10 Best PDF Editors for iPad of 2026

PDF Expert is built by Readdle for Apple devices only, and the iPad app splits its tools into a free tier and Premium. Without paying you can read in Day, Night and Sepia modes, highlight and strike through text, draw with a pen tool, add shapes, stamps and audio notes, fill AcroForms and static XFA forms, and sign with a saved signature. Premium turns it into a full editor: change text as you would in a Word document, add or resize images, add links and outlines, merge, split and compress files, convert PDFs to Word, Excel and PowerPoint, and permanently redact content. PDF Copilot, the AI assistant, lists main points and answers questions with references. A Measure tab with polygon and redline tools is aimed at people reviewing drawings. One Premium subscription covers the iPhone, iPad and Mac versions. The main catch is that editing text needs Premium, and we could not confirm a USD price because the pricing page showed another currency from our location.

UPDF is a cross-platform editor whose iPad app covers most of what desktop editors do. It edits existing PDF text, including color, font style and size, and lets you rotate, crop, replace and extract images, edit watermarks and manage links. Markup tools include a freehand pencil, highlight, underline, strikethrough, squiggly line, callouts, sticky notes, shapes and stamps. OCR turns scans into searchable, editable PDFs in 38 languages, and conversion goes to Word, Excel, PPT and images. You can fill forms, add handwritten or image signatures and save signatures to the cloud for use on other platforms. The paid plan applies across desktops and mobile devices and comes with 10 GB of cloud storage. Limits worth knowing: the trial scans only 5 pages, batch processing is a desktop feature, and the UPDF AI tools are billed separately from the editor. In the US App Store the Annual Subscription is $54.99.

PDFelement on iPad is a full editor at a lower annual price than most rivals. Wondershare says it edits PDF text, images, links and watermarks while keeping the original font, and lets you adjust font size and spacing. Markup covers highlight, underline, drawing and sticky notes, and a Measure tool reads distance, perimeter and area, which helps when reviewing plans. The scanner builds multi-page PDFs and OCR pulls editable text from scans. Conversion goes to Word, Excel, PowerPoint and images, and Office files and photos can be turned into PDFs. Fill and Sign handles interactive forms, typed or handwritten signatures and reusable custom stamps. AI tools chat with a PDF, summarize it, translate into 60+ languages and generate mind maps. The App Store lists an Annual Subscription (iOS) at $29.99, though it also lists weekly plans, so check which one you select at checkout.

Acrobat Reader is the free baseline most people already have. On an iPad it opens and reads any PDF, reflows text with Liquid Mode, lets you highlight and add comments and sticky notes, and fills and signs forms with Fill & Sign. Adobe says you do not need a subscription for any of that, or even an account to read. Acrobat Premium, which starts with a 7-day free trial, adds text and image editing, PDF creation from photos and Office files, conversion to Word, Excel and PowerPoint, merging, page reordering, compression, OCR and password protection. AI Assistant can summarize PDFs and answer questions with citations, including across several files in a PDF Space, though Adobe sells it as an add-on. The App Store lists Acrobat Premium from $12.99 a month, along with other monthly, yearly and weekly options. It is a safe choice when coworkers already use Acrobat, but the strongest editing tools sit behind a monthly fee.

Goodnotes is a note-taking app first, but many iPad users open PDFs in it to write on lecture slides, textbooks and planners. Handwriting stays searchable, so you can find a word across every notebook, and you can lasso handwriting to resize it, change its color or move it. When you import a long PDF, its table of contents comes in automatically, or you can build your own outline. Audio recordings sync to the moment you write, and finished notes export as PDFs. Pricing is low: the free plan allows up to 3 files with a 5MB import limit, Essential costs $11.99 a year with unlimited files, and Pro costs $35.99 a year with real-time collaboration and Drive integration. The App Store also lists a Goodnotes 6 one-time payment. What it does not offer is changing the original text of a PDF, merging or redacting, so it pairs best with a dedicated editor for that work.

Foxit PDF Editor is the most business-minded app here. The free version views, annotates and stamps PDFs, fills and saves forms, and adds handwritten signatures. A subscription, tied to a Foxit account, adds text and image editing, PDF creation from Office and image files, conversion back to Office, combining files, XFA form support, signing with an existing digital certificate, redaction and Microsoft Information Protection. Form handling goes further than most: you can import and export form data and submit forms via HTTP, FTP or email. On iPad the app uses a tabbed interface, which helps when several documents are open. Foxit also converts scanned text and handwritten notes into digital text. In the US App Store the PDF Editor plan costs $39.99 a year or $6.99 a month, and the Foxit AI Assistant is a separate $49.99 yearly purchase. Choose it if your company already uses Foxit or needs certificate signatures.

Notability treats a PDF as a page you write on. You can import PDFs, DOCs, slides and reports, mark them up with ink, highlighters and text, and fill out forms on site. Its signature feature is audio: recordings sync to the moment you write, and live transcripts and summaries capture what was said. Two notes can sit side by side, and presentation mode adds a laser pointer. Search covers handwriting, transcripts, typed text and PDFs. The free Starter plan keeps all editing tools but caps you at 5 notes. Lite costs $11.99 a year on notability.com for unlimited notes and third-party backups, Plus adds AI help and Pro adds advanced AI study tools. Ginger Labs also brought back Notability Classic as a one-time purchase. Like Goodnotes, it is not a PDF editor in the strict sense: there is no listed text editing, redaction or OCR for PDF files.

PDFgear is the simplest way to get free markup and signing on an iPad without hitting a paywall. The vendor states that the iOS app gives free use of all functions with no trial watermark or page count limits. You can highlight, underline and strike through text, type text in any color and size, draw rectangles, circles, lines and arrows, and write on pages with an ink tool. For forms, you place text where needed, add checkmarks and crossmarks, and stamp with built-in or custom stamps. Signatures can come from an image, the keyboard or a drawing. Page tools add, delete, rotate and extract pages, and files open and save in the device and iCloud. The trade-off is depth: the App Store listing does not mention editing existing text, OCR, conversion or redaction, which the paid editors here offer. For marking up and signing, though, it costs nothing.

LiquidText is less a PDF editor than a research desk. You import PDFs, Word files, slides and webpages into a project, then drag excerpts into a workspace beside the document, add typed or handwritten notes and group them. Tapping an excerpt jumps back to its source. Pinching a document collapses the pages between two passages so you can compare them, and you can comment on several selections at once. Paid features add freehand drawing, ink links that connect ideas across documents, full-document OCR, viewing up to 3 documents at once, Zotero and Mendeley imports, real-time collaboration and cloud sync. Projects export as a PDF or as a Word file that turns your excerpts into a linear outline. The cost is higher than most: the App Store lists LiquidText Live at $10.90 a month or $99.99 a year, with cheaper student options. It cannot edit existing PDF text, so it suits reading and analysis rather than fixing documents.

Xodo, from document SDK maker Apryse, packs 30+ tools into its iPad app and is the only app here whose App Store listing names Apple Pencil support. The free app reads PDFs in light, dark and sepia modes, uses tabs for several documents, marks up with images, links, stamps and highlights, scans to PDF, rotates, crops, splits and compresses files, and fills and signs forms with a drawn or typed signature. The Xodo Mobile subscription adds PDF to Office conversion, redaction, stronger compression, merging, creating fillable forms, OCR on scanned images and annotation in reader mode. Files sync with iCloud, OneDrive, Google Drive and Dropbox. The price is the weak point: the App Store lists Xodo Mobile at $11.99 a month or $107.99 a year, which is more than PDFelement or UPDF charge for comparable editing. It makes the most sense if you already pay for Xodo on the web or desktop.