How PDF Citations work

PDF Citations is an Enterprise-only feature that lets end-users see the source PDF for any AI citation directly inside the chat, opened to the exact page, with the cited text highlighted for text-based PDFs. No separate tab, no hunting through the document manually. To configure it, see 👉 [How to configure PDF citations].

What users see

When an agent cites a PDF source, a citation link appears in the response. Depending on the agent's settings, the PDF opens automatically alongside the answer, or when the user clicks the citation link. Either way, the document loads directly to the page containing the cited content, and for text-based PDFs, the specific passage the AI used is highlighted on the page.

Users can scroll through the entire document, use the built-in PDF navigation controls to jump between pages, and search within the document. The viewer loads on demand. It activates when a citation is opened, not before. It does not run in the background or slow down the chat.

PDF Citations works on all deployment types: embedded widgets, full-page agents, and any other deployment configuration.

How page targeting works

When the AI generates an answer using content from a PDF, it records which page that content came from. For large PDFs, the cited page loads first; the rest of the document becomes available for browsing once the initial page has loaded.

How text highlighting works

For text-based PDFs, the viewer identifies the specific passage the AI cited and highlights it on the page, pinpointing the exact lines, not just the page.

For scanned or image-based PDFs, the viewer opens to the correct page, but text highlighting is not available. Scanned documents are images rather than selectable text, so the system cannot pinpoint an exact passage to highlight.

The three PDF citation settings

PDF Citations has three settings, found under Personalize > Citations in the agent dashboard.

Enable PDF viewer turns the feature on or off for the agent. When off, citations appear as standard links and no in-chat viewer opens.

Auto-open PDF viewer controls the trigger for opening the viewer. When on, the PDF opens automatically whenever the AI response includes a PDF citation. When off, the PDF only opens if the user clicks the citation link.

Anonymize PDFs hides the file's source path and removes the download option. Users can still open and read the PDF in the chat, but the file location is not visible and downloading is not available.

Limitations

Scanned PDFs - Text highlighting is not available. The viewer opens to the correct page, but no passage is highlighted.

Enterprise plan only - PDF Citations is available only for Enterprise users.

A note on Instant Viewer

Earlier versions of CustomGPT.ai included Instant Viewer, which provided in-chat PDF viewing tied to a specific deployment type. PDF Citations replaces it. The same capability is now available on any deployment type and is configured at the agent level under Personalize > Citations. Instant Viewer is now marked as Legacy; existing Instant Viewer deployments continue to work.

Updated about 5 hours ago