Free online PDF tools against an app that keeps the file on your Mac
In short: Free PDF tool websites are quick and often generous, but each one has limits: file size caps from 15 to 100 MB on some tools, a few tasks an hour on others, and uploads kept for between one and two hours. Better PDF's Tools window does the common conversions on your Mac with no cap and no upload. PDF to Word is part of Pro, and the rest is free.
The free PDF websites are good at what they do. You drop a file on a page, wait a few seconds, and you have a Word document or a smaller PDF, with nothing to install. For a menu or a public report that is the quickest route there is, and we use them too.
The trouble starts with the other files: the contract, the payslip, the scanned passport. Then the limits and the fine print matter. We make Better PDF, an app that does these jobs on the Mac, so read this with that in mind. Everything below comes from each site’s own pricing and security pages, checked on 9 November 2026.
The free tiers, side by side
| Service | Free limits | Watermark, account | Paid price | Files kept | Where it runs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| iLovePDF | 15 to 100 MB per file depending on the tool (Compress 200 MB); 25 files to merge, 1 to split | Not stated on the pricing page | Premium; we were shown regional prices only | “Deleted within two hours”; signed documents kept up to five years | Its servers |
| Smallpdf | We could not load its pricing or security pages | Not checked | Not checked | Not checked | Its servers; Redact says it runs in the browser |
| PDF24 Tools | “No limits”, no registration | No account needed | Free, ad-supported | Deleted “after one hour” | Servers in Germany |
| Sejda | 200 pages or 50 MB, 3 tasks an hour, 1 file per task | Not stated | Week Pass $5; web and desktop $63 a year | “Automatically deleted after 2 hours” | Its servers; desktop app works locally |
| Acrobat online | A small number of free uses per tool, more with a free account | Adobe account for most tools | Acrobat Standard from $14.99 a month on an annual plan | Not confirmed | Adobe’s servers |
| OxnaPDF | Free, no paywall; AI has a daily cap | No account unless you connect an AI | Free | Not stated | Says its tools run on your device; AI questions go to the AI service |
| PDFgear online | Editor: 100 MB, no file count or time limit | “Watermark-free”, no sign-up | Free | Converters give different times, from on download to 20 minutes | Editor in the browser; converters on AWS servers in the US |
| Better PDF | No caps | No watermark, no account | Free; PDF to Word in Pro, from $9.99 once | Never uploaded | On your Mac |
Two things stand out. First, the limits are real but rarely painful for a single file. Three tasks an hour, or 50 MB, is plenty for a one-off. Second, every converter except the on-device ones keeps a copy of your file for a while, and you have to take the company’s word for how long.
Where the limits bite
The free tiers are built for a file now and then. They start to hurt in three cases.
Large scans. A forty-page scan from a phone can be well over 50 MB, which is past the free limit of some tools before you begin.
Batches. Converting twenty invoices one at a time, three an hour, is an afternoon. The answer on most sites is a subscription.
Anything private. No cap matters here, because the question is whether you may upload the file at all. Many employers, clients and regulators say no for client data, health records and identity documents, whatever the site does with them afterwards. We wrote a longer piece on whether it is safe to upload a PDF to an online converter.
What “deleted after an hour” means
A site that says it deletes your file after an hour is probably telling the truth about the main copy. It is a promise about one copy on one server. It usually says less about backups, logs that record file names, and the cloud provider the site runs on.
A tool that runs in the browser is different: the file stays in the tab and nothing is sent. Some sites do this for some tools, and it is a good design. The catch is that from the outside the two look the same. The simplest check is to turn off Wi-Fi and try. If the tool still works, it is local.
The Tools window in Better PDF
Better PDF puts its tools in one window, Window › Tools… (⇧⌘T), with groups for Convert, Pages, Protect, Extract and Optimise. A search field finds a tool by name, and an “Applies to” menu picks the open document to work on.
Convert is the part that is filled in today, and it covers the jobs people most often upload a file for:
- PDF to Word, a .docx with headings, paragraphs and tables rebuilt from the layout. This one is part of Pro.
- PDF to images, PNG, JPEG, HEIC or TIFF, one per page.
- PDF to text, in reading order.
- PDF to Markdown, with headings, lists and tables.
- PDF to CSV, every table as rows and columns.
- Grayscale, re-rendered in grey for printing, with text kept as text.
- Images to PDF, one image per page.
File › Export As… (⇧⌘E) offers the same formats from any open document. Before you save, the Convert sheet shows a live preview of the result, a page range and an estimate of the file size. Scanned pages can be recognised on the way out, with the same on-device OCR the app uses everywhere else.
The other groups fill in over the next updates. Several of their jobs are already in the app outside the window: the pages grid for reordering, rotating and deleting pages (free), merge and split (Pro), Redaction that deletes the marked content from the file (Pro), and Protect with Password with AES-256 (Pro). Compress presets, PDF to PowerPoint, and Word, PowerPoint and Excel to PDF are not in the app yet.
What the window does not have is a limit. There is no hourly cap, no daily cap, no watermark and no file size ceiling beyond what your Mac can open, because there is no server to protect. Every tool works with Wi-Fi off.
When to use which
- A public file, once, on someone else’s computer. A free website is fine and probably fastest.
- Many files, or large scans. An app saves you the caps, or a subscription.
- A file you would not forward to a stranger. Keep it on the Mac.
Better PDF’s conversions to images, text, Markdown and CSV are free, and PDF to Word comes with Pro: one payment of $9.99 for the first 100 buyers, $19.99 up to 500 and $29.99 after that. Download Better PDF and try a conversion with Wi-Fi off.
Checked on 9 November 2026: iLovePDF, https://www.ilovepdf.com/pricing and https://www.ilovepdf.com/help/security · Smallpdf, https://smallpdf.com/pricing (would not load) · PDF24, https://tools.pdf24.org/en/ · Sejda, https://www.sejda.com/pricing · Adobe, https://www.adobe.com/acrobat/pricing.html · OxnaPDF, https://oxna.ai/pdf · PDFgear, https://www.pdfgear.com/edit-pdf/ and https://www.pdfgear.com/word-to-pdf/. If something here is out of date, write to hello@evenpine.com.
Questions people ask
- Which free PDF website keeps files the shortest time?
- Of the sites we checked on 9 November 2026, PDF24 says it deletes uploads after one hour, iLovePDF within two hours and Sejda after two hours. Those are each company's statements; nobody outside can check them.
- Do any online PDF tools work without uploading?
- Some do, for some tools. PDFgear says its online editor processes files without uploading them, and OxnaPDF says its online tools run on your device. Converters on most sites still send the file to a server.
- Is there a daily limit in Better PDF's Tools window?
- No. The Tools window runs on your Mac, so there are no hourly or daily caps, no watermark and no file size limit beyond what your Mac can open. Conversion to images, text, Markdown and CSV is free; PDF to Word is part of Pro.