Compare the Top Free PDF Readers as of March 2026

What are Free PDF Readers?

PDF readers are software applications that enable users to access, open, and read PDFs. PDF readers are essential tools for being able to open and read PDF files. Advanced PDF readers may also support form filling, digital signatures, and interactive features embedded in PDF documents. PDF readers are widely used in both personal and professional settings to view reports, manuals, eBooks, contracts, and other documents that need to preserve formatting across different devices and platforms. Compare and read user reviews of the best Free PDF Readers currently available using the table below. This list is updated regularly.

  • 1
    PDF Studio Viewer

    PDF Studio Viewer

    Qoppa Software

    PDF Studio Viewer is a cross-platform PDF reader that is reliable and easy to use. PDF Studio Viewer can annotate PDF documents and fill interactive forms. For more editing features, Qoppa Software publishes PDF Studio Standard and Pro editions. Features: -Display PDFs with high fidelity -Annotate & Markup PDFs -Fill & Save Forms -Render Digital Signatures & Layers -Advanced User Interface -Advanced Print & Search Options -Document Storage Integrations -DocuSign© Integration
  • 2
    Smallpdf

    Smallpdf

    Smallpdf

    Made in Switzerland, the land of watches, banks, and clean design, Smallpdf is an award-winning company that offers a suite of clever document management tools for everyone—for work, for home, for life. Founded in 2013, Smallpdf provides a simple, secure, and reliable answer to heavy, awkward PDF software. By removing unnecessary features and adding a deep focus on user experience, Smallpdf has become the most-loved and most-trusted PDF software on the planet, serving over 500 million users, 100,000 different companies, in 24 different languages, and in every country in the world—even Antarctica! Smallpdf integrates seamlessly with professional and personal tasks, boosting productivity and simplifying the way people manage their documents, with tools to compress, convert, edit, sign, protect, and unlock PDF documents in just a few easy steps.
    Starting Price: $7/month/user
  • 3
    UPDF

    UPDF

    Superace Software Technology Co., Ltd.

    UPDF supports editing, annotating, and managing PDF seamlessly on for Windows, Mac, iOS and Android. You can get every tool you need to edit, annotate, and organize your PDF files in one premiere all-rounder smart application. It is explicitly designed to meet the desire of most users for a stunning yet very comprehensible interface that is not just only for beginners. Key Features: 1. Edit PDF Document - You can add or delete texts as well as edit the text's properties and formats such as its font style, font color, and size. - You can also crop, rotate, replace, extract or delete images. 2. Annotate PDF - Easily highlight, underline, and strike out those parts. You can also add shapes, sticky notes and text boxes for a quicker and easier means of adding texts. 3. PDF Page Management - Rotate, delete, extract and rearrange PDF pages as you need. 4. View and Navigate PDF Files - Flexible reading mode such as single page mode or double-page mode.
    Starting Price: Free
  • 4
    FlowPaper

    FlowPaper

    Devaldi

    Bring your static PDF content to life. Responsive digital publishing. The web PDF viewer and digital publishing suite. Convert your catalog, brochure or magazine into a beautiful responsive online publication. Convert PDF documents into interactive online viewing experiences. This web based PDF viewer is specialized in magazines, catalogs, brochures and other high quality print documents. It brings your publications online while preserving the original document layout. Embed this viewer to provide a beautiful seamless viewing experience for your visitors as they flip through your publication. Convert your PDF catalogs to HTML5 to reach maximum readability, speed and text sharpness. Don't let your website visitors wait for large PDF or image files to download, this viewer optimizes your documents for online use and minimizes loading time. The viewer provides both slide and flipbook modes as viewing experiences.
  • 5
    PDFsam Basic

    PDFsam Basic

    Sober Lemur

    PDFsam Enhanced is our commercial solution, a powerful and professional PDF editor to modify, convert, review, sign, fill forms and secure your PDF files. Your PDF files stay private on your computer, no need to upload them to a third-party service. PDFsam Basic is a free and open-source solution for casual users. Split, merge, mix, extract pages and rotate PDF files. PDFsam Enhanced and PDFsam Visual are two commercial solutions for professional users. Edit, sign, convert, fill forms, visually combine, pages reorder and more. Merge, split, extract pages, rotate and mix your PDF files. Available for Windows, Mac and Linux. Free and open-source since 2006. A professional and customizable solution to edit, convert, insert, review, sign and secure your PDF files. Free to view and create PDFs from 300+ file formats. Modify the PDF content without the need to export it or copy to another format.
  • 6
    PDFgear

    PDFgear

    PDFgear

    PDFgear is an all-in-one PDF solution that helps users view, edit, protect, convert, sign, annotate, organize, OCR, Copilot, organize PDF files, and make more possibilities on Windows, MacOS, iOS, and iPadOS. PDFgear offers all expected functions in its clean and straightforward interface so users could enjoy their document reading and editing experience without disturbance. PDFgear Copilot provides more possibilities as a personal document assistant. As it's powered by AI, users could easily manipulate all PDFgear functions and chat with PDFs by asking PDFgear Copilot. Get lost in various functions and comprehensive document content? Don't worry! Just ask Copilot! It will cover everything. With PDFgear and Copilot in it, processing PDF is like a walk in the garden.
    Starting Price: Free
  • 7
    KDAN PDF

    KDAN PDF

    Kdan Mobile Software

    KDAN PDF (formerly PDF Reader) is your all-in-one PDF solution. Edit, sign, OCR scan, convert, annotate, and fill forms in PDF documents. With innovative AI features, speed up your document workflow! Designed for Mac, iPhone, and iPad, KDAN PDF is trusted by millions for its comprehensive features and efficiency. AI FEATURES: • Analyze and extract key information or tables from a PDF, then convert the data into spreadsheets for further analysis or visualization. • Chat with PDF and get document analysis, advice, new ideas, or content summary • Text redaction - automatically identify and block sensitive information in a document
    Starting Price: $59.99/year (billed annually)
  • 8
    LiquidText

    LiquidText

    LiquidText

    Review documents faster. Find facts effortlessly. See the connections others miss. Go past the limits of paper with LiquidText. Note-taking and document analysis tools have changed little from the margin notes, highlighting, and sticky notes we have used forever. Most apps today try to duplicate paper, but, in spite of this, over 80% of knowledge workers still prefer paper at work and school. LiquidText moves beyond paper. It captures your reading, notes, highlights, annotations and observations just like paper; but goes further to reveal their connections, to source materials and each other in a way that documents and maps your project in a clear and shareable form. We connect related notes into ideas, and we connect your ideas into reports. Every note, idea and observation can be connected to others, and a single tap can show those relationships and original context.
    Starting Price: $7.99 per month
  • 9
    Javelin PDF Reader

    Javelin PDF Reader

    Drumlin Security

    Javelin PDF readers provide all the core functionality needed for viewing standard PDF files and PDF files encrypted using our free Drumlin Publisher software (.drmz and .drmx files). These readers support internal and external hyperlinks, contents/navigation trees, a range of page display formats, plus document text searching, annotation, and markup. Encrypted files are protected against content copying and onwards distribution. They may also have restrictions applied such as whether printing is permitted and whether they expire at some point and can no longer be viewed. The properties and/or info facility in the Javelin readers provides details of these Digital Rights Management (DRM) settings. Visually impaired users should select the Mac OSX/Catalina Javelin3 software as this supports text-to-speech conversion. You can use Javelin on a PC or Mac connected to a large corporate network with a restrictive firewall.
    Starting Price: Free
  • 10
    Haihaisoft PDF Reader
    Haihaisoft Reader is a free PDF document reader and printer, with an extremely fast launch speed and a rich feature set. It is also for reading PDF documents protected by the DRM-X platform. It is now available for Windows, Mac, Android, and iPhone/iPad. Read and print all Adobe PDF documents and open protected PDF documents by Adobe Acrobat. The download size of Haihaisoft Reader is only 3 MB which is a fraction of Adobe Reader. We know security and privacy are very important for you. Haihaisoft PDF Reader highly respects the security and privacy of users and will never connect to the Internet without users' permission. For protecting your privacy, Haihaisoft PDF Reader doesn't connect to the Internet in the background for updating. You just need to check the version and update the software with a single click in the help menu. With DRM-X platform everyone can easily set different rights permissions and securely share their document.
    Starting Price: Free
  • 11
    Lumin PDF

    Lumin PDF

    Lumin PDF

    We are the bridge between paper and the cloud, our seamless PDF workflows help you achieve greater impact with less administration. Edit PDFs within Google Workspace. Open Lumin directly from Gmail, Google Drive, or Google Classroom. Uploading old documents to the cloud has never been easier. Get your team on the same page with real-time feedback and manual tools. Submit work, negotiate terms, and sign everything with Lumin Sign. Enjoy our comprehensive free plan for K-12 teachers and students. Our products are implemented using a rigorous and constantly updated security system. We also have a Google-verified storage system that ensures your files never have to leave Google Drive. Collaborate with your current colleagues and attract new ones with Lumin and Lumin Sign. Our innovative solutions are great on their own, but together they're even better. Lumin reduces the comings and goings of your team. With a cloud workspace integrated with Google, you can collaborate in real-time.
    Starting Price: $9 per month
  • 12
    Apple Preview
    Fill out and sign forms right on your Mac. You don’t need to print PDF forms. Just use the Markup tools to fill in the form and even add a signature. If a PDF contains sensitive information, you can keep it secure by adding a password. Easily combine PDF documents and transfer pages from one PDF to another. Preview supports a large set of image file types, including JPEG, PNG, PSD, and TIFF. When you receive a photo that you can’t open in your photo editing app, you may be able to convert it to a file type you can use.
    Starting Price: Free
  • 13
    Icecream PDF Split & Merge
    Split and merge PDF documents easily with Icecream PDF Split & Merge. You can split PDF into single-page files, split by groups of pages and even get rid of certain pages using one of the splitting modes of the software. You can also combine PDF files into a single document with ease. Work with password-protected files and set you own files permissions. Use the built-in PDF reader to view PDF files. No need to download additional software. Your files are securely processed right on your PC, no need to upload anything online. Drag-and-drop support for adding and arranging files conveniently. Split and combine PDF files by adding them from the Windows context menu.
  • 14
    Slim PDF Reader

    Slim PDF Reader

    Apryse Software

    Copy and paste PDF text, annotate PDFs, fill out interactive PDF forms, and validate digital signatures you receive on Windows, Mac, and Linux with a lightweight & completely free Slim PDF Reader. It comes with a Dark theme setting that will help you save battery on a laptop and reduce eye strain, a full range of advanced and customizable annotation tools, various document navigation tools, search and print features, ability to copy text for pasting into another application, snapshot tool, interactive PDF form filling and signature verification features. Slim PDF Reader is one of the smallest desktop PDF readers (download size only 15 MB), 100% bloatware free, fast and easy on system resources.
    Starting Price: Free
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