Updated for 2026
Updated 6 August 2026: ratings, prices and ad labels re-checked against every Google Play listing named below.
Every fact line and star rating below comes from the app’s own Google Play listing, checked on 6 August 2026; numbers drift over time.
Most people
4.5★ from 7.8M reviews · 500M+ downloads · free, in-app purchases $0.99 to $299.99 · Contains ads · by Adobe · checked 6 August 2026
Adobe Acrobat Reader is the best overall pick: free highlighting, comments, forms and signing, but it will not change existing text without Acrobat Premium, and the listing now carries a Contains ads label, so expect promos among the free tools.
Pros: free fill, sign and comment; polished reading view; clean cloud sync. Cons: no free text editing; Contains ads label; in-app purchases reach $299.99.
Skip it if you need to rewrite text without paying; PDFgear does that free.
Choose Acrobat over Xodo for uncapped free fill-and-sign versus Xodo’s 1-action-per-day free cap.
↑ Back to the comparisonReading & markup
4.2★ from 475K reviews · 10M+ downloads · free, in-app purchases $2.99 to $109.99 · no ads · by Apryse Software Inc. · checked 6 August 2026
Xodo is the fast, ad-free choice for reading and markup, but the free plan is now tight: Xodo’s own pricing page says "Everyone gets 1 free action per day with limited access to Xodo Web tools" (xodo.com/pricing, 6 August 2026), and paid plans start at $7.99 per month there.
Pros: quick, responsive markup; handles big image-heavy PDFs; no ads label. Cons: free plan capped per day; in-app purchases reach $109.99; text editing needs a paid plan.
Skip it if you need more than one free PDF action a day; the cap bites fast.
Choose Xodo over WPS Office for ad-free reading and steadier performance on heavy PDFs.
↑ Back to the comparisonAll-in-one office
4.4★ from 5.98M reviews · 500M+ downloads · free, in-app purchases $0.05 to $264.99 · Contains ads · by WPS SOFTWARE PTE. LTD. · checked 6 August 2026
WPS Office keeps Word files, spreadsheets and PDFs in one app, but the price of free is ads: the listing carries a Contains ads label, they can interrupt you mid-task, and true PDF text editing needs WPS Premium. Annotation, signing and Word-to-PDF conversion are free.
Pros: one app for documents, sheets and PDFs; free annotation and conversion; 500M+ downloads. Cons: intrusive ads; text editing behind Premium; in-app prices reach $264.99.
Skip it if mid-task ads drive you mad; Xodo and PDFgear carry no ads label.
Choose WPS over Foxit if you need a whole office suite more than deep PDF editing.
↑ Back to the comparisonPower users
4.0★ from 212K reviews · 10M+ downloads · free, in-app purchases $0.99 to $139.99 · no ads · by Foxit Software Inc. · checked 6 August 2026
Foxit is the pro pick: editing existing text and rearranging pages works with desktop-grade confidence, and the subscription adds OCR and an AI assistant. The blunt part: at 4.0 it is the lowest-rated app here, it is heavy, and the free tier only views and annotates.
Pros: genuine text editing; OCR for scanned pages; no ads label. Cons: lowest rating here at 4.0; editing locked to the subscription; heavier interface to learn.
Skip it if you edit a PDF twice a year; the subscription pays off only with daily use.
Choose Foxit over Microsoft 365 Copilot when you need to change what a PDF says, not just read or convert it.
↑ Back to the comparisonMicrosoft users
4.5★ from 9.14M reviews · 1B+ downloads · free, in-app purchases $0.49 to $199.99 · Contains ads · by Microsoft Corporation · checked 6 August 2026
Microsoft 365 Copilot, the renamed Office app, is a PDF companion rather than an editor: it signs, annotates and turns photos or Word files into PDFs, real editing needs a Microsoft 365 plan, and its listing now carries a Contains ads label. Microsoft is moving Word, Excel and PowerPoint editing to the standalone apps.
Pros: free sign and annotate; ties into OneDrive and Outlook; 1B+ downloads. Cons: no PDF text editing at any tier; in-app Office editing winding down; Contains ads label.
Skip it if you want one dedicated PDF tool; this is an ecosystem app first.
Choose Copilot over PDFelement only if you live in Microsoft’s ecosystem and mainly convert and sign.
↑ Back to the comparisonBalanced editing
4.2★ from 36.4K reviews · 5M+ downloads · free, in-app purchases $0.99 to $129.99 · no ads · by Wondershare · checked 6 August 2026
PDFelement balances power and approachability: text and image editing without menu-hunting, plus respectable OCR on scans. The catch: free saves carry a watermark until you pay, so treat the free tier as a trial, not a workhorse.
Pros: easy text and image editing; OCR included; no ads label. Cons: watermark on free saves; subscription for the heavier tools; smallest review base among the true editors at 36.4K.
Skip it if you will not pay; the watermark makes free output unusable for anything official.
Choose PDFelement over Smallpdf for on-device editing instead of cloud processing.
↑ Back to the comparisonOccasional use
4.5★ from 124K reviews · 5M+ downloads · free, in-app purchases $7.99 to $119.99 · no ads · by Smallpdf AG · checked 6 August 2026
Smallpdf is task-first: pick compress, convert, merge or sign and it walks you through, which keeps quick jobs genuinely quick. The trade-off: it leans on cloud processing, free use is capped per day, and in-app purchases start at $7.99.
Pros: guided flows for common chores; clean, ad-free experience; solid 4.5 rating. Cons: cloud processing needs a connection; free tasks capped daily; files upload to Smallpdf’s servers.
Skip it if your PDFs are sensitive; keep contracts and IDs in an on-device editor.
Choose Smallpdf over iLovePDF for friendlier guided flows; choose iLovePDF for bigger batches.
↑ Back to the comparisonConvert & merge
4.6★ from 330K reviews · 10M+ downloads · free, in-app purchases $5.99 to $46.99 · no ads · by iLovePDF · checked 6 August 2026
iLovePDF packs merge, split, compress, convert, OCR and signatures into one tidy toolbox, and at 4.6 it is tied for the highest rating on this list. The limits: free covers light use only, batch jobs hit caps fast, and some tools process files on iLovePDF’s servers.
Pros: broad toolset in one app; tied-highest 4.6 rating; cheapest paid range here. Cons: free limits bite on batches; cloud processing for some tools; light text editing only.
Skip it if you need true text editing; this is a converter and organizer first.
Choose iLovePDF over PDFgear for batch file chores; choose PDFgear to edit the words themselves.
↑ Back to the comparisonFree text editing
4.6★ from 41.1K reviews · 1M+ downloads · free, no in-app purchases listed, no ads · by PDF GEAR TECH PTE. LTD. · checked 6 August 2026
PDFgear is the free pick: it genuinely edits existing PDF text with no watermark, no account, and a listing showing no ads and no in-app purchases at all. The con: complex layouts can shift when you edit, and 1M+ downloads is the smallest base here. The developer pitches it as "A free PDF editor app for Android to read, summarize, edit, fill out, sign on, and organize PDFs" (pdfgear.com, 6 August 2026), and for once the pitch matches the app.
Pros: free text editing, no watermark; no ads or in-app purchases; tied-highest 4.6 rating. Cons: layouts can shift on complex pages; smallest install base here; leans on its AI features for some tasks.
Skip it if pixel-perfect layout on dense contracts matters more than price.
Choose PDFgear over MobiPDF to edit text free; choose MobiPDF for OCR and a rounder everyday toolset.
↑ Back to the comparisonEveryday tools
4.4★ from 176K reviews · 10M+ downloads · free, in-app purchases $4.99 to $149.99 · Contains ads · by MobiSystems · checked 6 August 2026
MobiPDF, formerly PDF Extra, rounds out the list with comfortable everyday tools: signing, commenting, text edits and OCR all run smoothly. The blunt part: its listing carries a Contains ads label, and real editing sits behind a subscription the app pushes noticeably.
Pros: clean reading experience; text editing and OCR on the paid tier; solid 4.4 rating. Cons: Contains ads label; editing behind the subscription; persistent upsell prompts.
Skip it if ads and upsells annoy you; PDFgear covers the free basics without either.
Choose MobiPDF over Acrobat if you want OCR and text editing from one mid-priced subscription.
↑ Back to the comparisonMost so-called PDF editors on Android are annotators: they draw on top of the page without touching the text underneath. The apps here that truly edit words are Foxit, PDFelement, MobiPDF and the free PDFgear; everything else is markup, signing and conversion. If your PDF is really a photo, you need OCR first: PDFelement, iLovePDF, Foxit and MobiPDF offer it.
Privacy: cloud tools like Smallpdf and iLovePDF process files on their servers; both say uploads are deleted after processing. For contracts, IDs or medical letters, prefer on-device editors like Foxit, PDFelement or PDFgear, and run a throwaway file through the share flow before trusting an app with anything sensitive.
Start with Adobe Acrobat Reader for dependable free signing and markup. To change actual text without paying, PDFgear is the pick; for daily professional work, Foxit or PDFelement justify the subscription. More options live in our Productivity apps hub, the free Android PDF editors roundup, the best scanner apps and the best office suite apps.
Yes, but it depends on the app. Tools like Foxit, PDFelement, MobiPDF, and the free PDFgear let you tap into existing text and change words directly. Many free apps only allow annotations and comments on top of the page rather than true text editing, so check that the app lists content or text editing before you rely on it for that.
It depends on what you need. Adobe Acrobat Reader is excellent for free if you mainly comment, fill forms, and sign. If you need to change existing text at no cost, PDFgear is the standout, since it edits text without a watermark. Note that Xodo, long a free favourite, now adds a watermark to shared or exported files unless you pay. For a full guide to no-cost options, see our roundup of free Android PDF editors .
Many do, but not all. Foxit, Adobe, and PDFelement handle most editing on the device itself, so you can work without a connection. Cloud-based tools like Smallpdf and iLovePDF process some tasks online and need internet for those features. If offline access matters, pick an app that does its editing locally. Need to scan documents to PDF first? Our best scanner apps for Android pair well with these editors, and the best office suite apps for Android help if you also handle Word files and spreadsheets.
Open the file in an editor that supports signatures, such as Adobe Acrobat Reader or MobiPDF, tap the signature tool, then draw with your finger or stylus or type your name. You can save the signature for reuse and drag it onto the right spot. Export the signed copy and check it before you share, since some free tiers add a watermark on export. We walk through it with screenshots, including the free way in Adobe and Xodo, in our guide to signing a PDF on Android.
PDFgear. It edits existing text, exports without a watermark and needs no account. Xodo and Smallpdf are free only within daily limits, and PDFelement watermarks free saves. Every no-cost option is compared in our list of free Android PDF editors.
The free app covers viewing, commenting and fill and sign; changing the text itself is an Acrobat Premium feature (about $10/month). If you only need occasional text fixes, PDFgear does it free.
Cloud-based tools like Smallpdf and iLovePDF process files on their servers (both say files are deleted after processing). For contracts, IDs or anything sensitive, prefer apps that edit on the device itself, like PDFgear or Xodo's offline mode.
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