BibKit

Now available on Mac, iPad and iPhone

A better way to manage BibTeX.

A Mac alternative to BibDesk, Zotero and EndNote for researchers working with BibTeX and LaTeX.

Drop your article PDF. Get its BibTeX citation. Review the extracted details, add the paper to your library, and export a clean .bib file for LaTeX. You can also import existing .bib files and look up DOI or arXiv metadata.

Mac iPad iPhone
Download on the App Store View preview

One purchase for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Use the same Apple Account on all your devices. Choose Restore Purchases in the app if needed.

Free for up to 10 references. BibKit Yearly unlocks unlimited references for US$2.99/year in the United States. Local pricing may vary. An introductory one-month free trial may be available to eligible new subscribers.

@article Liang_2026_origin On the origin of superlattice stacking faults...
@article Berthier_2024_Yielding Yielding and plasticity in amorphous solids
@article{Berthier_2024_Yielding,
  author = {Berthier and Biroli and Manning},
  title = {Yielding and plasticity...},
  eprint = {2401.09385v1}
}
Dropyour article PDFs
Extracta BibTeX citation for each paper
Revieweditable BibTeX before import
ExportLaTeX-ready library

New in BibKit 1.3

Find faster. Read anywhere.

  • Search everything

    Search journals, years, keywords and notes. Try author:irons or year:2015-2020.

  • Focus your library

    Show starred papers or a keyword, then format and export the results.

  • Take it to iPhone

    Your library on iPhone too, with iCloud sync and papers shared from Safari.

  • More reliable lookup

    Recover article details from public records when a publisher blocks the page.

screenshots

Designed around the moment you actually need citations.

Library BibKit library screenshot PDF to BibTeX BibKit extracting a BibTeX citation from an article PDF Export preview BibKit export preview screenshot
Citation editor BibKit citation editor screenshot Subscription screen BibKit subscription screen screenshot

what it does

A lean citation cockpit.

01

Drop your PDF. Get its BibTeX.

Drop up to 10 article PDFs at once. BibKit extracts a BibTeX citation for each paper and lets you review it before adding it to your library. Export the references as a .bib file.

02

Hybrid extraction

Uses local PDF text, Vision OCR fallback, Apple Foundation Models on supported Mac and iPad devices, and online metadata checks where useful.

03

DOI, arXiv, and HAL repair

Update incomplete records from trusted identifiers, including arXiv DOI checks and CrossRef/OpenAlex enrichment.

04

Modern cite keys

Choose templates, regenerate selected keys, avoid duplicates, and keep citation keys predictable across projects.

05

BibTeX-first export

Preview the output before exporting, keep author and journal formatting explicit, and avoid silent rewriting surprises.

06

Keyboard-driven library

Move through citations with arrows, copy BibTeX with Command-C, delete entries, and clear selection with Escape.

why not just another reference manager?

More pleasant than classic BibTeX tools.

BibDesk-style tools

  • Excellent for mature BibTeX libraries.
  • Often database/table-first.
  • Manual cleanup can dominate PDF workflows.
  • Metadata repair is usually a separate habit.

BibKit

  • Beautiful modern SwiftUI interface that feels fast and smooth.
  • PDF-to-BibTeX extraction and citation review are central to the workflow.
  • Online lookup is built directly into citation editing and repair.
  • Duplicate detection and cite-key regeneration are one-click actions.

BibKit focuses on the everyday citation work researchers actually repeat: getting references from PDFs, fixing metadata, keeping keys clean, and exporting BibTeX.

privacy

Your library stays local by default.

BibKit stores its citation database locally on your Mac or iPad. PDF extraction begins locally. Online lookup is used when you ask BibKit to identify, verify, or enrich citations through services such as CrossRef, OpenAlex, arXiv, or HAL. An optional journal-name fallback can send only names that are not recognized locally to BibKit's NLM-based lookup service; it never uploads a citation or bibliography file.

BibKit does not sell personal data. It does not require an account for the local library. The local library is free for up to 10 references. BibKit Yearly unlocks unlimited references, with purchases and entitlements handled by Apple StoreKit.

support

Questions, bugs, or metadata failures?

Send the PDF title, DOI/arXiv/HAL identifier, and the BibTeX output you expected. Email support: ou.salman@icloud.com

We review bug reports, subscription questions, privacy requests, and citation metadata issues sent to this address.