Help

1. Install Kavalu from the Chrome Web Store.
2. Pin it to the toolbar. Click the puzzle-piece icon in Chrome, then the pin next to Kavalu.
3. Sign in with Google. Kavalu asks once, in the panel. Google is the only way to sign in.

Open Kavalu

Select text on a page, then open Kavalu in any of these ways. With nothing selected, Summarize and Ask work on the whole page.

• Click the Kavalu icon in the toolbar.
• Press Alt+K (⌥K on a Mac).
• Right-click and choose Kavalu, then an action such as Explain.
• Open Chrome's side panel menu and choose Kavalu. Kavalu can't read the page this way yet: use one of the other three on that tab first. See Page access.

Results appear in a thread beside the page, and the box under it takes follow-up questions. Each tab has its own thread.

Select text, then choose an action in the row under the thread. The first eight below appear there in this order, and any that don't fit are under More actions. With nothing selected, Summarize this page is the main button. Ask and Explain image start elsewhere, as their entries say.

Explain

A plain explanation of the selected text.

Summarize

A summary of the selected text. With nothing selected, Summarize this page summarizes the whole page.

Make a card

Drafts a flashcard from the selected text. You edit it, then save it. See Cards.

Quiz me

Three to five questions on the selected text, one at a time: multiple choice, short answer or fill in the blank, with an explanation for each answer. You can save the ones you missed as cards.

Diagram

Draws the selected text as a flow, sequence, hierarchy, cycle, timeline, concept map or comparison. Download a drawing as SVG or PNG.

Translate

Translates the selected text into the language you chose in Settings › , Language.

Listen

Reads the selected text aloud. See Listen.

Deeper dive

Researches the selected text, or your last question about it, on the web and answers with numbered sources. Select a number to jump to its source.

Ask

Type a question in the box under the thread. Kavalu answers about the selected text, the page or the image, and takes the conversation so far into account. Enter sends; Shift+Enter starts a new line.

Explain image

Right-click an image, choose Kavalu, then Explain this image. This works for images that have a web address.

Under an explanation, summary, answer or deeper dive you can also Save as card, Listen, make a Diagram, Quiz me or Copy it. A translation offers Save as card, Listen and Copy.

Explain and translate into in Settings › , Language sets the language for Translate. Explain, Summarize and Ask use it when Auto-translate is set to Always translate to my language.

Kavalu uses the first 8,000 characters of a selection and the first 40,000 characters of a page, and says so when it cuts. Every action is on both plans; see Plans for the limits.

Listen reads text aloud in the panel.

What it reads

The text you selected: choose Listen. Or the text of a result: choose Listen under an explanation, answer, summary, translation or deeper dive. To hear a page, summarize it, then listen to the summary.

The voice follows the language of the text. Press Alt+Shift+L (⌥⇧L on a Mac) to open Kavalu and listen to the selected text; with nothing selected, it only opens Kavalu.

Controls

• Play or pause, and Stop.
• A progress bar, with the time beside it: how much has played and the total, like 0:42 / 5:10. A long text is read in parts, and its total is an estimate, marked with ~, until the last part is ready.
• Playback speed offers 1×, 1.25×, 1.5× and 2×. Kavalu remembers your choice on this device.

When it stops

Audio plays only while its player is on screen. It stops when you close the panel, open Settings or Cards, or switch to another tab. The player then shows Stopped with Listen again, which starts a new listen: audio is never saved.

Save a card

Choose Make a card to draft a card from the selected text, or Save as card under a result. The draft has a front and a back, and you can edit both. Nothing is saved until you choose Save card.

• If you already have a card with the same front, Kavalu says You already have a card like this. and offers Save anyway.
• After you save, Card saved appears with Undo, which turns it back into a draft.
• On a translation, Save as card puts the original on the front and the translation on the back. After Quiz me, Save missed as cards saves the questions you missed.

Your cards

The Cards button in the panel's header shows how many cards you have and opens your library, newest first. Search cards looks in the front, the back, the page title and the site. Edit changes a card in place. Delete removes it and offers Undo.

Export for Anki

Export for Anki downloads a text file named kavalu-cards-YYYY-MM-DD.txt, with the date, and one card on each line: the front, the back and the tag kavalu. Its first lines tell Anki that the fields are separated by tabs and hold HTML, so you can import it as it is. Exporting never deletes your cards.

Chrome lets an extension read a page only when you start it on that tab, or on a site you have allowed. Kavalu reads a page only when you ask it to: nothing is read as a page loads, in the background or when you change tabs.

When Kavalu can't see the tab

If you ask a question, or choose Summarize this page, on a tab where you haven't started Kavalu, the panel says Kavalu can't see this tab yet. Do one of these:

• Choose Allow on all sites under the message.
• On that tab, press Alt+K (⌥K on a Mac).
• On that tab, click the Kavalu icon in the toolbar.
• On that tab, right-click and choose Kavalu.

The request that was waiting then finishes by itself.

Allow on all sites

Allow on all sites makes Chrome ask once. After that, any page you ask about works, without the shortcut, and the request that was waiting finishes in the same place. A request that was waiting on another tab finishes when you switch to that tab.

If you have allowed all sites and the panel still says the tab can't be seen, Chrome is holding that tab back, and the message has no button. Press Alt+K or click the Kavalu icon on it.

Allow one site

To allow one site at a time, use Only on and the site's name, which sits beside Allow on all sites when Kavalu knows which site the tab is on. Chrome then asks about that one site. If you start Kavalu with the shortcut instead, Kavalu offers Allow on this site, so you can skip the shortcut there next time.

Take it back

Settings › , Page access › , Read any page I ask about is on while Kavalu may read every site. Switch it off to take that back. The selection button needs the same access, so if it was on, it goes off too.

Settings › , Page access › , Sites Kavalu can read lists the sites you allowed one at a time, each with Remove. Removing a site takes back the permission for that site only. While every site is allowed, the list says so instead.

Pages Chrome never lets extensions read

On these pages the panel says Chrome doesn't let extensions read this page. Nothing you allow changes that, so it has no button.

• Chrome's own pages: addresses that start with chrome:, chrome-untrusted:, chrome-search:, about:, edge:, devtools: or view-source:.
• Pages of other extensions: addresses that start with chrome-extension:.
• The Chrome Web Store.
• PDF files: addresses whose path ends in .pdf.

Kavalu has three keyboard shortcuts.

• Open Kavalu beside this page

  Opens Kavalu beside the page, on the selected text if there is any.

  Windows, Linux, ChromeOSAlt+KMac⌥K

• Explain the selected text

  Opens Kavalu and explains the selected text.

  Windows, Linux, ChromeOSAlt+Shift+KMac⌥⇧K

• Listen to the selected text

  Opens Kavalu and reads the selected text aloud.

  Windows, Linux, ChromeOSAlt+Shift+LMac⌥⇧L

With nothing selected, Alt+Shift+K and Alt+Shift+L only open Kavalu.

Chrome gives Kavalu these keys only if nothing else is using them. You can change any of them at chrome://extensions/shortcuts, which you open in a new tab, or with Change shortcuts in Settings › , Shortcuts, which also lists the keys you have now.

Kavalu reads a page only when you ask it to. Selected text, page text and results are kept in memory only. What Kavalu writes to disk is your cards, your settings and your sign-in.

• Cards stay in Chrome on this device. Kavalu doesn't upload them or sync them to your other devices.
• Settings are saved on this device. Your language and Auto-translate choices are also saved to your account, so the dashboard shows the same ones.
• Your sign-in stays on this device until you sign out.
• A tab's thread, which holds the text you selected, the results and your questions, is kept in memory until the tab closes. It is never written to disk. Closing and reopening the panel brings it back; closing the tab, signing out or restarting Chrome ends it.
• What you send goes to Kavalu's server only when you run an action. Before you sign in, in the panel and on the welcome page, Kavalu says what that is: When you run an action, Kavalu sends the selected or page text, what you type or an image's web address to Kavalu's server, which passes them to an AI provider to answer it. Most actions also send the page's title and web address. Translate, Listen and Quiz me are the exceptions: they send no page title or web address. A follow-up question also sends the recent questions and results in that tab's thread. The server doesn't store the text or the result.
• What Kavalu records is that you ran an action and what it cost in credits, so it can show your usage and apply your limits.

The privacy policy has the details.

Kavalu has two plans, Free and Pro. Both include every action, and Pro raises the limits: 100 credits a month on Free and 2,000 on Pro, with higher daily limits. Pricing shows what each action costs and its daily limits.

To see your plan, choose Manage plan in Settings › , Account, or open your subscription.

Payments are handled by Paddle. To cancel, update your payment method or see your invoices, choose Manage billing on your subscription or on the billing page. It opens Paddle's portal in a new tab. Refunds are covered by the refund policy.

Kavalu can't see this tab yet

Chrome lets Kavalu read a tab only after you start it there, or on a site you allowed. Choose Allow on all sites under the message, or press Alt+K, click the Kavalu icon or right-click and choose Kavalu on that tab, and the request finishes by itself. See Page access for allowing one site.

Chrome doesn't let extensions read this page

Chrome keeps some pages to itself, and Kavalu can't read them however you set it up. Use Kavalu on a regular web page. The list of these pages is in Page access.

I can't sign in

Kavalu signs in with Google only. Choose Sign in with Google and pick your account in the window that opens. If you close that window, nothing happens; choose the button again. When sign-in fails, the panel shows Couldn't sign in. Choose the button again.

A request that fails with Your session ended. Sign in and Kavalu will finish this request. runs again once you sign in with the same Google account. With a different account, it is discarded.

A keyboard shortcut does nothing

• Settings › , Shortcuts shows the keys Chrome has bound. A shortcut with no key shows Not set: Chrome gives Kavalu its keys only if nothing else is using them. Set one at chrome://extensions/shortcuts.
• Alt+Shift+K and Alt+Shift+L need selected text. With nothing selected they only open Kavalu.
• On a page Chrome keeps to itself, a shortcut opens Kavalu, which then says it can't read the page.

Listen doesn't play

• Couldn't play this audio. Chrome could not play the audio it was given. Choose Listen again, which starts a new listen.
• This audio expired. A long listen can't go on once it has been paused for a long time. Choose Listen again.
• Couldn't play the rest of this. Choose Try again. Kavalu fetches the part that failed and goes on.
• The player is gone or shows Stopped: audio stops when you leave the player. See Listen.

Kavalu couldn't make this right now

Choose Try again. It runs the same request again in the same place. The same button comes with these messages:

• Something went wrong on Kavalu's side.
• That took too long.
• Kavalu couldn't draw this one. (Diagram)
• Kavalu couldn't write questions from this one. (Quiz me)
• Kavalu couldn't start this just now, so nothing ran. It asks you to wait before the next attempt.

You're offline. Kavalu will work again when you reconnect. has no button. Reconnect, then run the action again.

I've reached a limit

Kavalu says what ran out: your limit for that action today or this month, or this month's credits (You've used this month's credits.). It says when the limit resets if Kavalu knows. Free and Pro both have limits, and Pro's are higher. On Free, Upgrade to Pro opens the pricing page, where each action's limits are listed.

You're sending requests too quickly. asks you to wait before the next request. Try again sits under it.

Email support@kavalu.com. It helps to say what you were doing, the message you saw and the version number in Settings › , About.