Underleaf

Underleaf is a scientific tool that turns handwritten notes, PDFs and images into compilable LaTeX. Underleaf converts handwritten notes, scans, photos, PDFs, tables and spreadsheets into compilable LaTeX, with a typeset preview, AI edits, academic writing tools, 60+ free converters and a Chrome extension.

Underleaf is a browser-based LaTeX assistant aimed at students, professors and researchers who have material locked in paper, scans or PDFs. Its core job is conversion: a photo of lecture notes, a scanned journal article, a whiteboard shot, a spreadsheet or a Word document goes in, and LaTeX source comes out. The site states 98%+ accuracy on the math itself, covering matrices, integrals and aligned multi-line derivations, and says diagrams and plots can be turned into TikZ. In practice the workflow has three stages. A user uploads a file, and multi-page documents can go in whole, with the option to pick which pages to convert. The AI then reads equations, tables and figures and keeps their structure, including numbered equations in full-paper conversions. Finally, a typeset preview appears so the result can be checked, fixed with AI edits, then copied or downloaded for use in any editor. Nothing needs to be installed, and a separate optional Chrome extension offers rewrite, shorten and explain actions beside a draft. Beyond conversion, Underleaf bundles writing aids tuned for academic text: abstracts, summaries, thesis statements, paragraph rewrites, citation lookup and BibTeX generation. More than 60 free tools, such as image, equation, table, Excel and Word to LaTeX converters, a TikZ generator and a DOI to BibTeX tool, run in the browser without an account. Paid plans are credit-based, with page limits per PDF rising on higher tiers, and a team tier adds shared billing and invoices for university reimbursement. Among alternatives, Underleaf sits between general OCR tools and full online LaTeX editors. It is narrower than a complete writing environment but more specialized for math-heavy transcription than general-purpose chatbots. Researchers digitizing archives, instructors rebuilding old course material and students typesetting problem sets are the clearest fits. The company says only submitted content is processed over encrypted connections and that document content is not stored permanently.