How to combine 2 PDF files into one

Unlike traditional DOC files — such as those you create with Microsoft Word or Google Docs — a PDF looks the same on any system. This is because DOC files pull information from the system on which it’s opened, such as installed fonts and other operating system-specific details. PDFs, however, are more akin to images, so they always look the same.

This versatility makes PDFs perfect for sharing documents on the internet! However, they also are more difficult to edit and can be tricky to work with, so there are trade-offs.

Why would you need to combine PDFs?

If you have a DOC file and you want to add parts of another DOC file to it, the process is simple: just cut-and-paste everything from one to the other.

With a PDF, it’s not so simple. Unless you have PDF editing software, you can’t add a new page. It’s also tricky to copy text from one PDF to another, especially if one PDF is a scan of physical paper.

Thankfully, we can combine a PDF for you for free without any additional software!

How to combine PDF files for free?

Our tool above can combine two or even up to 20 PDFs for you. This is an easy way to bring multiple PDFs together into one.

To start, hit the “UPLOAD FILES” button and upload up to 20 PDFs. Conversely, you can drag and drop your PDFs to the area that says “Drop Your Files Here”.

Once you’ve uploaded all your files, make sure they are in the correct order. Our tool will take put the first PDF at the top of the new PDF, the second one underneath that one, and on in that order. You can drag and drop your files in the queue to make sure they are right.

When everything looks good, hit the “COMBINE” button. Our system will combine all the PDFs into one PDF and start the download for you.

Do you want to combine more than 20 PDFs? You can do that too! Combine your first 20 PDFs using the steps we just discussed. Then, upload that combined PDF you just made along with the rest of the PDFs you want to add. Hit “COMBINE” again to get a new, even longer PDF. You can do this as many times as you need!

One thing to remember, though, is that you must download your combined PDFs within one hour. If you do not, you’ll need to re-upload your files and try again.

Is it safe to combine PDF files?

If you are worried about losing your PDF files, you don’t need to worry. When you upload a file to our system, we make a copy of your original. That copy is what we combine. Your original file stays safe on your computer!

Are you worried about us saving your sensitive information? You don’t need to be concerned about this, either, because our system erases everything — uploads and conversions — after one hour. Nothing you upload will last longer than 60 minutes before being permanently deleted. This ensures your data is safe and secure.

This article was co-authored by Luigi Oppido and by wikiHow staff writer, Travis Boylls. Luigi Oppido is the Owner and Operator of Pleasure Point Computers in Santa Cruz, California. Luigi has over 25 years of experience in general computer repair, data recovery, virus removal, and upgrades. He is also the host of the Computer Man Show! broadcasted on KSQD covering central California for over two years.

The wikiHow Tech Team also followed the article's instructions and verified that they work.

This article has been viewed 7,174,451 times.

Combining the contents of two or more PDF files is easy, even if you don't have Adobe Acrobat. Many free apps are capable of merging PDF files together, including a Windows app called PDF Merger & Splitter, Mac Preview, and an online PDF merger called PDF Joiner. This tutorial will teach you quick and easy ways to merge several PDF files into a single document.

Steps

1. Go to http://pdfjoiner.com/ in a web browser. PDF Joiner is a free online tool that allows you to merge multiple PDFs into a single file.

2. Click UPLOAD FILES. It's a teal button in the middle of the page. Doing so will open a File Explorer window in Windows or a Finder window on Mac. Then click any sub folders the PDF may be saved to.

3. 

   Go to your PDFs' location. Click the folder in which your PDFs are stored on the left side of the window.

4. Select PDF files. To select multiple files press and hold Ctrl on Windows or Command on Mac. Then click the PDF files that you want to combine.

   • You can combine up to 20 PDF files at once with PDF Joiner.

5. Click Open. It's in the bottom-right corner of the window. Doing so will prompt your PDF files to begin uploading to PDF Joiner. You will see thumbnail images of all the PDFs you have uploaded in the center of the page.

   • Click the teal button that says Upload Files to upload additional PDFs.

6. Wait for the files to finish uploading. This can take a few minutes depending on how many files you're uploading.

7. Click and drag the PDFs to change the order. If the order you upload the PDFs is not the same order you want them to be merged, you can click and drag the PDF thumbnail images to the left and right to rearrange the order of the PDFs.

8. Click JOIN FILES. Once the files are done uploading, this option will become available below the list of uploaded files. Clicking JOIN FILES prompts your combined PDF to download onto your computer as a single PDF.

   • By default, you can find your downloaded files in your Downloads folder.

1. Download PDF Merger & Splitter. PDF Merger & Splitter is a free app that allows you to merge PDFs and extract pages from a PDF. You can download PDF Merger & Splitter for free from the Microsoft Store. Use the following steps to download PDF Merger & Splitter:

   • Click the Windows Start menu.
   • Click the Microsoft Store icon, which resembles a white shopping bag.
   • Click Search in the upper-right corner.
   • Type "PDF Merger & Splitter" in the search bar.
   • Click PDF Merger & Splitter.
   • Click GET.

2. Open PDF Merger & Splitter. PDF Merger & Splitter has an icon that resembles a page. You can find it in the Windows Start menu, or you can click Launch in the Microsoft Store once it finishes downloading.

3. Click Merge PDF. It's the first purple button in the center of the page.

4. Click Add PDFs. It's the first option in the upper-left corner. This option opens File Explorer and allows you to browse for PDFs.

5. Navigate to the location of the PDFs you want to merge. Use File Explorer to navigate to the location of the PDFs you want to merge. Double-click the folder the PDFs are located in to navigate to that folder.

6. Select the PDFs and click Open. You can select more than one file at a time by holding the Ctrl button and click the files you want to open. Then click Open in the lower-right corner.

   • Click Add PDFs again to upload additional PDF files.
   • To change the order of the PDFs, click the PDF file you want to move in the list, and click Move Up or Move Down above the list.
   • To remove a PDF, click the PDF you want to remove and click Remove above the list.

7. Click Merge PDFs. It's in the lower-right corner. This displays a Save prompt that you can use to save the merged PDFs.

8. Type a name for the merged PDF. Use the field next to "Filename" to type a name for the merged PDF.

9. Click Save. This saves your PDFs as a singled, merged PDF.

1. Open Finder . It's the blue and white icon with a smiley face. You can find it in your Mac's Dock at the bottom of the screen. You can use the Finder to browse files and folders on your Mac.

2. Go to your PDF files' location. Click the folder in which your PDF files are saved on the left side of the Finder window.

3. Open the first PDF you want to merge in Preview. Unlike Windows, Mac comes with an application that can be used to merge and split PDFs. You can use the Preview app for this purpose. Use the following steps to open a PDF in Preview.

   • Right-click a PDF file (click with two fingers if you are using a trackpad or magic mouse).
   • Hover over Open with...
   • Click Preview.

4. Click View. It's in the menu bar at the top of your Mac's screen. A drop-down menu will appear.

5. Click Thumbnails. This option is in the View drop-down menu. You should see a window pop out of the left side of the Preview window that contains a thumbnail image of each page of the PDF.

6. Click and drag another PDF into the list of thumbnails. To add another PDF to the PDF you have open in Preview, click the PDF you want to add in the Finder window and drag it to the thumbnail list to the left in Preview. Drop the PDF where you want it to go in the thumbnails.

   • To select multiple files, hold the Command key, and click the files you want to select. Then drag all of them to the list of thumbnail images in Preview.
   • You can also rearrange the pages by clicking the thumbnail images to the left and dragging them up or down.

7. Click File. It's a menu item in the top-left corner of your Mac's screen.

8. Click Export as PDF. It's in the "File" drop-down menu near the bottom.

9. Type a name for the merged PDF. Use the field next to "Save as" to type a file name for the merged PDF.

10. Click Save. It's in the bottom-right corner of the window. Doing so will combine your selected PDFs into one document and save them into the same folder in which the rest of the PDFs are.

1. Open Adobe Acrobat DC. Adobe Acrobat DC Pro has a red and black icon with a white looping swoosh in the middle. Adobe Acrobat DC is Adobe's proprietary (paid) PDF creation tool. Adobe Acrobat requires a subscription of $14.99 per month. Click the Adobe Acrobat DC in the Windows Start folder, or Applications folder on Mac to open Adobe Acrobat reader.

   • The free Adobe Acrobat Reader DC does not have the ability to merge PDFs.

2. Click Tools. It's the second tab at the top. This displays the PDF creation tools.

3. Click Combine Files. It's the second option on the Tools page. It has a purple icon that resembles two pages.

4. Click Add Files. It's the blue button in the center of the pages. This opens File Explorer on Windows, or the Finder on Mac.

5. Navigate to the location the PDFs are stored. Use the File Explorer or Finder window to navigate to the folder the PDFs you want to merge are saved to.

6. Select the PDFs you want to merge. To select multiple files, press and hold Ctrl on Windows or Command on Mac. Then click the files you want to add.

7. Click Open. It's in the lower-right corner. This displays all the PDFs as thumbnail images in Adobe Acrobat DC.

   • To add additional PDFs, click Add Files at the top of the screen.
   • Click and drag the thumbnail images in Adobe Acrobat DC to change the order of the files.
   • To remove a PDF, click a thumbnail to select it and click Remove at the top of the page.

8. Click Combine. It's the blue button at the top of the page. This combines all the PDFs in the thumbnail list into one PDF.

9. Click File. It's in the menu bar at the top of Adobe Acrobat DC.

10. Click Save as. It's in the drop-down menu below "File" in Adobe Acrobat DC.

11. Click a recent save location or click Choose a different folder. You can select one of the recent save locations listed, or click the blue button that says Choose a different folder to select a different save location.

12. Type a name for the merged PDF. Use the field next to "Filename" to type a name for the PDF.

13. Click Save. It's in the lower-right corner of the Save window. This saves the merged PDF using the file name you choose.

Add New Question

• How can I combine PDF files together? Do I use a specific software?

  
  Luigi Oppido is the Owner and Operator of Pleasure Point Computers in Santa Cruz, California. Luigi has over 25 years of experience in general computer repair, data recovery, virus removal, and upgrades. He is also the host of the Computer Man Show! broadcasted on KSQD covering central California for over two years.
  

  There are many free sites that you can use online to merge PDFs. CutePDF is a good one.

• What do I do if my preview doesn't have a "save as" option, only a "save" option?

  

  Use the edit menu discussed above. Edit, Insert works.

• When I highlight several separate single-page PDFs in order to drag them to combine into a single PDF, the order changes. How can I combine several single-page PDFs and maintain the order when I merge them?

  

  If you're using Adobe Acrobat, you can reorder the files within the "Combine Files" window by highlighting and dragging them to the order you want.

Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered.

wikiHow Video: How to Merge PDF Files

• You can't merge PDF files in free PDF viewers (e.g., Adobe Reader).

  As a small thank you, we’d like to offer you a $30 gift card (valid at GoNift.com). Use it to try out great new products and services nationwide without paying full price—wine, food delivery, clothing and more. Enjoy!

Article SummaryX

1. Go to https://pdfjoiner.com.
2. Click UPLOAD FILES.
3. Go to the folder with the PDFs.
4. Select the PDFs.
5. Click Open.
6. Click JOIN FILES.

Did this summary help you?YesNo

Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 7,174,451 times.

• 

  "Listing trustworthy PDF merge websites. FoxUtils also provide a link to a downloadable app from Essex software, but the monthly rental for that was excessive. I was happy to donate $5 as a thank you for a quick and easy solution that I might need in future."..." more

  Can 2 PDF be combined?

  Combine PDFs into one file It's quick and easy to merge PDF files into a single document with the Adobe Acrobat online tool. Just add your files, merge them, and you're done.

  How do I merge PDF files without Adobe?

  Combining the contents of two or more PDF files is easy, even if you don't have Adobe Acrobat. Many free apps are capable of merging PDF files together, including a Windows app called PDF Merger & Splitter, Mac Preview, and an online PDF merger called PDF Joiner.