These are not throwaway files
PDFs are contracts, invoices, medical records, tax statements, signed agreements. Every tool that asks you to upload is asking you to put those on a stranger's disk. Retention promises are not something you can audit.
PDF work that never leaves your browser
Merge, split, rotate, watermark and password-protect PDF files. Nothing is uploaded — the documents are processed locally on your own machine.
Drop PDF files here
or · max 10 files free
What it does, and what it refuses to do
PDFKit runs five operations on your PDF files, entirely inside the browser tab. Read, transform, write — no upload, no account, no watermark on the output. The rest of this page is the honest version of what each operation actually does.
| Task | Behaviour | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Merge | Order preserved as dropped | Different page sizes coexist; nothing is rescaled. |
| Split | One PDF per page, in a ZIP | Zero-padded filenames so they sort correctly. |
| Rotate | 90 degrees clockwise, all pages | Stored as a page attribute, so text and resolution are untouched. |
| Watermark | Diagonal text, 28% grey | Drawn into the content stream; appears in every viewer and in print. |
| Number pages | Page N of M, bottom centre | Drawn into the page, so it prints and survives every viewer. |
| Batch | 10 files free | The desktop version has no limit and adds page ranges. |
Why "no upload" is the whole point
The transfer is the slow part
A 50-page scan is often 20–60 MB. Uploading it, waiting for a server, then downloading it back is minutes of round trip for work a laptop does in under a second.
There is no server to breach
The site is static files on a CDN. No backend, no database, no upload endpoint. Not "we delete your files after an hour" — there is nothing to delete.
Five things people get wrong with PDFs
Assuming merging compresses
A merged file is the sum of its parts. Merging does not re-encode anything, so a 40 MB set of scans produces a 40 MB file.
Rotating by re-rendering
Many tools rasterise each page to fix rotation. You lose the text layer and often sharpness. Rotation belongs in the page dictionary, not in the pixels.
Treating a watermark as security
A watermark is a label and a deterrent. Anyone determined removes it. Access control is encryption, a different operation.
Emailing large scans
Gmail caps at 25 MB before base64 encoding adds its 33%. A 20 MB scan becomes a rejected message.
Processing the only copy
Work on a copy. A failed merge or a bad rotation on your sole original is not recoverable without a backup.
Questions
Are my PDFs uploaded anywhere?
No. Merging, splitting, rotating, watermarking and encrypting all run inside your browser tab with a JavaScript PDF library. After the page loads it makes zero network requests.
How many files can I process at once?
10 per batch on the free web version. The desktop version has no limit.
Does it work offline?
Yes. Once the page has loaded you can disconnect the network and it still works.
Is there a watermark on my output?
No. Unlike most free PDF tools there is no forced branding. The text watermark feature is opt-in.
What formats are supported?
PDF input only. Splitting produces a ZIP of PDFs.
Does it work with scanned PDFs?
Yes. Rotation, splitting and watermarking all operate on page structure, so a scanned page behaves like any other.
Can I process an encrypted PDF?
No. Documents that require a password to open cannot be read. Remove the password first.
Is it really free?
Yes for 10 files per batch, permanently. The $19 desktop version removes the batch limit and adds page-range selection.
Need it without a browser tab?
PDFKit Desktop is a single offline file — no 10-file limit, page-range selection, per-page rotation, adjustable watermark, and it never needs a network connection. One-time $19, no subscription.
See PDFKit Desktop — $19