--- title: Ask the Book description: Turn on Ask the Book from your Subscription Manager to give learners an AI reading assistant that helps them find, understand and translate what they read --- [Skip to content](https://organisations.perlego.com/support/help-centre/ask-the-book#main-content) [Contact Us](https://organisations.perlego.com/support/help-centre/kb-tickets/new?hsLang=en) [![Logo square format-1](https://organisations.perlego.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Logo%20square%20format-1.png?width=192&height=50&name=Logo%20square%20format-1.png)](https://www.perlego.com) Open main navigation Close main navigation - [Contact Us](https://organisations.perlego.com/support/help-centre/kb-tickets/new) - [Go to Perlego](https://www.perlego.com/) [Go to Perlego](https://www.perlego.com/) How can we help? - There are no suggestions because the search field is empty. 1. [Organisation Help Centre](https://organisations.perlego.com/support/help-centre?hsLang=en) 2. [AI Tools](https://organisations.perlego.com/support/help-centre/ai-tools?hsLang=en) # Ask the Book ## Give your learners an AI reading assistant that helps them engage more deeply with the book. About Ask the Book Ask the Book is an AI reading assistant built into the Perlego eReader. Learners open it alongside the book they're reading and ask questions in plain language to locate a topic, unpick a difficult passage, or translate a sentence.   It's designed as a study companion, not a shortcut. Every answer comes from the book itself and links back to the source passage, so learners spend less time stuck and more time engaging with the text. For your organisation, that means a more accessible collection, extra support for learners reading in a second language, and better use of the titles you already provide.   ### How to turn on Ask the Book Ask the Book is turned off by default for all organisations. You decide whether to make it available to your users, and you can switch it on or off at any time from the Subscription Manager. 1. Log in to your **Perlego Account** 2. Click on your Profile in the top right corner of the window. 3. Enter the **Organisation Subscription Manager** **![](https://organisations.perlego.com/hs-fs/hubfs/image-png-Oct-15-2026-02-03-53-4861-PM.png?width=465&height=450&name=image-png-Oct-15-2026-02-03-53-4861-PM.png)** 4. Go to **Admin Settings.** 5. Find Ask the Book and switch the toggle to **On**. ### ![](https://organisations.perlego.com/hs-fs/hubfs/undefined-3.png?width=670&height=389&name=undefined-3.png) **Note**: To turn Ask the Book off again, follow the same steps and switch the toggle to Off and confirm you want to disable Ask the Book. The change will then apply immediately, and users will no longer be able to use Ask the Book. If you want to reactivate Ask the Book at any point, follow the same steps as above. ### What users will see Once switch on, user will find the Ask The Book icon in the top right hand corner of all eligible titles. ![](https://organisations.perlego.com/hs-fs/hubfs/image-png-Oct-16-2026-02-54-00-6144-PM.png?width=1217&height=728&name=image-png-Oct-16-2026-02-54-00-6144-PM.png) Once clicked, ask the book opens up in a side panel next to the book. Here they can use the suggested questions or write a question of their own. ![](https://organisations.perlego.com/hs-fs/hubfs/image-png-Oct-16-2026-03-05-22-0602-PM.png?width=1446&height=1102&name=image-png-Oct-16-2026-03-05-22-0602-PM.png) Books with Ask The Book enabled can be found by filtering a search or subject page using the features filter.  ![](https://organisations.perlego.com/hs-fs/hubfs/image-png-Oct-16-2026-03-03-58-4739-PM.png?width=1182&height=754&name=image-png-Oct-16-2026-03-03-58-4739-PM.png) ### What Ask the Book can do for your learners | Capability | What it helps learners do | Example questions | | --- | --- | --- | | Evaluate | Get an overview of a book or chapter to decide if it's relevant before diving in | "What does this chapter cover?" "What is this book about?" | | Find | Search the full text in plain language and jump straight to the relevant section | "Find the section on climate change impacts." "Where does the author discuss supply chain economics?" | | Explain | Clarify terms, theories or tricky passages, with definitions from trusted sources such as the Oxford Dictionary | "Explain this paragraph in simpler terms." "What does cognitive dissonance mean?" | | Translate | See side-by-side translations of sentences to support comprehension | "Translate this passage into Spanish." "Can you give me a French translation of this paragraph?" |   ### What Ask the Book won't do Ask the Book is built to support reading, not replace it. It won't: - Summarise whole books or chapters: Ask the Book will provide a brief explanation, similar to a blurb, to orient the reader but it won't provide detailed summaries. - Write essays, assignments or other content based on a book: Ask the Book is designed to be a reading aid, rather than a writing tool. - Translate entire books: Translation is available at the sentence or passage level to support comprehension, not to reproduce the whole text in another language. - Answer questions from outside the book: Responses are grounded in the actual content you're reading. If your question goes beyond what the book covers, Ask the Book will tell you — so you always know whether an answer is coming from the text or not. At Perlego, our goal is always to design features that support learners to understand and critically engage with academic content.   ### Where Ask the Book is available - **Select Titles**: Only books where the publisher has opted in. The icon won't appear on other titles. - **Devices**: Web on desktop and mobile browsers. It isn't currently available in the Perlego mobile app. - **Connection**: Learners need an active internet connection.   ### Accuracy, privacy and copyright Accuracy. Ask the Book searches only the book being read — not the internet, other books or external knowledge bases. Every answer includes citations linking to the source passage, and if it can't find supporting content, it says so rather than guessing. Like any AI tool it can occasionally be wrong, so a disclaimer is shown and learners are encouraged to check the linked passages. Learners can flag an answer using the feedback option in the panel. Privacy.   ### Conversations are not used to train AI models.   Interaction logs are kept for up to 90 days for debugging and safety monitoring, separately from personally identifiable information.   No third parties have access to these logs. Copyright. The same limits as the eReader apply. Verbatim quotes are capped at 10% of each book, and Ask the Book can't be used to extract content beyond that.   ### FAQs ##### Why is Ask the Book turned off for my organisation? It's off by default so you can decide whether and when to introduce AI tools to your users — for example, after checking it against your institution's AI policy. Turn it on at any time from the Subscription Manager.   ##### Can I turn it on for some users but not others? No. Once Ask the Book is toggled on then it will be available to all users.   ##### Why can't a learner see the Ask the Book icon? Check that Ask the Book is turned on in your Subscription Manager, that the learner is using a web browser rather than the mobile app, and that the publisher has opted the title in.   ##### Can learners delete their conversation history? Not currently. Conversations are saved per book and can't yet be deleted, renamed or rearranged.   ##### Will learners use it to avoid reading? Ask the Book won't summarise whole books or chapters or write assignments. It points learners back to the relevant passages, so the reading still happens.   ### Related articles   [Ask the Book: your AI reading assistant (learner guide)](https://help.perlego.com/en/articles/14136598-ask-the-book-your-ai-reading-assistant) - [Getting started](https://organisations.perlego.com/support/help-centre/getting-started?hsLang=en) - [Analytics](https://organisations.perlego.com/support/help-centre/analytics?hsLang=en) - [Content](https://organisations.perlego.com/support/help-centre/content?hsLang=en) - [FAQs](https://organisations.perlego.com/support/help-centre/faqs?hsLang=en) - [General](https://organisations.perlego.com/support/help-centre/general?hsLang=en) - [Integrations](https://organisations.perlego.com/support/help-centre/integrations?hsLang=en#main-content) - [Single Sign-On (SSO)](https://organisations.perlego.com/support/help-centre/integrations?hsLang=en#single-sign-on-sso) - [Learning Management Systems (LMS)](https://organisations.perlego.com/support/help-centre/integrations?hsLang=en#learning-management-systems-lms) - [Library Discovery](https://organisations.perlego.com/support/help-centre/library-discovery?hsLang=en) - [Managing Users](https://organisations.perlego.com/support/help-centre/managing-users?hsLang=en) - [Organisation Account](https://organisations.perlego.com/support/help-centre/organisation-account?hsLang=en) - [Support](https://organisations.perlego.com/support/help-centre/support?hsLang=en) - [Troubleshooting](https://organisations.perlego.com/support/help-centre/troubleshooting?hsLang=en) - [AI Tools](https://organisations.perlego.com/support/help-centre/ai-tools?hsLang=en) [![Chill listening crop-3](https://organisations.perlego.com/hubfs/PerlegoLogoBlack-3.svg "Chill listening crop-3")](https://perlego.com) Organisation Help Centre Copyright © 2026, Perlego Limited