Combining PDFs is a skill everyone who uses a computer or phone should know. It’s doubly important if you’re in an office or academic environment where you need to do it repeatedly. The good news is you don’t need to be tech-savvy or know rocket science to merge PDFs. Read on to learn how to combine PDF files in easy, quick and affordable ways below!

Online

There are lots of free websites that enable you to combine PDFs online without having to download software. You need an internet connection, and you’re ready to go! Check out our list of the most popular PDF-combining websites that are easy to operate and quickly get the job done.

Soda PDF

Step 1: Go to Soda PDF’s website and choose Online Tools in the toolbar at the top of the screen.

• If you’re on mobile, tap the three horizontal bars at the top-right to open Online Tools and follow the same process mentioned below.

Step 2: Under Split & Merge, click Merge PDF

Click on “Merge PDF.” Source

Step 3: In the new open tab, select Choose File or choose Or drop files here according to your preference.

Choose or drop files according to your preference. Source

Step 4: After selecting documents, click Merge Files. Once the PDFs are combined, they’re automatically downloaded to your system. You can also hover over Download File and choose to download it on Google Drive or Dropbox.

Note: Soda PDF has a limit to the number or size of files you can upload. However, you can choose the Compress PDF option under Online Tools to compress and merge large files.

It offers a 7-day free trial and subscription plans with varying features. You can access the solution through desktop and mobile apps.

iLovePDF

Follow this process to access iLovePDF on PC, Mac and phone.

Step 1: Go to the website and choose Merge PDF.
Step 2: Click Select PDF Files or choose Or drop PDFs here.
Step 3: You can pick files from the device or click on Google Drive or Dropbox icons beside Select PDF Files to choose documents.

You can choose files from your device, Google Drive or Dropbox. Source

Step 4: Select files and click on Merge PDF. It automatically downloads the combined PDF, but you can tap Download merged PDF if it doesn’t happen. You can also download it on other platforms like Google Drive or Dropbox by clicking the icons beside the Download merged PDF button.

Click on “Merge PDF.” Source

Note: iLovePDF offers various PDF tools and allows you to rearrange the file order. You can merge up to 25 files for free, but anything over that can be pricey.

Smallpdf

Follow this process to use Smallpdf on PC and Mac.

Step 1: Go to Smallpdf’s website > Click on Tools at the top of the screen > Under Split & Merge, select Merge PDF.

Click on “Merge PDF.” Source

Step 2: Click on Choose Files to select documents from the system or tap on the downward arrow beside the button to pick files from other platforms.

Step 3: Choose PDF files > Select the Merge files box > Click Choose option.

Choose the “Merge files” option to combine PDF files for free. Source

Step 4: Click Merge PDF. Tap Download if you want to download it as-is.
Step 5: To organize page order > Go to Edit & Organize on the right side of the screen > Choose the Organize tab at the top > Rearrange pages according to your preference.

Rearrange pages as needed. Source

Step 6: Click Export at the top right corner and tap Download PDF. You can click the downward arrow icon beside the button to save a copy on other platforms.

Using Android

The easiest and quickest way to combine PDFs on Android is to use the above-listed web pages. SodaPDF and iLovePDF have similar PDF combining processes for computers and phones on their websites. So you can use the same method mentioned in our ‘Online’ section to access these tools on mobile.

Smallpdf on Phone

To combine PDFs on Smallpdf’s mobile website:

Step 1: Open the website on your phone browser > tap Tools (Rubik’s cube-shaped icon) > Under Split & Merge, tap Merge PDF.
Step 2: Tap the Choose Files button to open documents from the device. Press the down arrow to select PDFs from other platforms.
Step 3: Under File Mode, tap Merge PDF. Press Download to finish. There are options to export, compress and share the document as well.

In the File mode tab, click “Merge PDF.” Source

The mobile website’s page offers limited editing functions and only provides options to move pages to the beginning or end. If you want to reorder documents, follow these steps:

• Tap Edit & Organize and select the Organize tab (shaped like four boxes).
• After editing files, tap on the blue upward arrow icon. Press Download PDF. You can also export the document as Word, PowerPoint and more.

Using iPhone

You can use the above websites to combine PDFs on iOS systems quickly. To natively merge documents on iPhone:

Step 1: Make sure all your PDF documents are in the same location.
Step 2: Open the location of your files > Press three dots at the top-right > Tap Select.

Tap the three dots in the top-right corner. Source

Step 3: Choose PDFs where you want them to appear and tap the bottom three dots on the left.
Step 4: Select Create PDF to combine files. It will save the file in the same folder as the original documents.

Tap three dots at the bottom right and select “Create PDF.” Source

Using Windows

Windows doesn’t have native functionalities to combine PDFs. However, you can download third-party apps and merge files offline. Here’s how to merge PDFs on some of our top picks:

PDFsam

Step 1: Open the PDFsam app > Click Merge > Choose files by selecting Add option at the top left or dragging and dropping PDF files on the tab.
Step 2: Rearrange file order by selecting and moving them up or down in the rows as needed.

Organize page order by selecting and moving file rows and specifying page ranges. Source

Step 3: Under the Destination file option at the bottom of the screen, tap the Browse button. In the Save as box, type the file name. You can also select the file destination to find the document easily.
Step 4: Click on Run at the bottom left to finish.

Click “run” to finish. Source

Note: PDFsam’s Basic version allows users to merge and split PDFs and provides a few other features for free. The Enhanced edition and Visual edition, priced at $69 per user per year and $34.90 per user per year, respectively, offer advanced and dynamic PDF functionalities.

PDF Merger & Splitter

A cheaper alternative to PDFsam, this app’s available on the Microsoft store. To combine PDF pages on PDF Merger & Splitter:

Step 1: Open the app > Select Merge PDF > Click Add PDFs at the top-left corner.
Step 2: After choosing PDFs, you can change the file order by selecting a document and clicking Move Up or Move Down.

PDF Merger & Splitter provides various options to change page order and size. Source

Step 3: You can tap on Preview to know what the final product will look like.
Step 4: Click Merge PDF > Enter the file name, choose the file destination > Tap Save to finish.

Note: While PDF Merger & Splitter is affordable, it’s less user-friendly and has fewer features. However, one advantage is its capability to assign the same page size to all documents. PDFsam sizes all files according to the first page, while PDF Merger & Splitter gives options to set page size according to the first page, largest page and page size used by most pages.

Adobe Acrobat, ABBYY FineReader or PDF-XchangeEditor

If you want advanced PDF capabilities and greater visual cues, it’s helpful to invest in paid options like Adobe Acrobat, ABBYY FineReader or PDF-XchangeEditor.

Combining PDF files on these platforms is an easy process that follows the same method. Here’s how to do it on Adobe Acrobat:

Step 1: Go to File > Create > Combine Files into a Single PDF.

Adobe Acrobat is one of the top-rated PDF-combining tools in the market. Source

Step 2: Click Add Files to open documents.
Step 3: Once files are selected, you can reorder or delete them. Click Combine to merge pages.

Tap “combine” and save the file on your device to finish. Source

Step 4: Save the file with the desired name and file destination.

Using Mac

Mac systems offer numerous ways to combine PDFs. You can visit the websites mentioned above to merge files online or natively combine documents using the following methods:

Finder

Step 1: Switch to Gallery view from the macOS Finder toolbar.
Step 2: Hold the Command key and select the files you want to merge. Choose the files in the order you want them to appear when combined.
Step 3: Click Create PDF on the right side of the Gallery view. A new PDF will be created and saved in the exact location as the original files.

Click “Create PDF” to combine documents. Source

Note: You can combine multiple formats like PNG, JPEG and TIFF into PDFs using the same method. If you want to reorder files, you can do so in the Preview app.

Preview

Step 1: Make duplicate files of the PDFs, as it’s hard to undo changes on Preview.
Step 2: Once you’ve made copies, select one of the files > Right click > Hover over Open With > Click Preview.
Step 3: Drag and drop the rest of the files in the sidebar. If you can’t see thumbnails (page icons), go to the View menu and click Thumbnails to enable them. You can reorder thumbnails by dragging them up or down.

Reorder files by dragging them up or down. Source

Step 4: Hover over File in the menu bar at the top and select Export.
Step 5: Type the file name and choose the file destination in the Where box. Set the format as PDF and click on Save to finish.

Set the file name, destination and format. Source

Using Google Chrome

While Google Drive doesn’t offer native PDF-combining features, you can check the Google Chrome store to download browser extensions like Merge PDF by Zonepdf to get the job done.

Step 1: When prompted, find the Merge PDF extension on the Google Chrome store > Click Add to Chrome > Tap Add extension.
Step 2: Click the Extensions icon (shaped like a jigsaw puzzle piece) in the top-left corner. Tap the Pin icon (shaped like a thumbtack) beside Merge PDF to pin it on the browser toolbar for easy access.

Pin Merge PDF extension to your Google Chrome toolbar for quick access.

Step 3: Open the Merge PDF icon in the Extensions toolbar and click and drag documents in the open tab.
Step 4: You can add or remove PDFs as needed. Press the Merge button.

Add or clear files as needed. Source

Step 5: Click the Download button to finish.

FAQs

Next Steps

PDFs are valuable and hassle-free tools for sharing information. Now that you have a good idea of how to combine PDF files, learning other PDF editing skills, such as compressing or splitting documents for an easy data flow is beneficial.
Do you know any quick and affordable ways to combine PDFs that we haven’t mentioned? Let us know in the comments below!

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