AI import
Turn any PDF into an editable mind map.
Not a summary. Not a picture of a diagram. Atlas Red's AI reads your PDF and rebuilds its structure as a real mind map — every branch yours to edit, restructure and export. It works on papers, handouts, slides, scans — even a photo of your whiteboard.
How it works
Pick a PDF — or take a photo
A whole report, a slide, a whiteboard, a hand-drawn sketch. On your phone, the camera opens right from Import.
AI rebuilds the structure
A PDF with real text is read as text — the whole document. A scanned one is read as images instead. Either way it runs in the background.
Name it — then edit like you made it
Every node is real: rename, move, restructure, extend. Then export to any of 14 formats, plus print — free tier included.
A real map, not a picture.
Most PDF-to-mind-map tools hand you one of two things: a static image you can't touch, or a one-shot AI summary arranged in a radial layout. Either way, the first edit you want to make is the moment the tool gives up.
Atlas Red treats import as the beginning of the work, not the end. The AI's job is to recover the document's structure — sections, arguments, hierarchies — and hand it to you as a native, fully editable mind map in your workspace. From there it behaves like any map you built by hand: restructure it, merge it with other maps, hand it to your AI assistant over MCP, or export it anywhere.
And if your source is already structured — XMind, FreeMind, OPML, Markdown, YAML and more import directly, no AI and no credits needed.
What it costs
PDF and photo import is the only AI in Atlas Red that ever costs anything, and only if you use it. There is no AI subscription:
$1 trial credit
Every new account starts with it — no credit card required, valid 30 days. Typically covers your first imports.
AI credit packs
Top up when you like — no subscription, no expiry. Failed jobs are never charged.
Bring your own key Pro
With a Pro license, connect your own API key — OpenRouter, OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and more — and pay only your provider. Atlas Red adds no markup, ever.
A scanned PDF, read as images, costs about a cent a page — your $1 trial credit is good for roughly 100 of those. A text PDF is read in full, so it's a bigger job: a long report or a full meeting transcript usually costs 10–30¢ at the Balanced setting; a page or two is a few cents, and Detailed costs more again. The app shows the exact cost of every job, and failed jobs are never charged.
Questions people ask
Is the PDF to mind map conversion free?
Every new account starts with $1 of AI trial credit (valid 30 days) — no credit card needed — which typically covers your first imports. After that, buy a prepaid pack (no subscription, no expiry), or with a Pro license connect your own API key (no markup; pick a model that accepts image input). Failed jobs are never charged.
Is the result actually editable?
Yes — every node is real. Rename, move, restructure and extend the map exactly as if you'd built it by hand; nothing is flattened into a picture.
How long a PDF can it read?
It depends which kind you have. A PDF with a real text layer — anything exported from Word, Pages, a browser or a report generator — is read as text, in full, up to 200,000 characters. That's a long report or a short book, and there's no page limit. Only scanned PDFs, which have no text to extract, fall back to reading the pages as images, and that path takes the first 4 pages per import.
Do I have to wait while it converts?
No. Imports run in the background — close the tab and come back; your finished result is waiting, one click from a map.
Does it work on scans, photos and hand-drawn sketches?
Yes. The same AI import reads photos of whiteboards and hand-drawn sketches, so scanned pages are handled the same way as digital PDFs. On your phone, the camera opens right from Import.
What can I export the mind map to afterwards?
Every supported format, on every tier: JSON, Markdown, plain text, OPML, YAML, FreeMind, XMind, XMindMark, web page, OpenDeck slides, PNG, JPEG, SVG and PDF — plus print, with or without an outline.
Other documents: Word and OpenDocument. Photographing a whiteboard? Image to mind map. From a recorded meeting? Transcript to mind map. Already have an outline? Markdown imports free.