Paperless AI

Paperless-AI is an open-source extension for Paperless-NGX. It adds AI-powered functions to document management: automatic document analysis, intelligent tagging, semantic search, and question/answer functionality based on your documents.

Including: automatic detection of new documents, AI analysis of content, automatic assignment of metadata (title, tags, document type, correspondent), semantic search, chat/Q&A function across documents, manual and automatic processing modes, and support for many AI backends (local or cloud).

Paperless-AI is compatible with OpenAI and numerous OpenAI-compatible endpoints as well as local models via e.g. Ollama. This gives users the choice between cloud models and complete data sovereignty.

Yes — Paperless-AI extends Paperless-NGX. Without a running Paperless-NGX installation, Paperless-AI will not work.

Typically via Docker or Docker-Compose: You clone the Paperless-AI repository, configure the URL and API token of your Paperless-NGX instance, select an AI backend, and start the container. Once the system is running, automatic analysis and chat functions are available.

Yes — both newly imported documents and existing documents can be analyzed by Paperless-AI and provided with metadata.

Yes — in addition to auto mode, there is a manual mode via a web interface where you can specifically select and review documents.

Significantly less time spent on tagging and classification, better consistency in metadata, faster and more precise search, easy retrievability, and a higher degree of automation — ideal for large document volumes.

Yes — especially when using local models (e.g., via Ollama). This keeps your documents and metadata local, with no dependency on external cloud services. With our AI Cube, you can run AI inference completely locally in your network — fully GDPR compliant.

Yes — Paperless-AI can easily be operated on your own infrastructure. When you run document processing with Paperless-AI on your own hardware, e.g., with our AI Cube, all documents and analyses remain local in your network. This avoids cloud dependencies, maintains complete data sovereignty, and meets GDPR requirements.

Yes — Paperless-AI provides a modern web user interface where you can configure settings, manually process documents, and use the AI chat.

Yes — Paperless-AI can also be installed on a Synology NAS (if Docker is supported) and thus works in many home or small business environments.

When using cloud models, document contents are sent to external providers at least temporarily — this can be privacy-relevant. Local models are more privacy-friendly but require sufficient hardware resources. Our AI Cube provides the necessary GPU power for local AI inference. A backup before the first AI analysis is also recommended.

For companies, organizations, or individuals with large document collections who want to automate their processes — e.g., archives, law firms, accounting, insurance companies, or anyone who regularly processes documents.

Yes — with semantic search and the chat/Q&A function, you can ask questions to the document archive ('When was our last invoice from company X?', 'Which contracts expire next year?' etc.) — not just simple keyword search.

Very flexible — you can set rules for which documents are automatically analyzed, define output tags, choose the AI model, and select manual or automatic processing.

Paperless-NGX itself supports PDFs, images, texts, and Office documents; Paperless-AI takes over their content and analyzes it — allowing intelligent management of various document types.