keyword matching. They are complementary, not competitors.
GeneratedLocus vs Surge Ai
For frontier AI labs needing expert human feedback for RLHF and red teaming, Surge AI is the clear choice with domain experts and proprietary benchmarks. For individual students or researchers who want natural language search and summaries within web pages and PDFs, Locus offers a free tier and affordable Pro plan. These tools serve completely different needs and are not directly substitutable.
GeneratedFrequently asked questions
Topics
Used Locus? Help shape our editorial sentiment research.