Understand any research paper in 5 minutes, no PhD required.

No account needed. Upload and listen in about 2 minutes.

Beads turns a research paper into short audio lessons. Listen first. Then read it with the paper open.

Upload a PDF
or play a paper first →
Any paper PDF
1-minute lessons

Used by research students, engineers, executives and founders to stay on top of cutting-edge research.

See all papers →

Get the highlights.

Read along.
The words light up as you listen.

A lesson transcript with the sentence being read highlighted

One idea per lesson.
Each lesson takes one part of the paper.

The list of lessons for Attention Is All You Need

No account needed.
Open a paper and press play.

The player for Attention Is All You Need

The source, one tap away.
Keep the original open while you listen.

A link to the original paper under the lessons

Take a closer look.

  1. Upload the PDF. Or start with one of ours.

The upload screen

What to add

The paper you meant to finish.

Beads reads the whole PDF, not just the abstract. It pulls out the main ideas. Each one becomes a short lesson.

  • arXiv preprints
  • Journal articles
  • Classic papers
  • Assigned readings
  • Your own drafts

The voice

A voice worth hearing.

A flat robot voice makes a hard paper harder. So you pick the voice before you press play.

  • Warm
  • Deep
  • Bright
  • Energetic
In their words

How people use it

I study spiritual texts. I translated and understood Sanskrit books from the 12th century, to get at what the sages actually wrote.

Amritashwar Lal
Founder of Beads, studying spiritual texts
From the founder

I am a physics PhD student. I use Beads to listen through publications from fellow students when I grade their work.

Anthony
Physics PhD student, MIT
From an interview

Try it with one paper.

The one open in your other tab.

Upload a PDF