The best free PDF tools online
27 free PDF tools in one place: merge, split, compress, convert, OCR, edit, sign. No signup, no watermarks, files auto-deleted in 1 hour.
'Free' means a lot of different things across PDF tool websites. Some are free with watermarks on every output. Some are free but cap files at 5 MB. Some are free with three uses per day before nagging for a signup. Some are free in name but throttle the free tier so aggressively that paying becomes the only practical option.
PDFOnly's free tier is genuinely free. No watermarks, ever. No signup required for any tool. Files up to 100 MB and 10 files per batch — generous enough for nearly all everyday work. Most tasks complete in seconds. All 45+ tools work for free; AI-powered features (AI Summarize, Chat with PDF, Translate PDF) require a Pro plan because frontier-model inference costs money to run, but everything else — merge, split, compress, convert between Word/Excel/PowerPoint/JPG/HTML, OCR in 100+ languages, edit, sign, watermark, password-protect, repair — is free for everyone, no caveats. Files auto-delete within an hour and are never used to train AI models.
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Frequently asked questions
What's the catch on the free tier?
The catch: files cap at 100 MB, batches at 10 files, anonymous users get rate-limited at ~10 jobs per minute (more than enough for normal use), and processed files auto-delete in an hour (vs 7 days on Pro). For 95% of users, none of these are limitations that matter.
How does PDFOnly stay free?
The Pro and Team plans subsidize the free tier. Around 10% of free users upgrade to Pro for higher limits, longer file retention, AI features, or API access. That covers the infrastructure cost of serving the rest of the free tier without ads, signup walls, or watermarks.
Why don't you have ads or watermarks like other free PDF sites?
Ads make the user experience worse, slow page loads, and can be a security risk (malvertising). Watermarks on output are a deal-breaker — nobody wants to send a watermarked PDF to their boss. We make the free tier good and let it convert users to Pro on its own merits.