Merge PDF files
Join several PDFs into one, in whatever order you set. The files never leave your computer.
No files yet.
Nothing is uploaded, and that is the point
Almost every other merge tool works by sending your PDFs to a server, joining them there, and sending the result back. That means a copy of your document sits on someone else's machine, however briefly, and you are trusting a privacy policy about what happens to it next.
This page does the work in your browser instead. The code that merges the files arrived with the page, runs on your own device, and has nowhere to send anything. It is not a promise about our conduct, it is a property of how the tool is built, and you can verify it in about ten seconds: open your browser's developer tools, switch to the network tab, and merge something. No request goes out.
Order is what the list says
Pages are taken from top to bottom in the order the list shows, not the order you happened to drop the files in. Use the arrows to move a file up or down, and the cross to drop one entirely. The numbers down the left are positions, so what you see is what you get.
What survives the merge
Pages, text, images, vector graphics and page-level links all come across intact. Text stays as text, so the result is still searchable and still selectable. Nothing is rasterised or recompressed, which is why the merged file is usually about the size of the parts added together.
Two things do not survive, and both for the same reason. Bookmarks, properly the document outline, belong to the document rather than to any page, so there is no page for them to travel with. Form fields are the same: the form definition sits at document level, and a merged file frequently ends up with the boxes drawn but no longer fillable. If a form has been completed and the answers matter, flatten it first so the answers become ordinary page content.
Encrypted files
A password protected PDF is genuinely encrypted, and it cannot be read without the password. This tool will tell you which file is the problem rather than failing silently, and it will never ask you to type the password in. Remove the password where you normally open the file, save a copy, and merge that.
Size, and what actually limits it
There is no cap here, no queue, no daily allowance and no account, because there is no server to ration. The real limit is your own device's memory: the whole job is held in it while it runs. A few hundred pages is unremarkable on a laptop. A very large scanned archive on a phone may be slow or may run out of room, and if it does, merging in two halves and then merging the halves works.
Common questions
- Are my files uploaded anywhere?
- No. The merging happens in your browser using JavaScript that came with the page. Your files are never sent to us or to anyone else, there is no server involved in the conversion, and nothing is stored. You can check that yourself: open your browser developer tools, watch the network tab, and merge a file. Nothing goes out.
- Is there a limit on how many files or how big they are?
- There is no limit we impose, but the work happens in your browser using your own memory, so very large files are limited by your device rather than by us. A few hundred pages is comfortable on any modern machine. Several hundred megabytes at once may be slow on a phone.
- Can I change the order?
- Yes. Each file has an up and a down arrow, and pages are taken in the order the list shows, top to bottom. The order files are added in is only the starting point.
- What happens to bookmarks and form fields?
- Pages, text, images and page-level links come across. The document outline, usually called bookmarks, is a property of the whole document rather than of any page, so it is not carried over. Interactive form fields frequently stop working after a merge, because the form definition also lives at document level. Flatten a form before merging if you need the answers preserved as visible text.
- It says my PDF is password protected. What now?
- An encrypted PDF cannot be read without its password, and this tool never asks you for one. Open the file in whatever you normally use, save a copy without the password, and merge that copy instead.