Why ToPDF
Your files, your device, no watermarks
ToPDF is built on two promises. Wherever a job can run in your browser, it does, so the file never leaves your device. And nothing we produce is ever watermarked, on any plan. Here is what that means in practice, how to check it yourself, and where ToPDF is not the right tool.
If your device can do the job, we let it, free and unlimited forever. If it needs real server horsepower, we run it for you, free up to a daily limit and with far higher limits on Pro and Business.
What “runs in your browser” means
When you open a browser tool, your browser downloads the tool's code from us, the same way it downloads any web page. When you add a file, the browser reads it from your disk into memory, our code processes it on your own processor, and the result is handed back to you as a download. At no point is the file sent anywhere. We never receive it, so we couldn't keep it, read it or lose it even if we wanted to.
20 of our 48 tools work this way, including JPG to PDF, PNG to PDF, WebP to PDF, GIF to PDF, BMP to PDF and PDF to JPG. Every tool page says which kind it is: a green “Runs on your device” label, or “Encrypted upload · never stored” for server tools.
Because these tools cost us nothing to run per file, they are free and unlimited for everyone, with or without an account, and they always will be. Their only limits are your device's memory and patience: a laptop handles hundreds of pages easily; a phone can struggle with dozens of full-resolution photos at once.
Check it yourself
You don't have to take our word for it. Two simple tests work in any desktop browser:
Watch the network
Open your browser's developer tools (F12, or Cmd+Option+I on a Mac) and choose the Network tab. Run a browser tool. You'll see the tool's own code files download the first time, but no request sends your file: an upload would show as a POST request roughly the size of your document.
Go offline
Run the tool once with any test file, so its code is downloaded. Then disconnect from the internet or switch on airplane mode and run it again with your real file. It still works, because nothing needs to reach us.
Try the same with a server tool and you'll see the upload, which is exactly what the label says.
What our servers do, and what they keep
Some jobs need software no browser has: LibreOffice to lay out Word and PowerPoint files, Ghostscript for compression, PDF/A and grayscale, Tesseract for OCR, a HEIF decoder for iPhone photos. For those 28 tools, your file is sent over an encrypted connection, processed in memory (plus a temporary folder for LibreOffice and OCR that is deleted as soon as the job finishes), and returned in the same response. We don't store the file, read it, or use it for anything except producing your result.
What we do keep is small and listed in full in our privacy policy:
- A count of today's server conversions, so the daily limit works. Without an account it's tied to a one-way hash of your IP address, not the address itself.
- Account details if you create an account: your email, your name if you give it, and a password hash.
- On Pro and Business, a conversion history: file name, conversion type, sizes and time. Never the contents.
- Standard request logs kept by our host for security, deleted after about 30 days.
No ads, no advertising or analytics cookies, and no selling data. The details are in the privacy policy.
No watermarks. Ever.
We never add a watermark, logo, footer or “made with” line to anything you download, on the free plan or any other. A converted Word document, a merged PDF or a compressed scan comes out exactly as you'd expect, ready to send. The only watermark you'll ever see on a ToPDF file is one you add yourself with Watermark PDF.
Where free ends and Pro begins
Browser tools are unlimited for everyone. Server tools give you 3 free conversions a day without an account and 10 with a free account, for files up to 10 MB.
Pro raises that to 500 a day and 50 MB files, and adds OCR and conversion history, for $5.99/month or $39/year. Business allows 2,000 a day and 200 MB files for $14.99/month or $119/year. Paid plans come with a 14-day money-back guarantee.
Paying never changes what a browser tool does or the quality of what any tool produces. It pays for server time.
When ToPDF is not the right tool
We'd rather you knew up front. ToPDF doesn't currently do these well, or at all:
- Editing the words on a PDF page. We convert, combine, sign, watermark and number PDFs, but we don't edit existing text in place. Edit the source document, or convert with PDF to Word, edit, and convert back.
- Redaction. Removing sensitive text so it can't be recovered needs a dedicated redaction tool. Cropping or covering something doesn't delete it from the file.
- Certificate-based digital signatures. Sign PDF places an image of your signature, which suits everyday forms. Contracts that require a verified digital signature or an audit trail need an e-signature service.
- Filling in forms. Fill forms in your PDF reader, then use Flatten PDF or Sign PDF here.
- Handwriting and uncommon languages in OCR. OCR covers printed text in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian and Portuguese.
- Outlook .msg files, web pages by URL, and an API. Not yet. Larger teams can ask us about Enterprise.