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Can Ritsu read my textbook PDF? Files, page limits and privacy
Short answers on uploading a textbook to Ritsu: which files it reads, the page and size limits per plan, what uploads cost in credits, and who can see your files.
7 min read
Yes. Ritsu reads a textbook PDF page by page, scanned pages included, as long as the file is 20 MB or less and stays within your plan's page limit per source, which is 40 pages on the Free plan. Ritsu is an AI tutor that turns your own chapter, slide deck, lecture video or paper into a study system. The answers below cover scans, long textbooks, what an upload costs and who can see your files.
Jump to: Reading your textbook · Page limits and file size · What an upload costs · Privacy and your files
Reading your textbook
Q: Can Ritsu read my textbook PDF?
Yes. Choose File in a new session, add the chapter's PDF and press Start Learning. Ritsu reads the whole file and builds an ordered path of small units from it, every item traced to the page it came from, so you can check any lesson against your own book. What Ritsu reads
Q: Can Ritsu read a scanned textbook or a photo of a page?
Yes. For scanned pages, OCR reads the text off the page and pulls math out as formulas. For a photo of a printed page, a slide or a diagram, Ritsu reads it with vision AI. Scanned pages depend on how clean the scan is, so upload the clearest copy you have, and check anything that looks off against the page it came from. How Ritsu reads scanned PDFs
Q: What can't Ritsu read?
Three things, for now. Standalone audio and podcasts are not supported yet, though a video with captions works. Web pages behind a login or a paywall often can't be read, so bring the PDF instead. And you can't paste raw text in as a source yet; pick "Learn any topic" and Ritsu builds a path with no file at all. Every format Ritsu reads
Page limits and file size
Every plan reads the same formats; what changes is how large one source can be. From the pricing page, read on October 19, 2026:
| Plan | Pages per source | Video per source |
|---|---|---|
| Free | 40 | 30 min |
| Plus | 100 | 2 hours |
| Pro | 200 | 6 hours |
| Ultra | 500 | 12 hours |
Q: How many pages can I upload on the Free plan?
40 pages per source. The limit applies to each file you add, not to the month, so a 300-page textbook goes in as several chapter-sized sources rather than one. How many sources you can add in a month depends on your credits, not on a page count. Check a PDF's page count before you upload it. Compare the plans
Q: What is the maximum file size for an upload?
20 MB per file, on top of the page limit. A scanned PDF stores each page as an image, so it is usually much larger than a text PDF of the same length: check the file size as well as the page count. If yours is over, split it into chapters with Split PDF and upload the chapter you are studying now; add the next one when you get to it. Split PDF
Q: My textbook is longer than my plan's page limit. What do I do?
Upload it one chapter at a time. Split PDF slices a textbook into chapters in your browser; in the app it sits behind the Split PDF button at the top right of a new session. Each chapter then goes in as its own source. Each part you upload has to be its own PDF of 40 pages or fewer on Free, so a 60-page chapter becomes two files; a higher plan raises the limit instead. Split PDF
Q: Can I combine several PDFs into one session?
No. Each source gets its own focused session, so a chapter, a lecture deck and an article don't blur together. To study a course built from several files, add each one as its own source and work through them in the order your course uses, starting with the chapter your next class or exam depends on. One source at a time
What an upload costs
Q: What does uploading a textbook chapter cost on the Free plan?
Credits from your 600 a month, not money. Processing a file uses credits for OCR, conversion and storage. Ritsu estimates what an upload will use before it processes the file, so you know the cost first. If you are short, new uploads pause until your credits reset or you add a credit pack; commands you have already started still finish. The Ritsu FAQ walks through how credits add up. Credits on each plan
Privacy and your files
Q: Who can see the files I upload?
No other Ritsu user, unless you share a session. Access to your files is limited by row-level security, so other accounts can't open them. If you use session sharing, anyone with the link can see what you shared. Your files are still processed by the services Ritsu runs on, such as its file storage and the AI providers named in the Privacy Policy. Privacy Policy
Q: Where are my files stored, and are they encrypted?
On Cloudflare R2, encrypted. The US is the primary storage region, and your files are encrypted at rest with AES-256, as is the database behind your account. Data in transit between your browser and Ritsu is encrypted with TLS 1.2 or later. The Privacy Policy lists the companies that store or process your data, and Ritsu keeps that list current. Sub-processors and security
Q: Is my textbook sent to an AI company?
Yes, in parts. To answer you, Ritsu sends your question with the relevant portions of your file to the AI providers named in the Privacy Policy. The primary one is used on its paid tier, where prompts are not used to improve its models and are kept up to 24 hours for abuse detection. Ritsu does not train AI models on your content and does not authorize its providers to. How AI processing works
Q: How long does Ritsu keep my files after I delete my account?
About 30 days, plus backups. While your account is open, your uploads stay. After deletion, your learning content is soft-deleted for 30 days, then hard-deleted so it can't be recovered, and any copy left in database backups rolls off within the 90-day backup cycle. For now, deletion requests go by email to privacy@ritsu.ai from the address on your account. Data retention
Q: Is there anything I shouldn't upload?
Yes. Leave out documents that identify you or other people in ways you don't mean to share, such as medical records, financial statements, government IDs and tax documents, unless you have a study reason for them. Never paste passwords or API keys into the chat. The Privacy Policy calls Ritsu's security commercially reasonable but not perfect. Your learning content
Still have a question?
The Help Center covers uploads, commands and plans; under Getting Started, the Ritsu FAQ answers what Ritsu is, which formats it takes and what each plan costs, and "Does Ritsu make things up?" explains page citations and what a messy scan can do to an answer. Every plan's limits are on Pricing. Questions about your files go to privacy@ritsu.ai; billing questions go to billing@ritsu.ai.
Next: in the app, open New Session, choose File, add one chapter of the textbook you are studying and press Start Learning. To see what comes after, here is an example session on a textbook chapter.
By Ritsu Team · Last updated October 19, 2026
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