Free PDF editor for Android, in Chrome, no app

This PDF editor for Android is free and runs in Chrome, so there is no app to install and no ads. Pick the PDF from Files or Drive, sign with your finger, highlight, add text, delete pages, then download the new file. It never leaves your phone.

Why edit a PDF on Android in the browser

Android has no editor of its own: Google's PDF preview reads and prints, and everything else is an app from the Play Store, most of which show ads, push subscriptions or want permissions beyond the file. A viewer that runs in Chrome needs none of that. It opens the file, edits it on the phone, and writes a new PDF to your Downloads.

• View: open from Files or Drive, pinch-zoom, thumbnails, text search, dark mode, document properties.
• Annotate: highlight in seven colors, draw by touch, add text, insert a photo, draw and place a signature, add a sticker, whiteout a box, erase, undo and redo.
• Pages: rotate 90 degrees, delete, reorder with thumbnails, add a blank page, append another PDF.
• OCR: add a searchable text layer to a short scan.
• Unlock: remove print and copy restrictions from a PDF that opens without a password.
• Save: Download creates a new PDF with the changes embedded.

Privacy: no upload, no permissions

Nothing is uploaded. Chrome reads the PDF with JavaScript in the tab, and all editing, OCR and saving happen on the phone. Close the tab and the file is released. The viewer does not ask for storage, contacts or camera permissions the way an app does; it only sees the one file you pick. The OCR engine and its language data come from a CDN once.

That is what you want for a lease, a prescription, a signed quote or a scanned ID: the file stays in your Files app and your mail, and a web page processed it without taking a copy. Details are on the privacy page.

How to edit a PDF on Android in three steps

1. Open. Tap the drop zone. Android's file picker opens, showing recent files, Downloads, and providers like Google Drive, OneDrive or your file manager. Pick the PDF. For an attachment in Gmail, save it to the phone first.
2. Edit. Tap a tool: Highlight, Draw, Text, Image, Signature, Sticker, Whiteout, Eraser, OCR, Remove Restrictions or Merge. For a signature, draw it with your finger and tap where it goes. Use thumbnails to delete or reorder pages.
3. Save. Tap Download. Chrome saves to the Downloads folder, and the notification shade shows the file; open it from there or from the Files app and share it back to the sender.

For a signature walkthrough see sign a PDF; for scans see make a scanned PDF searchable.

Android specifics: Chrome, touch drawing, printing

Chrome, Firefox, Edge and Samsung Internet on Android all work; Chrome is the one tested most. Drawing and signing respond to touch, and an S Pen on a Galaxy gives a cleaner signature line. Zoom in before placing text so it lands where you want. Printing goes through Android's print dialog, which includes Save as PDF and any printer you have set up.

If the file you downloaded does not show up, look in Files, then Downloads. Some phones put browser downloads under Internal storage, then Download, with a capital D and no s.

Limits on Android phones

A PDF that needs a password to open does not open here; strip the password elsewhere first. Form fields display but cannot be typed into; add text on top. No conversion to Word or JPG, no compression, no editing of the original words, only whiteout plus new text, as explained in edit text in a PDF.

Memory is the practical limit. Phones vary from 3 GB to 12 GB, and the browser gets a slice of that. Normal documents and short scans work; a scan of hundreds of pages may stall or run out of memory, and OCR on long scans takes tens of seconds per page. Large jobs are better done on a computer.

Play Store apps vs Google's viewer vs this editor

Frequently asked questions