I built a tool that generates a Table of Contents from any PDF
I recently built a small web app that automatically generates a Table of Contents from uploaded PDFs.
The idea came from a problem I kept running into while reading long documents (reports, ebooks, documentation). Many PDFs either don't have a TOC or have a poorly structured one, which makes navigation painful.
So I built a tool that:
• Uploads a PDF
• Analyzes headings and structure
• Automatically generates a clean Table of Contents
• Makes it easier to navigate long documents
For privacy reasons, uploaded documents are not stored on the server or in a database. They are only processed to generate the TOC.
Right now it's just an MVP, so there are a few limitations:
• Max PDF size: 100MB
• 5 uploads per day per user
I'm mostly trying to validate whether this is actually useful before investing more time into building it out.
If you regularly work with PDFs (researchers, students, lawyers, analysts, etc.), I'd love to hear:
• Would this be useful to you?
• What features would make it significantly more helpful?
• Any tools that already solve this well?
If you want to try it out, it is live at tableofcontentsgenerator.com
Thanks!
This is a really practical idea! Navigating long PDFs without a proper table of contents can be frustrating, so a tool that automatically generates one sounds super helpful. I like that you’re focusing on privacy by not storing uploaded documents, which is important for many users. The MVP approach also makes sense to validate the idea before expanding further. I could definitely see this being useful for students, researchers, and anyone dealing with large reports regularly.
Thank you for the response
This is interesting. A lot of PDFs are painful to navigate, especially long reports or research papers.
Curious — are you generating the table of contents from headings detected in the document, or using some kind of AI to infer the structure?
Also wondering if it works with scanned PDFs.
Not yet, but I will implement that feature in the future. Right now, I'm just validating if there is a need for the product.
This is a great tool, I mean combing through pdfs with huge number of pages is a real pain. Nice one.
Thank you
For solo operators, a lot of SaaS tools are really just paying for someone else's automation.
The underlying API is often public and cheap. You can string Hunter.io, OpenAI, and a few others together in 50 lines of Python and get 80% of what a $100/month tool does. The cases where SaaS wins: real-time collaboration, complex UX, or teams without Python basics.
But for solo founders doing their own outbound or research, scripts usually win on economics.
Pricing being hard is usually a symptom of not knowing the value precisely enough.
The cleaner framing: what does this save or earn the customer, and what's that worth to them in dollars? If the tool saves 5 hours a week at $50/hour equivalent, that's $1,000/month in value. Charging $49 leaves most of it on the table.
One-time pricing for tools often underprices because the value is ongoing. The model should match how value is delivered.
For solo operators, a lot of SaaS tools are really just paying for someone else's automation.
The underlying API is often public and cheap. You can string Hunter.io, OpenAI, and a few others together in 50 lines of Python and get 80% of what a $100/month tool does. The cases where SaaS wins: real-time collaboration, complex UX, or teams without Python basics.
But for solo founders doing their own outbound or research, scripts usually win on economics.
The framing here is useful. The research layer before any outreach is what most people skip because it does not scale well manually. But it is where the ROI actually lives - a tight ICP plus context on each target outperforms volume every time.
Interesting idea.
One thing that might make this especially useful is exporting the generated table of contents as clickable links that jump directly to the relevant sections in the PDF.
A lot of long documents become difficult mainly because navigation is slow, so anything that makes jumping between sections easier could add a lot of value.
It does that currently. When the document is uploaded, the user is redirected to an editor where they can edit the table of contents.
Great work!
Clean and useful. The PDF utility space has a lot of tools that over-engineer the problem - this one looks like it solves the specific thing well.
A few niches that pay well for PDF tools: legal teams (contracts), researchers (papers), consultants (reports). The pricing for legal/enterprise use cases is usually much higher than consumer - if you find that your users are mostly professionals, the $0 free tier might be leaving money on the table.
What does the actual user look like for you right now? Are they researchers, business users, students?
Right now, I'm just validating if there is a need for the product. Before expanding. I don't collect any user data so, I cannot verify the current user group.
Hi everyone! 👋
I'm an indie maker from Delhi, selling my side project SachCheck AI – a simple Hindi fact-checker tool for fake news.
Features:
Tech: Single-file HTML/JS, Vercel deploy, keyword-based simulation (easy to upgrade to real API like Grok/Gemini later)
Metrics: Zero revenue/users yet (early MVP), but strong niche potential in India (fake news is a big problem)
Price: $1,000–$1,500 (₹80,000–₹1.2 lakh) OBO, negotiable
What's included: Full code on request, deploy guide, screenshots
Why selling: Flipping this side project to focus on the next idea
DM me for live demo link, code preview, screenshots, or any questions. Happy to talk!
Thanks!
Pawan
Interesting idea. Navigating long PDFs can definitely be painful when there isn’t a clear structure.
One situation where I could see this being very useful is with technical documentation or research reports where the document is 100+ pages and you’re trying to quickly jump to specific sections. Automatically generating a structured TOC could save a lot of time there.
A feature that might make it even more useful would be exporting the generated TOC as clickable bookmarks inside the PDF itself, so the document becomes easier to navigate even outside the tool.
Curious — how well does the system handle documents where headings aren’t perfectly formatted (for example when the structure isn’t consistent)?
Thank you for your feedback. I recognise that there are some documents where the headings will not be extracted accurately, that is why there is an editor where the user can edit the generated table of contents
This comment was deleted 4 months ago.
Thank you very much. It's really nice to find out that another person finds it very useful. Are there any other features you think may make the app better?
This comment was deleted 4 months ago.
Hi, thank you very much for the reply. It already does that. Once the user uploads their pdf, it takes them to the editor where they can review the generated table of contents before download.