The Best PDF Editors in 2026: 15 Free and Paid Options Compared

“Edit a PDF” can mean very different things: fixing a typo in the existing text, adding a date to a form, signing a contract, removing a page, or blacking out a bank account number before sending a statement. Most free tools can do some of these and not others, and the most expensive gap is between changing the text that is there and typing new text on top of it. A tool that only adds text on top leaves the original underneath.

This guide covers fifteen editors, free and paid, and what each can actually do. We checked each vendor’s own documentation and pricing on 14 October 2026.

Why editing PDF text is hard

A PDF is a finished layout, not a document that flows. Text is placed on the page line by line, so changing a sentence does not push the rest of the paragraph along as it would in Word. Fonts are the second problem: many PDFs embed only the letters the document uses, so the letter you want to type may simply not be in the file. A good editor then needs the full font installed on your computer, or it substitutes another. Scanned PDFs have no text at all until OCR has been run. This explains most of the “it changed my font” and “I can’t select anything” complaints about every tool below.

What each one can do

Already on your computer

1. Preview (Mac)

Preview cannot change existing text, and Apple says so plainly. It does almost everything else free and locally: add text boxes, highlight, add notes, fill and sign forms, combine PDFs, add, delete and reorder pages, crop and rotate. It also has a redaction tool that removes the selected text, permanently once you close the document. For most everyday PDF jobs on a Mac, it is enough.

2. Microsoft Edge

Edge’s built-in PDF reader, on Windows and Mac, fills basic forms, lets you draw (which works for signing), highlight, add notes, rotate pages and read aloud. It does not edit existing text, merge files, run OCR or redact, and it cannot open XFA forms, a type some government forms use.

3. Google Chrome

Chrome’s PDF viewer now lets you draw, highlight, add text, draw a signature and fill out forms, then download the PDF with or without your changes. It also converts scans into searchable, selectable text on your device. It does not edit existing text, merge or redact.

Free tools that edit existing text

4. PDFgear

PDFgear is free with no sign-up, on Windows, Mac, mobile and the web. It edits existing text, images, links and form fields, runs OCR in more than 30 languages, merges and signs. Its redaction tool, which PDFgear says permanently deletes content and works offline on the desktop apps, makes it the most complete free option here. Test the redaction on a copy before relying on it for anything sensitive.

5. Sejda

Sejda’s web editor lets you click existing text and change it, which many free tools do not. The free plan covers documents up to 200 pages or 50 MB, three tasks an hour, and uploads are deleted after two hours. The desktop version works offline and can use the fonts installed on your computer, which helps with the font problem above. A Web Week Pass costs $5 with no auto-renewal. It cannot edit text inside scans.

6. iLovePDF

iLovePDF’s Edit PDF tool lets you select existing text to edit, move or delete, one file of up to 100 MB at a time on the free plan. Its wider toolkit covers merging up to 25 files and OCR. Uploads are deleted within two hours. Premium is $4 a month billed annually.

7. PDF24

PDF24 is completely free and ad-funded, with a large set of tools: add text, images and drawings, OCR, merge, split, sign, compress and protect. It does not change existing text; its own FAQ suggests converting to Word and back. Its redaction converts affected pages to images, which truly removes the content but makes those pages unselectable. Online files are deleted after an hour; the Windows app, PDF24 Creator, keeps files on your PC.

8. LibreOffice Draw

LibreOffice Draw opens a PDF with each line of text as a separate box, which makes fixing a word or a date easy and reworking a paragraph painful. Its Consolidate Text command merges boxes back into paragraphs, a feature LibreOffice’s own help describes as useful for editing PDFs. It is free and local on Windows, Mac and Linux.

9. Smallpdf

Smallpdf’s free tools add text, images and drawings and organise pages, but editing existing text needs Pro. Its redaction tool removes content rather than covering it, and is free within usage limits. Files are deleted after an hour.

Paid editors worth the money

10. Adobe Acrobat

Acrobat remains the reference. Standard, at $14.99 a month on an annual plan, edits text and images, organises pages, and fills and signs. Pro, at $19.99, adds OCR for scans, comparing documents, and the most thorough redaction available: Redact removes content, and Sanitize strips hidden text, metadata and comments. Acrobat Reader is free but only views, comments and signs, and Acrobat’s free online tools cover adding text, merging, splitting, OCR and signing for occasional use.

11. Foxit

Foxit PDF Reader is free on desktop, mobile and the web, and fills standard and XFA forms, annotates and signs. Foxit PDF Editor, $129.99 a year or $209.99 for a perpetual licence, adds text editing, OCR and redaction. It is the most common Acrobat alternative in offices.

12. PDF-XChange Editor (Windows)

PDF-XChange Editor has an unusual model: it is free for private and commercial use, and even its paid features work in the free mode, but any output that uses them gets a watermark. The Editor licence, $62 once with a year of updates, removes it. A capable, inexpensive choice for Windows.

13. Xodo

Xodo, from the PDF technology company Apryse, has free reader and mobile apps and web tools limited to one free action a day. Its web editor adds and edits text, with advanced text editing on paid plans from $7.99 a month. Its desktop editor, PDF Studio, runs offline on Windows, Mac and Linux and adds OCR.

14. Wondershare PDFelement

PDFelement is a full editor at $79.99 a year or $129.99 for a perpetual licence. The trial is restricted in ways worth knowing before you invest time in it: it adds a watermark when you save, excludes OCR and compression, and limits combining to three files.

For teams who want it in-house

15. Stirling-PDF

Stirling-PDF is an open-core toolkit of more than 60 PDF tools, including merge, split, sign, redact, OCR and compress, that you run on your own server, in a browser, or as a desktop app, without sending documents to outside services. The free plan suits individuals; teams of up to 100 pay $99 a month. A good fit for an office that wants to stop staff uploading documents to websites.

Linux users who mainly annotate and sign should also look at Okular, the free KDE document viewer, which adds notes, highlights, text and digital signatures.

Which one to use

• Fill, sign or annotate: Chrome, Edge or Preview. Nothing to install.
• Fix a typo in the existing text, free: PDFgear, Sejda or iLovePDF.
• Redact something sensitive: Acrobat Pro, Preview or PDFgear, then check that the text cannot be selected.
• Regular, professional editing: Acrobat Standard or Foxit PDF Editor.
• Windows on a budget: PDF-XChange Editor.
• Heavy rewriting: convert to Word, edit there, and save a new PDF.

Page jobs that do not need an editor

Many “edits” are really page operations, and you do not need an editor or an upload for them. Our browser-based tools can merge PDFs, split a PDF, rotate pages and delete pages, and the file never leaves your computer. When a rewrite is easier in a word processor, PDF to Word extracts the text; our comparison of PDF to Word converters covers the tools that keep the layout too.