Questions, answered.

A free, open source app that collects the statements, bills and receipts your banks, cards, stores and utilities already keep online, and saves them as PDFs in folders on your own computer or a server at home. You sign in to each site yourself. PaperPull then walks every account, every year and every page the site offers and saves each document, named by date, provider, account and kind.

It can also turn what it saved into two spreadsheets, every item you bought and every transaction in your statements. See what it does.

Anyone who keeps their own records and is tired of downloading them one at a time. People use it to build a paperless archive, to gather statements for taxes or a mortgage application, to keep receipts for returns and warranties, and to replace a service that used to collect their documents and went away.

It is free, and there is no catch. The free edition is the complete program, every provider and both spreadsheets, with no trial, no account, no ads and no data collected. The Microsoft Store edition is the same program for $9.99 one time, for people who want Store installs and updates or want to support the work. Nothing is held back if you do not pay.

The source is public under the AGPL-3.0 license, so anyone can check what it does.

• Windows 10 or 11. Windows on ARM runs it too, under the emulation Windows 11 provides.
• macOS, with one disk image for Apple Silicon and one for Intel.
• Linux, from source. See the quick start.
• A NAS or home server, as PaperPull Server in Docker, on a machine with an Intel or AMD processor.

There is no phone app.

No. The Windows installer and the Mac disk image carry their own Python, so there is nothing else to set up. PaperPull opens a control panel in your web browser, and each provider has two buttons, Open sign-in window and Get new documents. Every action also has a terminal command, for people who prefer one. The getting-started guide walks through it with screenshots.

Yes. The welcome screen offers Open the sample, a folder of invented statements and receipts. The Accounts page fills in and both spreadsheets build from it, so you see exactly what PaperPull makes. Nothing downloads while you are in it, and Leave the sample puts you back. There is also a short demo video.

An app that links your accounts usually does it through a company that holds access to them on its own servers, and gives you a feed of transactions. PaperPull has no servers. It works in a browser on your own machine that you signed in to yourself, and it saves the provider's own documents, the same PDFs you would download by hand, into folders you keep for good. Nothing about your accounts passes through anyone else.

No. Open sign-in window opens a real browser window on the provider's own sign-in page. You type your password and answer the two-factor prompt there, the way you would on a new computer. PaperPull attaches to that window afterward and reads what you can see.

There is no field anywhere in PaperPull for a provider's password, so there is nothing for it to store or send. PaperPull Server works the same way, through a sign-in window it shows in your browser, and asks only for the password to its own panel.

No. It only downloads. There is no code in it that moves money or changes a setting.

Every provider app that clicks anything checks each control before pressing it. A control must clear a blocklist of the words a dangerous control would use, such as pay, transfer, buy, sell, delete and change, and must also match a list of document controls, so anything unrecognized is refused. Many apps click nothing at all and read the documents through the same data feed the provider's own page uses. Each app can visit only its own provider's addresses, and a link to anywhere else is refused before the browser goes there. A test across the whole repository checks that every app has these guards.

With one documented exception it never submits a form or confirms a dialog. One insurer shows a disclosure checkbox before some documents, which changes nothing on the account, and that app may tick it and press View. SECURITY.md names which app does what.

No. There is no PaperPull account, no PaperPull cloud and no telemetry. The program has no crash reporting, no usage statistics and no update check, and the project runs no server for it to talk to. It contacts only the providers you sign in to, plus, once and only if you agree, a browser download when your computer has no usable browser. The project has no way to know you installed it. PaperPull Server also fetches Chrome from Google, as its own privacy page describes.

The whole privacy policy is one sentence, with what it means in practice beneath it.

No. Nothing PaperPull saves leaves your machine. Naming receipts, checking that a PDF is the document it claims to be and reading transactions out of statements are all done by PaperPull's own code, on your computer or your server.

In the folder you choose when you set PaperPull up, a PaperPull folder inside Documents unless you pick another, as ordinary PDFs with a folder for each provider. Anyone who can open that folder can read them, the same as any other files on your computer. PaperPull itself never uploads or syncs them.

If you choose a folder that OneDrive, iCloud Drive or Dropbox keeps in sync, that service copies it like any other folder, including the signed-in browser profiles described below, so choose with that in mind. To sync only the documents, keep the PaperPull folder outside the synced one and give the synced folder as the documents folder in Settings.

PaperPull saves ordinary PDFs and adds no encryption of its own, so they are as safe as the other files on that disk. Turn on your computer's disk encryption, BitLocker or Device Encryption on Windows and FileVault on a Mac, so that a lost or stolen computer does not hand them over. On a NAS, use an encrypted volume or shared folder if it offers one.

If a computer holding signed-in sessions is lost, change those providers' passwords from another device, and sign out of other sessions where the provider offers it.

Each provider gets its own browser profile, a folder kept beside that provider's downloads that holds its signed-in session, the way any browser keeps you signed in. It is separate from your everyday browser, so it knows none of your other logins.

Banks and card sites end a session on their own after a short idle time, often minutes, so the folder rarely holds a live sign-in for long. Some stores keep you signed in for a day or more. PaperPull's setup and packaging never copy these folders anywhere, and they are best kept out of anything you share or attach to an issue. Deleting a profile folder signs PaperPull out of that provider.

Not the desktop app. The control panel, and each sign-in window's debugging port, listen on 127.0.0.1, an address only your own computer can reach. The panel answers only requests its own page sent, so another website you have open cannot drive it, and a link opened from an email, a chat or a PDF can open the panel but never start a run. No other site may show the panel inside a page of its own.

While a sign-in window is open, another program running on your own computer could attach to it, the same way PaperPull does. Close the window when you are done downloading.

PaperPull Server is different by design, since you use it from other computers at home. See the next question.

It listens on your home network on purpose, behind a password you choose.

• The first visit asks you to choose the password, with a setup code the container prints in its own log, so whoever reaches the page first cannot claim it.
• The password is kept only as a scrypt hash. After five wrong guesses from one address, each next try waits longer, and requests from other websites are refused.
• It runs as an ordinary user, never root, with Chrome's sandbox left on, and only the panel is reachable from the network.
• The signed-in browser profiles live in a volume of their own, apart from the data folder, which is often a share other people can open.
• On your home network the panel speaks plain HTTP, like most things on a NAS, and that includes what you type in the sign-in window. If its traffic crosses a network you do not trust, put it behind a reverse proxy that adds HTTPS.

The rest is up to you. Whoever has the password can use every site you are signed in to there, so pick one you use nowhere else. Never forward its port on your router or put it on the open internet. From outside the house, reach it through your own VPN, such as WireGuard or Tailscale. The details are in SECURITY-SERVER.md.

PaperPull works in the browser you signed in to, reads only what your account can already see, pauses between documents the way a person would, and stops at every sign-in step and security check for you to handle.

Even so, every provider has its own terms for its website, and whether they allow a tool like PaperPull is between you and that provider. A provider can limit or lock an account it believes an automated tool is using, and PaperPull cannot rule that out. The Terms of Use say so too.

No, and it never tries. When a site asks "Robot or human?", wants a code, or signs you out partway, PaperPull stops the run there. Handle it in the sign-in window, then press Continue. That human step is also why PaperPull does not run unattended.

It is the name on your accounts, as the provider writes it, and PaperPull never sends it anywhere. It is what lets PaperPull remove your name from a file before you send it to anyone, and it can go in your file names if you like. You can leave it blank.

The support report, under a provider's More menu, is built for exactly that. It is written from a fixed list of words in PaperPull's own code, so it holds counts and states and no text from your account. Attach the file whose name starts with survey-. Screenshots it takes stay on your computer. Record steps for support, in the same menu, watches while you click your way to a document and records no typing.

Never attach a password, a browser profile folder, a token or an unredacted statement to anything you post.

The Windows and Mac downloads are built by GitHub Actions from a tagged commit on a clean runner, never on a developer's machine, and the releases page shows each file's SHA-256 checksum, so the file you download comes from code you can read. The Windows installer is code-signed, the Mac disk images are signed and notarized, so they open with no warning, and the Store edition is signed by the Store.

Download only from the GitHub releases page, the Microsoft Store or the links on this site. While the Windows certificate is new, SmartScreen may still ask once, and the guide's install section says what to check. Never turn off SmartScreen or antivirus to install anything, PaperPull included.

The site sets no cookies. It counts page views with Cloudflare Web Analytics, which uses no cookies and no lasting identifier, and logs a few named clicks, such as a download button, with the last part of your address blanked out. Neither happens if your browser sends Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control. Event logs are kept for ninety days. The program itself has none of this. The privacy policy lists every field.

Write to support@paperpull.net, so it can be fixed before it is public, or open an issue if it is not sensitive. If you ever find the program contacting anything the privacy policy does not list, that is a serious bug and worth a report. Never include real credentials, account numbers or documents.

Banks and credit unions, credit cards, brokerages and retirement plans, mortgages and student loans, payroll, insurance, utilities and phone companies, and stores, among them Chase, American Express, USAA, Fidelity, Vanguard, Amazon, Costco, Target, Walmart and Verizon. The provider directory lists every one, what it collects, which spreadsheet it feeds and, where known, how far back it reaches. A few are built and waiting for someone with an account to test them.

Request it. If you hold an account there, you are the ideal person to help. Once a first version is built, testing it takes no programming. You sign in, use Record steps for support to click your way to one document, and send back what the app wrote down. If you write code, the guide to adding a provider shows how. Budget a few evenings for one.

As far back as the provider keeps documents online, which PaperPull cannot extend. Most banks keep several years of statements, some utilities keep one year, and many stores keep your whole order history. The directory notes a provider's reach where it is known. For a provider that keeps only a year or so, run PaperPull at least that often so nothing ages out.

Whatever each provider offers, such as statements, bills, receipts and invoices, tax forms like 1099s, 1098s and W-2s, pay statements, trade confirmations, insurance documents and loan agreements. Stores that offer no PDF of an order, like Target and Walmart, get their order pages printed to one, with every line item recorded on the way past.

Each provider gets its own folder, and every document is named by date, provider, account and kind, like 2026-08-31 Chase Sapphire Monthly Statement.pdf, so a filing system or a search finds it.

The File names page lets you build your own pattern from parts such as the date, the account, the order number or the total. After you save one, it offers to rename the files you already have, with a preview first, and nothing is downloaded again.

Yes. In Settings, give Documents folder one folder for every provider, such as one Google Drive, Dropbox or OneDrive syncs, one Paperless-ngx watches or a share on a NAS. Each provider and person gets a folder of their own inside it, such as Chase Statements and Costco Receipts - spouse, and a provider added later gets theirs on its first run. When a run ends, the documents it saved and checked move there, in folders of their kind.

A provider or person can still have a folder of their own instead, and the page lists each one so you can bring them all into the shared folder with one press. Records, Manual Review, logs and the signed-in browser profiles stay in your PaperPull folder, so a synced or watched folder only ever gets documents. Saving the setting moves nothing you already have, and nothing is downloaded again.

That provider may stop working until it is repaired. Each provider is a small app of its own, and everything it knows about a site lives in one file, so a redesign breaks only that provider and the repair is usually small. Make a support report from its More menu and report it. Documents you already saved stay saved.

Yes, with their permission. On a provider's page, choose More, then Add another person. It makes a second account with its own folder, its own sign-in window and its own history, so nothing mixes. Use PaperPull only with accounts that are yours or that you are allowed to access.

Most of the providers are U.S. banks, cards and stores. Amazon works with any country's Amazon store. If yours is missing, request it, since PaperPull grows when people with those accounts help.

No. PaperPull is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by any provider. Their names belong to their owners and are used only to say which sites PaperPull works with.

The first run collects every document the provider offers, which takes minutes for most accounts and longer for years of history, since PaperPull pauses between documents the way a person would. You can keep using your computer meanwhile. Leave the panel's tab open while it runs, since closing it stops the run. Anything already saved stays saved, and Continue picks up where a stopped run left off. Later runs fetch only what is new.

No. You start each run. PaperPull does not run in the background and does not need to be left open. Since you sign in yourself, and many banks sign you out within minutes, a person stays in the loop by design.

When you open it, the Accounts page says which accounts are due, and Get new for all runs each of them, one by one. PaperPull Server does not run on a schedule yet either.

No. PaperPull remembers every document it saved by what it is, not by where the file went. Move last month's PDFs into your filing system or delete them after importing, and the next run still fetches only what is new. To fetch some again on purpose in the desktop app, use Restore deleted files under More. PaperPull Server leaves it out, since every document it fetched would reach Paperless a second time.

One from the Chromium family (Edge, Chrome, Brave, Vivaldi or Opera). Windows comes with Edge. On a Mac, install one of them, since Safari and Firefox cannot be driven the way PaperPull needs. Each provider gets a fresh profile of its own, separate from your everyday browsing.

If none is found, the panel says so. Run from a terminal, the sign-in step offers to download a private copy of Chromium instead, and asks first. A few sites, Chase, Verizon and Walmart among them, need a real Edge or Chrome.

Yes. The sign-in window starts with no extensions, so install your password manager's extension into it once, from the extension store in that window, and it stays there for every later sign-in to that provider. Each provider has its own profile, so it goes in once per provider.

On PaperPull Server, Chrome keeps no passwords, so paste yours through the clipboard box in the sign-in window's side panel.

Purchases has one row for every item on every receipt, across every store and account, with an Orders sheet and a summary of spending by store and year. Transactions has one row for every transaction read out of your statement PDFs, and every statement is checked against its own printed beginning and ending balances. One that does not add up is still exported, with the difference shown, so you know which rows to doubt. Each is one button on the Spreadsheets page, where the second is called Bank transactions.

Scanned or image-only statements have no text to read, and brokerage statements never balance this way, since their balances include market movement. Compare the spreadsheets with the original documents before relying on them, and always before a tax return. Which spreadsheet a provider feeds is marked in the directory.

Yes. PaperPull Server copies each run's new documents into Paperless-ngx's consume folder, and can give each provider a folder of its own there for tags. With the desktop app, give the folder Paperless watches as the documents folder in Settings, or see the Paperless-ngx guide for other ways to point Paperless at PaperPull's folders. Either way, Paperless can delete what it imports and the next run still fetches only what is new.

On the old computer, open Settings in the panel and press Export history. On the new one, choose that file under Moving from another computer? on the welcome page. Every provider and person in it is set up with their settings, and nothing already downloaded is fetched again. It works the same for moving to PaperPull Server.

No sign-in travels in the file, so you sign in to each provider once on the new machine. The file does list document titles, order numbers, totals and names, so keep it as private as your documents.

Nothing in the program. The Microsoft Store edition is the same package from the same build, for $9.99 one time. The price buys convenience (a Store-signed install with no warning, updates through the Store and a clean uninstall) and supports the project. It unlocks nothing the free edition lacks. Microsoft handles the purchase, and its refund policies apply.

The same app as one Docker image, for a NAS or home server that is always on. You use it from a browser on any computer in the house, sign in to each provider on a browser screen it shows you, and each run's new documents can be copied straight into Paperless-ngx. It is free.

It needs Docker on a machine with an Intel or AMD processor. Google publishes no Chrome for ARM Linux, so a Raspberry Pi cannot run it. It is made for a machine at home, since providers treat data-center addresses as likely bots. The README has the three setup steps, and SERVER.md the rest, with notes for UGREEN and Unraid.

PaperPull never checks for a new version of itself. New versions are on the releases page, and GitHub's Watch button, set to releases, tells you when one comes out.

• On Windows, run the new installer over the old one. The Store edition updates through the Store.
• On a Mac, drag the new version into Applications.
• On PaperPull Server, run docker compose pull and then docker compose up -d.

Your documents, history and sign-ins are left as they are.

On Windows, uninstall PaperPull from Settings, under Apps, like any other program. On a Mac, drag it from Applications to the Trash. That removes the program only. Your documents folder stays where it is, with your PDFs, your download history and the signed-in browser profiles.

To remove the sign-ins too, delete the folders whose names end in browser-profile, or the whole folder once you have kept what you want. On PaperPull Server, delete the project and then its volumes, the profiles volume above all.

PaperPull began as one person's scripts for one filing cabinet, written by Bryan Rhee after the service that used to collect those statements went away. Other people wanted the same thing, and it grew from there, mostly through people who hold accounts the original author does not. Every supported provider exists because someone with that account tested it. The story is on the home page, and contributors are thanked in the README.

Start with When it does not work in the getting-started guide. Then ask on GitHub Issues, or write to support@paperpull.net. A screenshot and the run's output are usually enough, and a support report helps when a provider finds nothing.

Report what breaks, test a provider that is waiting for someone with an account, or build one for a site you use. Each is worth as much as a donation. If you would rather give, there are GitHub Sponsors and Ko-fi, and nothing is held back if you do not.