Get PDFs with the Chrome Extension
Find and attach full-text PDFs for papers in your library, one at a time or in bulk.
Overview
Papers added from a DOI, an online search or a BibTeX/RIS file sometimes arrive without a PDF. Paperguide can find the full text for you, and the Paperguide Chrome extension does the searching in your browser. You can also attach PDFs you already have, or ask an AI assistant to find them through MCP.
Install the extension
Install from the Chrome Web Store
Search for the Paperguide extension in the Chrome Web Store and click Add to Chrome. If you try to find a PDF online without it, Paperguide prompts you with Install extension.
Pin and log in
Pin the extension to your toolbar, click its icon and log in with your Paperguide account.
For more about the extension, see Chrome Extension.
Get the PDF for one paper
Open the paper
Select a paper that has no PDF to open its detail panel.
Click Add PDF
Click Add PDF and choose an option:
- Find PDF online: Paperguide finds and attaches the PDF automatically.
- Locate PDF: opens the paper's page so you can find the PDF there.
- Search Google for PDF: searches Google for the paper's PDF in a new tab.
- Attach PDF: upload a PDF from your computer.
- Add with MCP: your AI assistant finds the PDF and attaches it.
The first three options use the Chrome extension.
Get PDFs for many papers at once
Select papers
In the paper list, select the papers you want PDFs for. When any of them has no PDF, a Get PDFs button appears in the toolbar, showing how many are missing.
Choose how to get them
Click Get PDFs ("Get missing full-text PDFs") and choose:
- Find PDF online: the extension looks for each PDF and attaches it. Progress shows in a card in the corner.
- Add with MCP: your AI assistant finds the missing PDFs in the folder and attaches them.
- Attach PDF: drop the PDFs you already have. Each file is matched to its paper by the DOI printed in it. Check the matches, then attach.
Open-access papers work best. When a PDF is behind a publisher's paywall, Paperguide shows PDF access restricted. If you have institutional access, log in to the publisher through your browser and try again, or attach the PDF yourself.
Sometimes a source asks for a quick check first. If you see CAPTCHA verification needed, click to open the page and complete the check, and the PDF is fetched automatically.
Check that a PDF is ready for AI features
After a PDF is attached, Paperguide indexes it so you can chat with it and use it in other tools. A paper's Index Status in its detail panel shows Indexed when it's ready. In table view, the Indexed column shows Yes, No, Indexing… or Failed. If indexing fails, click Retry indexing.