PaperGist

Give your Zotero library structured summaries in moments with entirely on-device AI. New: major sync speed-up and far more reliable batch processing.

Academic reading piles up. Papers sit unread in your Zotero library because there's never enough time to get through them all. PaperGist helps by generating structured summaries of your research papers using on-device AI.

The app connects to your Zotero account and identifies papers with PDF attachments. Pick individual papers or process batches at once. Each summary extracts the main argument, methodology, key findings, and implications, adapted to whether you're reading empirical research, theoretical work, or literature reviews. Even add custom instructions to extract different information. Summaries save directly to Zotero as child notes, tagged for easy filtering.

What makes PaperGist different?

Your research stays private. All summarisation happens on your device using Apple's Foundation Models. Nothing gets sent to external AI services. No usage tracking. No data collection. The summaries you generate belong to you alone.

You can adjust summary length (short, medium, or long) and customise the prompt to match your discipline or preferred style. If you're working with highly technical papers, philosophical texts, or mixed-method studies, you control how the summaries get structured.

Technical requirements you should know:

PaperGist works with Zotero libraries that sync via Zotero's web sync service. If you use WebDAV or another sync method, you'll need to switch to web sync first. The app needs iOS 26 or later and runs on devices with an A17 Pro chip or newer (iPhone 16 Pro and later, iPad with M4 or later). Apple Intelligence must be enabled on your device.

How it works:

After authenticating with Zotero, the app syncs your library and shows papers with PDFs. Select which ones you want summarised. The app downloads the PDF, extracts the text, and generates a summary using on-device AI. The summary gets uploaded back to Zotero as a note attached to the original paper. You can batch-process multiple papers and track progress with live activities.

If you're managing a large research library or trying to keep up with new literature, this saves hours of skimming. Read the summaries to decide what deserves close attention. The original papers stay in Zotero, annotated with summaries you can search, export, or share.