Frequently Asked Questions

Your first guide is completely free to publish to Gumroad — no credit card required. The pipeline runs in full: discover a niche, generate the guide with AI, pick a template, and publish the listing directly to your Gumroad account.

The one thing that requires a paid plan is downloading the PDF file itself. The Gumroad listing is created and live, so your guide can start earning immediately. But to download the PDF for your own records (or to upload manually to Gumroad's Content tab), you'll need to upgrade to a pay-per-publish ($9.99) or a monthly plan (Starter $39/mo or Pro $79/mo).

This way you can see exactly what you're getting before you pay — a real listing, real content, real earning potential.

When you pick a guide idea, PDFLaunch uses Claude (Anthropic's AI) to generate a structured outline, then writes each chapter with callouts, bullet lists, and checklists tailored for buyers. The final PDF is rendered by a headless browser (Puppeteer) using your chosen template and stored securely in your account. The whole process takes about 30-60 seconds.

Clicking Publish creates a Gumroad product in your connected account with the guide title, description, and your chosen price. The product is created as a draft so you can review it before making it live. You will also see a download button in your PDFLaunch dashboard to get the PDF file itself.

Due to limitations in the Gumroad API, we are unable to attach files directly to products programmatically. The PDF is generated and immediately available for download from your PDFLaunch dashboard. To complete the Gumroad listing, download the PDF using the dashboard button and upload it to your Gumroad product's Content tab. We know this is an extra step and are monitoring Gumroad's API roadmap for a solution.

Cover image generation is on our roadmap but is not available yet. For now, the Gumroad product is published without a cover image. You can create one for free using Canva (search for "Gumroad cover" templates) and upload it directly to your Gumroad product page. A 1280x720px image works well.

PDFLaunch currently includes four templates:

• Minimal — clean white layout, Inter font, ideal for any niche
• Business — dark header accents, professional look for B2B guides
• Editorial — cream background, navy cover, serif font with gold ornaments for premium feel
• Premium — bold typography, gradient accents, modern design

You can preview all templates before generating and switch between them in the Edit step.

Yes. After generation you enter the Edit step where you can modify the guide title, subtitle, and the text of each chapter directly in the browser. Changes are reflected in the live PDF preview before you commit to publishing. The edited version is what gets published to Gumroad.

Because AI generation consumes computational resources at the moment you click Generate, we do not offer refunds once PDF generation has started. If you experience a technical error that prevents you from downloading your guide, email support@pdfguide.app and we will resolve it. Monthly Pro subscriptions can be cancelled at any time; you retain access until the end of the billing period but we do not issue partial-month refunds.

In the Publish step of the pipeline (or on your Dashboard), click Connect Gumroad. You will be redirected to Gumroad to authorise PDFLaunch to create products on your behalf. After approving, you are returned to PDFLaunch and your account is linked. You only need to do this once. You can disconnect at any time from your Gumroad account's Applications settings.