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Merge PDF
Combine PDFs into one file
The paperwork drawer
Free PDF tools
19 PDF tools, all free, none of them asking for an account. They run on our own server rather than in your browser, so the honest version is that your file is uploaded, used for the one job you asked for, and deleted about an hour later.
Start with the job, not the tool
Most people arrive here with a problem rather than a tool name, and the names are not always obvious: splitting and extracting are the same tool, and the thing most people mean by editing a PDF is rewriting a line that is already on the page. Find the row that matches what you are actually trying to do.
| What you need | What happens | Tool |
|---|---|---|
| Several PDFs need to become one document | Combine them in the order you set, up to 20 files at once. | Merge PDF |
| You need some pages out of a long file | Choose pages or ranges, and get one PDF or a ZIP of separate ones. | Split PDF |
| The file is too big to email | Three levels, and the original comes back if compression would enlarge it. | Compress PDF |
| A line of text on the page is wrong | Click the line and rewrite it in the document's own font. | Edit PDF |
| You cannot search or copy a scanned document | Recognition adds a text layer under the untouched page image. | OCR PDF |
| You want the words, not the layout | A plain .txt, with a marker at the start of every page. | PDF to Text |
| You want the photos out of a report | The pictures stored inside the file, at their original resolution. | Extract PDF Images |
| It has to be editable in Word | A .docx conversion, honest about what a layout costs on the way. | PDF to Word |
| You want the pages as pictures | PNG or JPEG at 100, 150 or 300 DPI. | PDF to Images |
| Photos or scans need to become a PDF | Up to 20 images, including iPhone HEIC, at original, A4 or Letter size. | Images to PDF |
| The pages are in the wrong order | Drag them into place, rotate, duplicate or drop any of them. | Organize PDF |
| Pages are sideways, or some do not belong | Rotate and save it that way, or remove the pages you do not need. | Rotate PDF |
| Pages need marking as a draft or a copy | Text or a logo, tiled or in one spot, at the opacity you set. | Watermark PDF |
| The pages need numbering | Five formats, six positions, and a cover page you can skip. | Add Page Numbers |
| The file will not open at all | Rebuilds a broken structure, and says so when nothing is left. | Repair PDF |
| You need to know what changed between two versions | A report of every page whose text differs, line by line. | Compare PDF |
| It should not open without a password | AES-256 encryption. The password is never stored or logged. | Protect PDF |
| You know the password and want it gone | Removes a password you have, or lifts print and copy restrictions. | Unlock PDF |
What is true of all of them
Limits
50 MB per file, 20 files, 200 MB in one job. Where the work is heavy there is also a page cap: 60 pages for OCR, 150 for a PDF to Word conversion, 200 for exporting pages as images, and 500 in the editor. They exist so one job cannot take the queue down for everyone else.
Your file afterwards
Uploads and results are deleted automatically about an hour after the job, by a sweep that runs whether or not you download anything. Nothing is kept to train anything, and nothing is shared. Download your result before the hour is up.
No catch to find later
No account, no watermark on the output, no daily limit, and no step where a paywall appears after the upload finishes. The site is funded by ads, which is the whole business model.
Things we will not pretend
We cannot recover a password you have forgotten. A PDF to Word conversion is a reconstruction, not a copy. Compressing a scan costs image detail, and compressing text barely does anything. Every tool page says so on the page rather than in the small print.
Every PDF tool
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Split PDF
Extract pages or break a PDF apart
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Compress PDF
Shrink a PDF to email-able size
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PDF → Images
Every page as a PNG or JPG
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Images → PDF
Photos and scans into one PDF
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OCR a PDF
Make scanned PDFs searchable
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Rotate PDF
Turn pages the right way up, for good
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Delete PDF Pages
Remove the pages you don't need
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PDF to Text
Pull the words out as a plain .txt
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Extract PDF Images
Save the pictures stored inside a PDF
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Watermark PDF
Stamp text or a logo across the pages
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Add Page Numbers
Number the pages, your way
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Repair PDF
Rebuild a PDF that will not open
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Organize PDF
Reorder, rotate, duplicate and remove pages
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Compare PDF
Find what changed between two versions
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PDF → Word
Get an editable .docx back
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PDF Editor
Edit, sign, fill, organize, and redact PDFs
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Protect PDF
Add a password with real AES-256 encryption
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Unlock PDF
Remove a password you already know
In the workshop
When an online tool is the wrong answer
Automatic deletion is a real promise, and it still does not override a workplace, school, legal, or healthcare rule that forbids sending documents to a third party. If a policy says the file stays on the device, use software approved for that device, and treat the hour long retention here as irrelevant rather than as a workaround.
Three other cases are better handled elsewhere. A file over the size cap needs desktop software rather than a smaller upload. A job you have to repeat on a schedule wants a script, not a browser tab. And a document where every mark has to survive exactly, such as a signed contract going to a registry, deserves a tool you can audit rather than a free web service, ours included.
Guides for these tools
Written against these tools and re-checked when they change, with the awkward cases included rather than skipped.
Merge PDFsCombine files into one PDF, in the order you chooseSplit and extract PDF pagesPull out the pages you need or break a document into partsCompress PDFsMake a PDF small enough to send, without wrecking itEdit text and fill PDFsRewrite a line, fill a form, or remove content for realPassword protect and unlock PDFsAdd a password, remove one you know, or lift restrictions
Questions people actually ask
- Are these PDF tools really free?
- Yes. No account, no watermark on the output, and no daily limit. The site is funded by ads rather than by charging for the work.
- What happens to a file after I use a tool?
- It is used for that one job and then deleted. Uploads and results are removed from the server automatically about an hour after the job, by a sweep that runs whether or not you download anything.
- How large a file can I upload?
- Up to 50 MB per file, 20 files, and 200 MB in one job. Individual tools have their own page limits where the work is heavy: 60 pages for OCR, 150 for a PDF to Word conversion, 200 for exporting pages as images, 500 for the editor.
- Do I need to install anything?
- No. Everything runs in a browser tab, on a phone as well as a desktop. There is no extension, no desktop app, and nothing to sign up for.
- Can you recover a PDF password I have forgotten?
- No, and neither can anyone selling a recovery service for a properly encrypted file. Unlock PDF removes a password you already know, and it lifts printing or copying restrictions on a file that opens without one.