Frequently Asked Questions
This page covers the broader questions about CrunchyPDF as a service — privacy, cost, browser support, and how it's built. For questions specific to using an individual tool (like the compression quality slider or Split's page-range syntax), see the tool FAQ on the home page or the relevant guide.
About the service
Is CrunchyPDF really free, with no hidden limits?
Yes. All five tools — Compress, Merge, Split, Image → PDF, and PDF → Image — are free for unlimited personal and ordinary business use. There's no account, no daily cap, and no premium tier hiding features behind a paywall. CrunchyPDF is supported by advertising rather than subscriptions; see how we're funded below.
Do I need to create an account?
No. There is no sign-up, login, or account of any kind. Open the page, use a tool, and download your result.
Does CrunchyPDF work without an internet connection?
Once the page has fully loaded, all five tools run locally in your browser and continue to work without an active internet connection, since no file data is ever sent to a server. This makes CrunchyPDF genuinely useful on a plane, in a basement server room, or anywhere connectivity is unreliable.
Is there a file size limit?
CrunchyPDF does not enforce an artificial file size cap the way many upload-based tools do to control their bandwidth costs. The practical limit is your own device's available memory and processing power. A very large, high-resolution scan set may take longer or strain an older device — but there's no arbitrary "10 MB max" wall.
How does CrunchyPDF make money if it's free?
Through unobtrusive advertising, served via Google AdSense. Ads relate to your general browsing activity — never to the contents of the files you process, which CrunchyPDF cannot see in the first place. Full details are in our Privacy Policy.
Which browsers and devices are supported?
Any modern desktop or mobile browser with JavaScript enabled — current versions of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge all work. Very large files may process more slowly on lower-powered or older mobile devices, since your device is doing the actual work instead of a remote server.
Privacy & how it works
Can CrunchyPDF see or access the files I process?
No. All processing — parsing, rendering, compression, re-packaging — happens in your browser using your device's own processor. Files are never transmitted to CrunchyPDF or any third party, so there is structurally nothing for us to see, store, retain, or accidentally leak. See how PDF compression actually works for the technical detail.
How can I verify that, rather than just trust it?
Open your browser's developer tools (press F12), switch to the Network tab, clear it, and run any tool on a file. You'll see no request carrying your file's data anywhere. This is covered in more depth in client-side vs server-side PDF tools.
Does CrunchyPDF use cookies or tracking?
Local storage is used only to remember that you've accepted the Terms of Service and your chosen interface language — this data stays on your device. Our advertising partner may set its own cookies, controlled by its own policies. Full detail in the Privacy Policy.
Formats & compatibility
Does CrunchyPDF support password-protected PDFs?
No. All tools require an unencrypted PDF as input. Remove password protection in your PDF reader first, then use CrunchyPDF's tools. See password-protecting a PDF for background on how encryption works and where to add it.
Can CrunchyPDF convert a PDF to an editable Word document?
No, this isn't one of the five tools. CrunchyPDF works with PDFs and images directly (compress, merge, split, and convert to/from images). For the difference between PDF and Word, and why PDF-to-Word conversion is a harder problem than it looks, see PDF vs Word: when to convert.
Does CrunchyPDF perform OCR (text recognition on scanned documents)?
No. CrunchyPDF's tools process a PDF's existing content — they don't recognize or extract text from scanned images. If a document has no underlying text layer, none of our tools can add one.
What image formats does Image → PDF accept?
JPEG, PNG, WebP, GIF, and BMP. WebP and BMP are automatically converted to JPEG internally before embedding; PNG is embedded as-is (with transparency filled white, since PDF pages don't support transparency).
Still have a question?
If your question isn't answered here, check the full guide library or reach out directly — we read every message.