Short version: open the free tool, drop your file, download the result. Nothing is uploaded.
Steps
- Open the free WBS PDF Merge tool.
- Drop two or more PDFs onto the page (up to 20 at once, free).
- Reorder them with the arrows, or press Sort A–Z.
- Type a file name if you like, then press Merge PDFs. The combined PDF goes to your downloads.
Why merge locally?
Popular PDF sites process your files on their servers, and some limit free use (for example two tasks a day, or a few files per job). Merging in the browser avoids both: there's no upload and no daily cap. The tool uses pdf-lib, an open-source PDF library, to copy pages exactly as they are, so text and images aren't re-compressed.
Things to know
- Password-protected PDFs need the password removed first (open the file and print it to PDF).
- Form fields and bookmarks from the original files may not carry over. The visible page content always does.
- Very large files (hundreds of MB) depend on your device's memory. A laptop handles large scans fine.
Built-in alternatives
On a Mac, Preview can merge PDFs: open the first file, show thumbnails, and drag the other files in. On Windows there's no built-in merge, which is why a browser tool is handy. To pull pages out instead, use PDF Split.
More free guides
- Compress an image to 100 KB
- Photo and signature under 20 KB or 50 KB for forms
- Compress an image for Discord
- Reduce photo size for email
- Convert WebP to JPG
- Convert WebP to PNG with transparency
- Remove GPS location from photos
- Split a PDF or extract pages
- Save each PDF page as a separate file
All tools: WBS Tools · All apps: Wood Between Studio apps