How to Use Liner in 2026: Step-by-Step Guide
AI research assistant and web highlighter that lets users save, annotate, and ask questions about web content — with an AI search engine that cites sources from the open web.
Liner is an AI research and highlighting tool used by students, researchers, and knowledge workers. It combines a browser extension for highlighting and saving web content with an AI assistant that can search the web, summarize sources, and answer questions with citations.
What Liner Does Well
Highlighting and annotation is Liner's original feature. The browser extension lets users highlight text on any webpage and save it to a personal library. Highlights can be color-coded, annotated, and organized by topic. This creates a research archive that persists beyond browser history.
AI search with citations differentiates Liner from a simple bookmarking tool. When users ask a research question, Liner searches the web and constructs an answer with direct citations to the sources used. The answer includes confidence scores and links to the original articles, letting users verify claims.
Source quality emphasis prioritizes research papers, academic publications, and authoritative sources over general web content — useful for students and researchers who need credible citations rather than blog posts.
YouTube summarization extends the research capability to video content. Liner can summarize YouTube videos with timestamped key points, letting users extract the key content without watching the full video.
PDF highlighting lets users upload PDFs (research papers, reports, ebooks) and highlight/annotate them in the browser alongside web content.
Who Liner Is For
Liner is used primarily by students, graduate researchers, journalists, and knowledge workers who do significant reading and research online. It integrates with popular note-taking tools. Pricing starts free with a $9.99/month plan for full AI features.
What You'll Need
- A Liner account (free to create)
- A modern web browser or the Liner app
- Payment method for paid features
Getting Started
Create Your Account
Visit https://getliner.com and sign up for a freemium account. You'll need an email address to register. A free tier is available — you can upgrade later for more features.
Start Your First Conversation
Once logged in, you'll see the main chat interface. Type a question or task in the input box and press Enter. Liner supports web-highlighting, ai-search, source-citations, pdf-annotation, research-assistant — start with a simple text prompt to get familiar.
Pro Tips
- Be specific: The more context you provide, the better the response. Instead of "write an email," try "write a professional follow-up email to a client who hasn't responded in two weeks."
- Iterate: If you don't get what you need, ask for clarification or refinement: "Make it shorter" or "Use a more formal tone."
- Use examples: Show Liner what format you want by including an example in your prompt.
- Save useful conversations: Most platforms let you name and revisit conversations — organize by project or topic.
Common Use Cases
Research & Analysis
Chatbots that help with data analysis, literature review, and in-depth research tasks.
Browse Research & Analysis chatbots →Education & Learning
Chatbots designed to teach, tutor, and explain concepts across academic subjects.
Browse Education & Learning chatbots →Troubleshooting
- Responses seem generic or unhelpful
- Add more context to your prompt. Specify the audience, tone, length, and format you need. Try starting over with a clearer description of your goal.
- The tool isn't responding or is slow
- AI chatbots can experience high traffic. Refresh the page and try again. Check the service's status page if issues persist.
- Output is too long or too short
- Explicitly specify the length: "in 100 words," "as a brief summary," or "in detail with examples."
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Frequently Asked Questions
- Is Liner free to use?
- Liner has a free tier. Paid plans start from $9.99/mo.
- Do I need an account to use Liner?
- Yes, you need to create an account to use Liner.
- What can I use Liner for?
- AI research assistant and web highlighter that lets users save, annotate, and ask questions about web content — with an AI search engine that cites sources from the open web.
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