How to Merge PDF Files Online for Free

If you've ever needed to send someone a contract, its appendix, and a cover letter as one file instead of three separate attachments, you've needed to merge PDFs. It's one of the most common document tasks there is, and it shouldn't require installing anything.

What merging actually does

Merging combines two or more PDF files into a single document, page for page, in whatever order you choose. It doesn't compress, re-render, or otherwise touch the content of each file — the pages just end up in one PDF instead of several.

How to merge PDFs online

1. Open the Merge PDF tool.
2. Upload the PDF files you want to combine — you can add more than two.
3. Drag the files into the order you want them to appear in the final document.
4. Click Merge PDFs.
5. Download the combined file.

That's the whole process. No account is required, and nothing is uploaded until you actually click merge.

Things worth knowing before you merge

• Order matters. The order you arrange the files in the upload list is the order they'll appear in the merged PDF — check it before downloading.
• Merging doesn't shrink file size. If the combined file is too large to email, run it through a PDF compressor afterward.
• Password-protected PDFs need to be unlocked first. If one of your files has a password, remove it before merging, or the merge will fail on that file.

When merging isn't the right tool

If you actually want to pull specific pages out of one PDF rather than combine whole documents, an extract-pages tool is a better fit than merging everything and then deleting the parts you don't want.