Why merge PDFs locally instead of uploading each file?

A merge usually pulls together files from different places — your own report, a signed page someone emailed you, a scanned ID. Uploading all of them to a server just to combine them means handing over every one of those files, not just the final result. NearPDF reads and combines them locally, so none of the individual pages are transmitted anywhere — only the finished file exists, and only on your device.

How it works

1. Add two or more PDF files — drag them in, paste with Ctrl+V, or use the file picker. You can keep adding more later with the "Add files" button.
2. The pages of all your files appear together in one grid, in the order the files were added.
3. Drag any page anywhere — you can interleave pages from different files, not just append file after file — and rotate or remove pages in the same pass.
4. Press Merge. The combined PDF is assembled on your device and downloads as a single file.

Encrypted files, size limits, and page-level merging

Two things trip people up when merging. First, password-protected PDFs: NearPDF can't open encrypted files, so it skips them with a notice instead of silently breaking the merge — remove the password in your PDF reader first if those pages need to be included. Second, device limits: because the merge runs in your browser's memory, size is capped at 500 MB on desktop and 50 MB per file (100 MB total) on mobile. What surprises people in a good way is that the merge is page-level, not file-level: every page is an independent tile in the grid, so you can slot page 3 of one document between pages 1 and 2 of another — handy when a signed page someone scanned separately has to go back into the middle of a contract.

Can I control the order the pages are merged in?

Yes — all the pages from your files appear together in one grid after you add them, and you can drag them into any order (or rotate or remove individual pages) before merging.

What happens if one of my PDFs is password-protected?

It's skipped automatically — NearPDF can't open encrypted PDFs, so remove the password first if you need that file included in the merge.

How many PDFs can I merge at once?

There's no fixed limit on the number of files — the practical cap is combined size: up to 500 MB on desktop, or 100 MB total (50 MB per file) on phones and low-memory devices.

Does it work offline?

Once the page is loaded, all processing happens locally in your browser.