Paper Finder
How to use

How to use Paper Finder

Paper Finder locates legally free PDFs of papers from a title, DOI or URL. Here is how to use it and the features that help with research.

What Paper Finder does

Google Scholar returns a list of results; Paper Finder pins your input down to one paper and confirms where a legally free PDF actually lives. It searches OpenAlex, Crossref, Unpaywall, Semantic Scholar and arXiv, and reads the first bytes of every candidate link to make sure it really is a PDF. When only a publisher page exists, it looks for institutional repository and author-posted arXiv copies.

Paste an entire reference list to resolve up to 40 references at once and see which have free PDFs. Export the results as CSV or BibTeX for your reference manager. From any paper you can follow its references and the papers citing it, check those lists in one click, and retracted papers are flagged.

Basics

  1. Find one paper

    Paste a paper title, DOI or article URL into the box on the home page and press Find. If a free PDF exists, a Download PDF button appears. When several papers match, pick one from the candidates; we never guess.

  2. Check a whole reference list

    Open the Bulk check tab and paste a bibliography as-is: numbered [1] entries, one per line, or a mix of DOIs and arXiv links (up to 40). Results stream in and can be exported as CSV or BibTeX, or copied as a list of PDF links.

  3. Follow citations

    Once a paper is identified, use References of this paper to go back to prior work, or Papers citing this one to find newer work built on it. Check this whole list for free PDFs sends the list to the bulk checker.

  4. Saved list and share links

    Press Save on a result to keep it in the Saved tab. The list stays in your browser and is never sent to our server. Copy link to this result gives a URL that opens the same result for anyone.

  5. Reading a result

    Version is the edition that is public: Preprint (before peer review), Accepted Manuscript (the author's final version after acceptance) or Published Version (the publisher's copy). License tells you how it may be reused. PDF bytes verified means we read the start of the file and confirmed it really is a PDF. Retracted papers show a red warning; check the retraction notice before citing.

Bookmarklet: one click from any paper page

Drag the button below to your bookmarks bar. On any publisher or conference paper page, click it to look up a free PDF of that paper in Paper Finder.

📄 Find free PDF

FAQ

Can I get PDFs of paywalled papers?
No. We only point to copies that authors or institutions publish legally (preprints, accepted manuscripts, open-access versions). We never bypass paywalls.
How is this different from Google Scholar?
It identifies one paper instead of listing many, verifies that PDF links really are PDFs, shows the version (preprint / accepted / published) and licence, and resolves whole reference lists with CSV and BibTeX export.
What input is supported?
Paper titles, DOIs, doi.org / IEEE Xplore / arXiv / ResearchGate URLs, any publisher or conference article page (identified from its citation metadata), and full citation strings in IEEE, APA and similar styles.
Is my search history stored?
No. No login is required either.
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