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How to Merge PDF Files on Windows, Mac, iPhone and Android

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A job application wants one file, not five. An accountant asks for every receipt in a single PDF. A teacher wants the whole worksheet pack as one attachment. Merging PDFs is one of the most common things people need to do with them, and how you do it depends a little on what device you are holding.

The quickest way on any device

The Merge PDF tool works the same on a laptop, a tablet or a phone, because it runs in the browser:

  1. Open the tool and drag in your PDF files, or tap to choose them.
  2. Drag the files into the order you want. The merged document follows the list from top to bottom.
  3. Press Merge. The combined PDF is saved straight to your downloads.

The merge happens on your own device. Nothing is uploaded, so a signed contract or a scanned passport never leaves your machine. Pages are copied across exactly as they are, at their original quality, and there is no watermark and no account.

You can merge up to 20 files at a time, up to 100 MB each. Only unusually large sets fall back to a server job, and those files are deleted within two hours.

On a Mac, with Preview

macOS can merge PDFs without any extra software:

  1. Open the first PDF in Preview.
  2. Choose View → Thumbnails so the page sidebar is showing.
  3. Drag the other PDF files from Finder into the sidebar, dropping them where you want their pages to go.
  4. Choose File → Export as PDF to save the combined document as a new file.

Preview is handy for two or three files. With a larger set, dragging thumbnails around gets fiddly, and it is easy to save over your original by mistake, which is why the export step matters.

On an iPhone or iPad, with Files

The Files app has a built-in way to combine documents:

  1. Open Files and go to the folder that holds your PDFs.
  2. Tap Select (or the three-dot menu, then Select) and pick the files in the order you want them.
  3. Tap the More button and choose Create PDF.

The new PDF appears in the same folder. If you need to reorder pages first, or the files are scattered across folders, the browser tool above is usually faster, and it works in Safari without installing an app.

On Windows

Windows has no built-in way to merge existing PDF files. “Microsoft Print to PDF” can create a PDF from a single document, but it cannot combine several PDFs into one. Your options are a desktop application or a web tool. A browser-based tool that does the work locally is the lightest choice: nothing to install, and nothing uploaded.

On Android

Android phones do not include a PDF merge feature either. Open the Merge PDF page in Chrome, tap to add your files from Downloads or Drive, and download the result. It works the same way it does on a desktop.

Things worth knowing before you merge

  • Order matters, and it is easy to get wrong. Check the list before you press merge. Renaming files with a number at the front (01-cover.pdf, 02-letter.pdf) keeps them in order wherever you open them.
  • Bookmarks and form fields do not survive. The pages, text and images come across untouched, but a merged file loses its outline, and fillable forms stop being fillable. If a form must stay interactive, keep it as a separate file.
  • Mixed page sizes are fine. A letter-size page next to an A4 page keeps its own size. Nothing is stretched or resized.
  • Need only some pages? Merge first, then use Remove pages to drop the ones you do not want, or Organize PDF to rearrange them.

Quick answers

Does merging reduce quality? No. Nothing is re-encoded or compressed. Every page is copied exactly as it was.

Can I merge images and PDFs together? Convert the images first with JPG to PDF, then merge the results.

Is the merged file bigger than the originals? It is roughly the sum of them. If the result is too big to email, compress it afterwards.

Do it now with the free tool: Merge PDF