Combine PDF files into one document
Add two or more PDFs, put them in the order you want, and download a single file. The merging runs in your browser on your own computer or phone, so the documents are never sent to a server. That matters when the files are bank statements, ID scans or signed contracts.
How to merge PDFs
- Click Select PDF files or drag the files onto the box. You can pick several at once.
- Use the arrows to move files up or down. The merged document follows this list from top to bottom.
- Forgot one? Click Add more PDFs. New files go to the end of the list, and you can move them from there.
- Click the merge button. The result downloads as merged.pdf.
What stays the same and what changes
Pages are copied exactly as they are. Text stays selectable and searchable, images are not recompressed, and every page keeps its own size and orientation, so an A4 letter and a US Letter form can sit in the same file without being stretched. Web links inside the pages keep working.
A few things belong to a document as a whole rather than to its pages, and those are not carried over:
- Bookmarks. The outline panel your PDF reader shows for the original files is dropped.
- Fillable form fields. They may still show what was typed into them but stop being editable. Finish filling a form before you merge it, or send it as a separate file.
- Password protection. A locked PDF cannot be opened here. Remove the password in the program that created the file first (you need to know the password to do that).
Getting the order right the first time
Before adding files, rename them with a number at the start, such as 01-cover-letter.pdf and 02-resume.pdf. File pickers sort by name, so the documents arrive already in order. If one of them contains a page you do not want, such as the blank back of a scanned sheet, remove it first with Split PDF (choose Extract pages and leave that page out), then merge the cleaned copy.
Typical jobs
- A job portal that accepts one upload: cover letter, resume and certificates in a single file.
- A scanner that saved every page as its own PDF.
- Receipts and invoices for an expense claim or a tax return.
- A contract with separate schedules or appendices.
When the merged file is too big to send
Gmail and Outlook.com both limit a whole email, attachments included, to 25 MB, and many upload portals allow far less. The merged file is roughly the size of all the parts added together, and scanned pages add up quickly. Run it through the PDF compressor with a target such as 2 MB, or split it into two parts if the recipient can take more than one file.
How much it can handle
There is no limit on the number of files or pages. The real limit is your device's memory, because every file is loaded into the browser while it is combined. A laptop copes with hundreds of pages; an older phone can run out of memory on several hundred megabytes of scans. If a merge fails, combine the files in two batches and then merge the two results.