Common questions.

Omphalis is for reading you want to use: a paper for your research, an article you want to write about, or a talk you want to follow more closely.

You can read the source, open an explanation when you get stuck, ask a question and keep your own notes with the relevant passage. Try it with one piece you already care about.

Try Omphalis if you often leave a source to look up a term, lose your place while taking notes, or want to listen when reading is difficult.

The demo lets you try the reader without an account. For the best test, save something you were already planning to read.

Add a link or upload a supported file. Omphalis extracts readable text and gives you sections you can use to navigate it.

As you read, open explanations, select a phrase with Learn more, ask questions about the source, and attach your own notes. You can also listen in a natural voice. Notebooks let you keep related sources, notes and questions together in your Library.

Omphalis has summaries and questions, but the full source is also your reading surface. You can open an explanation beside a difficult passage, follow an answer's citation, or leave a note where an idea occurred to you.

Use a summary to decide where to start, then open the parts you need to understand. See the reader.

There is overlap: all can hold material and your own notes. Omphalis gives you a reader with section navigation, explanations, questions and listening for the sources you save.

If you already like writing in another tool, try Omphalis for the reading that feeds that writing. The comparison page links to current documentation for the other products.

There is overlap with reading apps. Readwise Reader also offers questions, explanations and listening, so we suggest comparing the actual experience with the same source.

Try opening a difficult passage in Omphalis, asking a question and keeping a note. See the Readwise comparison. Pocket has closed; our Pocket guide explains what you can do with an export you already have.

You can use a conversational research tool. Omphalis is useful when you also want a dedicated place to read the source, open an explanation in place, listen and keep notes attached to passages.

Omphalis also has a ChatGPT app, so you can bring saved material into a conversation.

Both support questions grounded in sources. NotebookLM, now called Gemini Notebook, offers study guides, mind maps and Audio Overviews. Omphalis puts the reader, explanations, notes and natural narration around the source you have open, and lets you gather related work in notebooks.

The NotebookLM comparison covers the differences and links to Google's documentation.

Clean means extracting readable text from a source. Structure means the sections you use to move through it. Mark means the explanations and annotations you work with while reading. Connection means finding relationships between material in your Library.

You can start with one source. You do not need to build a large Library before using the reader, explanations or notes.

An explanation opens beside the passage it belongs to, so you stay in the piece. Some passages are marked for you as you read: a term defined, a claim traced to its source, an idea expanded. When something else stops you, select the phrase and choose Learn more for an explanation of that selection.

Each explanation is written for its passage: a term is defined as that passage uses it, and an idea is expanded from what the surrounding text says. A claim is traced to the paper or page it comes from, definitions can draw on reference works such as the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, and when something already in your Library covers the same ground, the explanation links to it. Terms you have already kept, or told Omphalis you know, are not defined again. Keep the explanations that help and they gather on your MarksDefineWhat you flag while reading, kept with the reason it mattered rather than as a highlight in a folder you never reopen. page.

In Learn more you can type what you want clarified or ask for a diagram, and if the source cannot support a diagram the card says so. On an annotation you can switch between Your version and the Original. Learn more uses units from your monthly pool, and it is on every plan.

A mark is an annotation connected to a passage or moment in a source. It can help you return to a phrase, keep an explanation or remember a question you had.

You can add your own note while the passage is in front of you, then return to it later with the source context.

Discover is a shelf inside your Library that suggests reading related to what you already keep, with a line on each card explaining why it came up. Every item is rights cleared, and you can keep one into your Library in a single action.

Discover is included on every plan above Free, including the 30-day trial. Discover anything searches are limited each month: 5 on Pro and the trial, 15 on Premium and 40 on Scholar. On Free the shelf is visible as a preview.

Courses arrange material from sources into lessons you can follow. Each course names its sources and licences. You can inspect where the material came from before starting.

Reading catalog courses is included on every plan. Building a private course from one of your long saved documents is included on every plan above Free, including the 30-day trial. It needs at least about 160 units left and shows an estimate in units before it starts. Topic courses are limited to an invited group while we test them. See the course builder.

A notebook is where your sources sit beside your own thinking. Add the pieces you are working from, write between them, drag a passage straight out of what you are reading, and type @ to mention an item, a mark, or a question you asked before. An Ask answer can be kept there too, with its citations intact.

Start from a template when you want a shape to work in: a reading response, a comparison of sources, or an argument draft. When a notebook is worth showing someone, share a read-only link and they can read it without an account. Earlier versions stay in the notebook menu, so an edit you regret is recoverable, and a deleted notebook can be restored.

Open a notebook beside the reader with Write beside and keep writing while you read; quotes, passages and Ask answers you keep land in it. The Notebooks row in the Library sidebar lists your notebooks, and a strip shows which Library items a notebook uses. This is on every plan, in the Library reader only, in a window at least 896 px wide; narrower windows open the notebook as a tab.

Yes. Use Ask while a source is open to ask a question and follow-up questions about it. Each answer cites the passages it draws on, so you can follow any point back to the source.

You can also gather sources and your own notes in a notebook and ask questions there. See a real question and answer.

In the web app you can ask out loud too. Press Talk in the Ask panel and Ask answers aloud, with the passages it drew on shown on screen. Voice is included in the trial and on paid plans. See Ask voice.

SpacesDefineSeparate shelves for separate parts of your life, so a work project and a personal interest do not end up in one pile. You switch between them; nothing is shared unless you move it. let you keep separate threads of your understanding. Each thing you save lives in one Space, and you switch between them across Today, Inbox, Library, and Connections, so your work reading stays clear of your personal reading, and one topic does not blur into another.

Spaces are free on every plan.

CurrentsDefineNew pieces from the sources you follow, shown against what you have already kept, so you see how today's story relates to what you read six months ago rather than as another unread feed. is a section on Today that shows where your library meets what is happening now. When a new development relates to something you have kept, Currents surfaces it and names the relationship: what it challenges, what it updates, what it applies to, or what it continues, always linked back to the item in your library.

Currents is part of Connections, so it is included on every plan above Free. It draws on what you have saved, so it grows sharper as your library does.

Items you save without opening gradually move to a Set aside shelf. They are still available, and you can bring them back to your Library.

Opening, marking, noting or starring an item keeps it from being set aside. The feature is included on Free.

Articles, podcasts, YouTube videos, PDFs, EPUBs, Word documents, newsletters, your own notes and voice notes. Add a link, upload a supported file, or subscribe to a feed.

Each one arrives as the same clean reading page, with PDFs read during the trial or on any plan above Free; on Free a PDF is kept with its name and page count. PDF, EPUB and Word files can be up to 90 MB on current plans. Before work starts the document is quoted from its real page or word count, and you pay at most the quote; if it does not fit your units you can choose pages. Free reads EPUB and Word, not PDF. In the web app, anything saved from a link keeps an Open original button, so the publisher's own layout is one click away.

Paywalled content you don't have access to. Live broadcasts. DRM-protected files. Encrypted PDFs without a password. Anything Omphalis cannot legitimately read on your behalf.

Language models help produce section navigation, explanations, answers and suggested connections, and they work from your source. An explanation is written for the passage it sits beside, a claim is traced to its source, and an answer cites the passages it used.

All of it is offered beside the source, never in place of it, and your own notes stay separate from anything generated. How your content is handled.

Your saved items and notes use a database assigned to your account. Files, generated audio and other supporting data use additional storage services.

The privacy policy explains storage, service providers and retention. The security page gives a shorter overview.

We do not use your content to train language models. Our arrangements with processing providers require no training on user content. The privacy policy lists providers and explains how they process content to provide the service.

Yes. Use the export option in Settings to request your Library data. Export contents depend on the feature and its technical limitations; see the privacy policy for details.

If you need help getting particular data out, contact us. Export is available on every plan.

You get your data out, in a clean format you can take to another tool. We are committed to making sure the things you marked do not disappear because we did.

Omphalis keeps a small, structured memory so it can pick better moments for you: the topics you keep returning to, and on higher plans, how you read and what you are working toward.

You can see every entry it holds in Settings and remove any of them, and removal takes effect immediately. The memory holds labels and weights, never the text of what you saved.

Free uses one memory layer, Pro two, and Premium, Scholar and the trial all four.

No. You can create an account and try Omphalis without a credit card.

Yes. Free includes 100 comprehension unitsDefineUnits measure the processing Omphalis performs, including cleaning sources, creating structure and annotations, transcriptionDefineTurning speech into text for podcasts, videos and YouTube talks. It uses units from your monthly pool according to the length of the audio., and narration. Usage depends on the source, save level, and work performed. Reading a saved source and writing notes do not use units again. Save-level estimates help you choose before processing. a month, 100 subscribed sources and 2 GB of storage. Units cover source processing, narration and Ask model work; usage depends on the source, save level and processing performed.

Reading saved material, your own notes and export remain available on Free. See the Pricing page for unit allowances and the full plan comparison.

Yes. 30-day trial, no card required. Includes 600 comprehension unitsDefineUnits measure the processing Omphalis performs, including cleaning sources, creating structure and annotations, transcriptionDefineTurning speech into text for podcasts, videos and YouTube talks. It uses units from your monthly pool according to the length of the audio., and narration. Usage depends on the source, save level, and work performed. Reading a saved source and writing notes do not use units again. Save-level estimates help you choose before processing., 200 Ask voice minutes and 15 assistant answers a day. After 30 days the account moves to Free, with everything you saved kept, unless you choose a paid plan.

Pro is $9 a month or $90 a year. It includes 300 comprehension unitsDefineUnits measure the processing Omphalis performs, including cleaning sources, creating structure and annotations, transcriptionDefineTurning speech into text for podcasts, videos and YouTube talks. It uses units from your monthly pool according to the length of the audio., and narration. Usage depends on the source, save level, and work performed. Reading a saved source and writing notes do not use units again. Save-level estimates help you choose before processing. a month, 1,000 subscribed sources and 25 GB of storage. It also adds search by meaning and connections through shared people, places and ideas.

Two things arrive with Pro that Free does not have: an address you can email things into your Library from, and the shortlist on Today, a short and finite set to come back to rather than an open list. Both are on every plan above Free. Pro includes up to 10 email-in sources, Premium 25 and Scholar 50. Building a course from one of your documents is on every plan above Free too.

See the Pricing page for unit allowances and the full feature list.

Premium is $19 a month or $190 a year, with 600 comprehension unitsDefineUnits measure the processing Omphalis performs, including cleaning sources, creating structure and annotations, transcriptionDefineTurning speech into text for podcasts, videos and YouTube talks. It uses units from your monthly pool according to the length of the audio., and narration. Usage depends on the source, save level, and work performed. Reading a saved source and writing notes do not use units again. Save-level estimates help you choose before processing., 50 GB of storage, unlimited subscribed sources and fuller Connections.

Scholar is available at $39 a month or $390 a year, with 1,200 comprehension units, 100 GB of storage, the Library ingest API and unlimited assistant answers. See the Pricing page for the complete comparison.

Processing a new source, generating narration and storing files cost money. Monthly allowances let us offer a predictable subscription price.

How much you can add depends on the length, format and save level of your sources, and the work performed. The Pricing page explains the shared unit pool. Reading material you already saved and writing your own notes stay free.

Paid plans provide larger allowances for new sources, listening and storage, plus the features listed for each plan.

Reading saved content, writing your own notes and exporting your data remain free. Check the plan comparison for the current allowances before choosing.

Units reflect the model and media processing performed. When a configured processing rate falls, the same work uses fewer units. Content size, save level, reuse and the operations you choose also affect usage.

Current subscription prices and included units are listed on the Pricing page.

Omphalis is still developing. The web app, mobile apps and browser extensions are available now; the web app has the most complete experience.

If a missing feature determines whether you can use Omphalis, ask us before subscribing.

Today: any modern browser at app.omphalis.ai, plus the Omphalis Chrome extension and Firefox extension, which bring the clean reading view, the section map, inline explanations, and listen-along to supported pages.

You can also use Omphalis inside ChatGPT. It is listed in the ChatGPT app directory, so it installs in one click with no server setup: Omphalis in ChatGPT. Once it is installed you can read from your library in the conversation, and on every plan above Free save new items and add your own notes without leaving it.

The Omphalis app is on iOS and Android, so your library, reading, and listening travel with you. Web remains the most complete experience and the canonical surface.

Yes. Use the share sheet on iOS or Android to send a supported link or file to Omphalis. Open it in your Library once processing finishes, as the same clean reading page you get on the web. PDFs become reading pages during the trial or on any plan above Free.

On the mobile apps, yes. Any item can be downloaded to the device, the text as much as the audio, so a flight or a stretch of underground is reading time rather than a spinner. Anything you mark or note while offline syncs when the connection comes back.

Offline downloads are included on every plan, including the free one. The web app needs a connection.

You can add links and supported files, subscribe to RSS feeds in Inbox, save through the browser extensions, and use the Omphalis ChatGPT app or an MCPDefineAn open standard that lets other apps talk to your library. In practice: use Omphalis from inside ChatGPT, Claude, or your editor, without copying anything across. client.

On every plan above Free you can also connect a Readwise Reader or Zotero account under Library, Linked sources, browse what is in it, and bring in only the items you choose. Readwise highlights and Zotero annotations can come with them, with an optional daily check. Omphalis reads from these accounts and does not write to them. Free can still add files one at a time with Import, including a Pocket, Instapaper, Raindrop or Readwise export file.

Kindle highlights come in from a file (My Clippings.txt or a notebook exported from the Kindle app), from an export you share from your phone, or straight from your Kindle notebook on Amazon with the Omphalis browser extension, on every plan. The extension uses the Amazon sign-in your browser already has, so update it first, and optional daily checks for new highlights run only while that browser is open and signed in to Amazon. Emailing an export needs a plan above Free. Amazon limits how much of some books it saves, and a non-English file may be refused.

For a specific import or connection to another tool, contact us to check what is currently supported.

Omphalis is built by a small team at Voxiven. We are people who read a lot and were tired of forgetting the things we cared about. We built the tool we wanted to use.

We want Omphalis to help you return to the reading and notes you have kept, even as your interests and questions change. That is the direction we are building toward.

For now, the best test is one source: can you follow it more closely and keep notes that are useful when you return?