Data handling
Where your files are processed — tool by tool
We think you should be able to check, not just trust. Here is exactly how every OnDevicePDF tool handles your file, and the one place where a server is involved.
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tools run entirely in your browser. The file is never uploaded — there is no server to send it to.
1
tool is hybrid: the PDF Editor is local by default and uses a temporary backend only for a few advanced operations.
The one exception: the PDF Editor
The PDF Editor runs in your browser for everyday edits. Six advanced operations —edit text, edit a link, edit a form field, redact an area, run OCR, and find & replace — need server-side rendering, so the editor uploads your file to a temporary job. That job is encrypted in transit, processed, and then deleted; nothing is retained. Every other editor action (adding text, images, signatures, shapes, watermarks, page numbers, and page operations like rotate/reorder/delete) stays on your device.
All file bytes that ever reach a server go only to our pro-editor service, and only through the PDF Editor. No other tool has an upload path.
Two details we want to be straight about
The standalone OCR tool is on-device
Runs entirely on your device using a self-hosted OCR engine (Tesseract, compiled to WebAssembly). Note: OCR performed inside the PDF Editor is a separate, backend-assisted feature.
PDF Q&A keeps your document local
Your PDF never leaves your device — questions are answered locally in your browser. The AI model itself downloads once from a public CDN and is then cached and run on-device.
Every tool
| Tool | Category | Processing |
|---|---|---|
| Merge PDF | Organize | 100% on-device |
| Split PDF | Organize | 100% on-device |
| Reorder PDF Pages | Organize | 100% on-device |
| Compress PDF | Optimize | 100% on-device |
| Convert PDF to Image | Convert | 100% on-device |
| Convert Image to PDF | Convert | 100% on-device |
| Rename PDF Files | Optimize | 100% on-device |
| Rotate PDF Pages | Organize | 100% on-device |
| Delete PDF Pages | Organize | 100% on-device |
| Extract PDF Text | Optimize | 100% on-device |
| OCR PDF | Optimize | 100% on-device |
| PDF to Markdown | Convert | 100% on-device |
| PDF to Excel | Convert | 100% on-device |
| Excel to PDF | Convert | 100% on-device |
| Watermark PDF | Optimize | 100% on-device |
| Password Protect PDF | Secure | 100% on-device |
| Remove PDF Password | Secure | 100% on-device |
| PDF Editor | Organize | Hybrid — local by default |
| Redact PDF | Organize | 100% on-device |
| Sign PDF | Secure | 100% on-device |
| PDF Q&A | Optimize | 100% on-device |
| Text to PDF | Convert | 100% on-device |
| Markdown to PDF | Convert | 100% on-device |
One tool is hybrid; every other tool is fully on-device. This page is generated from the same tool registry the site runs on, so it can't silently fall out of date.
Found something that doesn't match?
If any tool behaves differently than described here, tell us at team@ondevicepdf.com and we'll fix the page or the tool. See also our privacy policy.