Updated August 2026
Updated August 2026 · every rating, price, in-app purchase range and advertising label re-read from Google Play, and each entry rebuilt around what its free tier actually takes away
Xodo is our best overall Android PDF reader because Play on 25 August 2026 showed no advertising label and a free install with in-app purchases from $2.99.
MuPDF mini is our best free pick for plain reading because Play showed no advertising label, no in-app purchases and no data collected on 25 August 2026.
Librera is our pick for heavy readers because Play showed no in-app purchases on 25 August 2026, with ads and data sharing as the price.
Data checked: 25 August 2026.
The fourth column is the one to read. Every reader here opens a PDF; what separates them is what the free tier takes away, and each cell comes from the vendor’s own documentation or from the app’s own screens rather than from our impression of it. Ratings and advertising labels were read from each listing on 18 August 2026. One row is here to be ruled out rather than compared: Microsoft 365 Copilot is no longer a PDF reader, and its entry below explains what happened to the old Office app.
| App | Best for | Ads label | What the free tier really limits | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Xodo · free markup | Most people | No | A watermark on files, and Office export | 4.2★ |
| Acrobat · Liquid Mode | Safe default | Yes | Editing text and Office export are paid | 4.5★ |
| Librera · twenty formats | Heavy readers | Yes | Nothing, but it shows ads and shares data | 4.1★ |
| Drive preview · zero install | Marking up with nothing installed | No | Offline needs the file saved in advance | 4.3★ |
| Foxit · sign without an account | Signing without an account | No | Editing and conversion need a subscription | 4.0★ |
| Microsoft 365 Copilot · not a reader | No longer a PDF reader | Yes | Everything: upload and ask is all it does with a PDF | 4.5★ |
| WPS Office · suite plus reader | One app for everything | Yes | Getting content out of a PDF needs Pro+ | 4.4★ |
| KDAN PDF · stylus notes | Handwriting with a stylus | Yes | Night mode, read aloud and slideshow are paid | 3.7★ |
| MuPDF mini · asks for nothing | Reading with nothing attached | No | Nothing, because it does less by design | 4★ |
| My Files · already on a Galaxy | Galaxy owners | No | It hands the PDF to another app | 4.1★ |
| Smallpdf · one task a day | One-off file surgery | No | One tool task per day, on their servers | 4.5★ |
| MobiOffice · sign and convert | Signing inside a suite | Yes | Conversion is Premium and needs a connection | 4.4★ |
Most people
4.2 stars, 474,830 reviews · 10,000,000+ installs · free to install · in-app purchases $2.99 to $109.99 per item · by Apryse Software Inc. · Contains ads: No · checked 18 August 2026 · Installed and examined
Google Play listing · 4.2 (474,830) · read 18 August 2026
Xodo, listed on Play as PDF Reader and Editor: Xodo by Apryse, is the best overall pick because the things a reader does all day are the things it does not charge for. Annotation, form filling and signing are free, and its listing carried no advertising label when we read it on 18 August 2026. The limits land on getting a file back out again.
Corrected on this update. Two claims corrected here, both about where the free tier stops. This page said the free tier stamps exported files. Xodo publishes no Android document that says so, and an audit of its help centre and website proposed withdrawing the claim outright as a confusion with Xodo PDF Studio on the desktop. The app itself settles it, and the screenshot below is the source: Xodo’s own Free versus Pro screen ticks View and Edit in the free column and lists No Watermark on Files in the Pro column. So the caveat is real and stays, but it is stated the way the app states it, about files rather than exports specifically.
The second correction is that saving is not capped. This page said saving and exporting are both rationed each day; the Xodo Actions article scopes the daily limit to converting from PDF, converting to PDF, editing, managing pages and converting from Office. Saving a file you have marked up is not one of them. Two further limits belong on the record and were missing: the same in-app screen puts PDF to Office in the Pro column, and the Xodo mobile subscription article licenses free view and annotate for personal use only, so business use needs the subscription whatever you are doing with it.
Installed on our own Android emulator on 18 August 2026, it opens on a subscription screen before the reader, with a dialog on top saying the app collects data for essential functionality as well as marketing, personalization and analytics, and offering Accept or Deny. We chose neither and did not subscribe. The screen behind it compares Free against Pro across nine rows and ticks only one of them for Free, View and Edit. No Watermark on Files sits in the Pro column, which is the watermark limit this page describes, shown by the app itself. Prices rendered in euro on our emulator on 18 August 2026: 114.99 struck through to 40.25 for the first year, or 12.99 a month, with a three day trial and a note that the offer ends 31 August 2026. There is a Skip for Now link, so the screen can be passed. The screenshots below are ours.
For: annotating, form filling and signing are free, and saving a marked-up file is not rate limited; no advertising label on its listing, unusual in this company; handles large files smoothly, with tabs and a night mode. Against: the app’s own Free versus Pro screen puts No Watermark on Files in the Pro column; converting and exporting to Word, PowerPoint, Excel or HTML is premium; free use is licensed for personal use only.
Skip it if you convert or export PDFs regularly, because that is where every one of its limits lands. Choose Xodo over Adobe Acrobat when you mark up more than you read.
↑ Back to the comparisonSafe default
4.5 stars, 7,855,374 reviews · 500,000,000+ installs · free to install · in-app purchases $0.99 to $299.99 per item · by Adobe · Contains ads: Yes · checked 18 August 2026 · Listing verified
Google Play listing · 4.5 (7,855,374) · read 18 August 2026
Acrobat is the safe default: the most faithful renderer here, and Liquid Mode, which reflows a dense page to fit a phone screen, is still documented under that name and still sits in the free block of Adobe’s own listing, which we checked on 18 August 2026. Its listing carries the advertising label.
Corrected on this update. One piece of advice retracted, from the FAQ rather than this entry. This page told readers to reach for Acrobat when they wanted a clean export at no charge. Adobe puts exporting to Office formats in its own paid features block, so the free tier is not the answer to that question and the advice is withdrawn.
On the advertising label, this page can only go as far as Adobe does, which is not far. Adobe’s description never mentions advertising at all: it has an explicit paid features block naming AI Assistant, editing text and images, OCR, merging and organising, Office export, compression and password protection, and an explicit free features block naming Liquid Mode, Fill and Sign and annotation. Nowhere does Adobe say what the advertising is, or whether any paid plan removes it. If you have seen otherwise in the app, that is your evidence and not ours.
For: the most faithful rendering here when a document has to look exactly as it was sent; Liquid Mode reflow is documented as a free feature; annotation and Fill and Sign are in the free block of the listing. Against: the listing carries the advertising label and Adobe documents nothing about what the ads are; editing text and exporting to Office formats are paid; the heaviest of the big readers, with constant upsell surfaces.
Skip it if you want a small quiet viewer rather than a suite. Choose Acrobat over Xodo when documents must look exactly as sent.
↑ Back to the comparisonHeavy readers
4.1 stars, 137,248 reviews · 10,000,000+ installs · free to install · no in-app purchases · by Librera · Contains ads: Yes · checked 18 August 2026 · Listing verified
Google Play listing · 4.1 (137,248) · read 18 August 2026
Librera is the heavy reader’s pick, and it is the app on this page whose free tier takes nothing away: there are no in-app purchases at all, and every reading feature is present. What it takes instead is advertising space and data.
Corrected on this update. Two things this page understated. It quoted the developer’s shorter list from librera.mobi as though it were the extent of format support; the same developer’s Play listing names about twenty, adding EPUB3, FB2.ZIP, ODT, XPS, TIFF, PDB, MHT and OPDS catalogues. And it marked only MuPDF mini as open source while Librera is open source too, GPL v3 by its own repository, which also documents a build carrying no advertising on F-Droid alongside the paid Librera PRO listing at $5.99 in the same storefront.
The trade is in its data declaration, which this page never mentioned. Librera’s Data Safety section declares personal information, approximate location, app activity and device identifiers as shared with third parties for purposes including advertising and marketing, and its manifest requests internet and network state access. That is the opposite end of this page from MuPDF mini, which requests nothing at all. One precision on reading aloud, too: Librera uses whatever text to speech engine your device has, so whether it works offline depends on your Android voices rather than on Librera.
For: about twenty document and ebook formats by its own listing, the widest here; no in-app purchases at all, and a build carrying no advertising exists on F-Droid; open source under GPL v3, and it remembers your place per book. Against: advertising in the Play build, which is the trade for everything being free; its Data Safety declares sharing of personal information and approximate location for advertising; PDF markup is basic next to Xodo.
Skip it if you mostly annotate work PDFs rather than read long-form. Choose Librera over MuPDF mini for a library you live in.
↑ Back to the comparisonMarking up with nothing installed
4.3 stars, 10,810,562 reviews · 10,000,000,000+ installs · free to install · in-app purchases $0.99 to $1,024.00 per item · by Google LLC · Contains ads: No · checked 18 August 2026 · Listing verified
Google Play listing · 4.3 (10,810,562) · read 18 August 2026
If Drive is already on your phone, its preview is a real annotating reader rather than a fallback, and it is the strongest zero-install option on this page.
Corrected on this update. A correction in Google’s favour, and it reverses what this page said. The page stated the Drive viewer will not fill forms. Google documents that it does: in the Drive Android app you tap Edit, then Form Filling, with Google’s own caveat that if you do not see the option then that PDF may not be fillable. Google also documents freehand pen and highlighter annotation with a pen and highlighter on Android. What remains true is signatures: Google’s eSignature is a Workspace feature on paid plans, and Google does not name Android among the surfaces it works on, so this page does not claim it there.
Two smaller corrections. There is no Google product called the Google Drive PDF Viewer; it is the preview built into the Drive app, and this page now names it that way. And this page put a quantifier on how many Android phones ship with Drive, a figure Google does not publish. Google documents preloading as a choice each manufacturer makes, so the honest statement is that it is preinstalled on many phones and a free download on the rest. Offline is the real limit: a file has to be marked available offline in advance before you lose signal.
For: freehand pen and highlighter annotation, documented by Google for Android; PDF form filling, which this page previously said it could not do; no advertising label on the Drive listing, and nothing to install if you already have it. Against: a file must be marked available offline in advance or it will not open without signal; no binding signature: eSignature is a paid Workspace feature and Google does not name Android for it; it is a storage app first, so the reading tools stop where Google chose to stop them.
Skip it if PDFs are part of your job, because a dedicated reader earns its install within a week. Choose the Drive preview over installing anything when you annotate occasionally.
↑ Back to the comparisonSigning without an account
4.0 stars, 211,650 reviews · 10,000,000+ installs · free to install · in-app purchases $0.99 to $139.99 per item · by Foxit Software Inc. · Contains ads: No · checked 18 August 2026 · Listing verified
Google Play listing · 4.0 (211,650) · read 18 August 2026
Foxit is the one app on this page whose account position is documented rather than assumed, and it is the good kind. Its listing marks paid features with an asterisk and states the rule plainly: you create a Foxit account to activate those, which means signing and filling forms do not need one. Its listing carried no advertising label on 18 August 2026.
Corrected on this update. The framing this page used for Foxit is withdrawn. It sold Foxit as the lighter alternative to Acrobat, in the table, the heading and the body. Foxit publishes no size figure for the Android app and no comparison with Acrobat anywhere; the only footprint statement it makes is a single listing bullet saying it does not exhaust your device resources. That will not carry a comparison, so the entry now leads on what Foxit does document, which is the account-free signing.
Its rating is the joint lowest of the named brands here, and its listing had not been updated for about three months when we read it on 18 August 2026. Neither is disqualifying for a reader, but both are worth knowing before you make it your daily app.
For: handwritten signing and form filling with no account, stated in Foxit’s own asterisk key; no advertising label on the listing; renders crisply on older phones. Against: its rating trails the other big names here; editing and conversion need the subscription; the listing had not been updated in about three months when we checked.
Skip it if you already carry Acrobat or Xodo, because Foxit largely duplicates them. Choose Foxit over Acrobat when you want to sign something without creating an account.
↑ Back to the comparisonNo longer a PDF reader
4.5 stars, 9,166,211 reviews · 1,000,000,000+ installs · free to install · in-app purchases $0.49 to $199.99 per item · by Microsoft Corporation · Contains ads: Yes · checked 18 August 2026 · Listing verified
Google Play listing · 4.5 (9,166,211) · read 18 August 2026
This row is kept in the table so that nobody looking for the old Office app concludes we simply forgot it, and so the answer is visible at a glance rather than buried. It is here to be ruled out, not compared.
Corrected on this update. The package that was Microsoft 365, and Office before that, is now Microsoft 365 Copilot, and it is an AI assistant rather than a document viewer. Its description mentions PDF once, to say you can upload a PDF along with Word, Excel, PowerPoint or images and ask questions about it. All three things this page credited it with, a single app covering Word and Excel and PDF, turning a photograph into a PDF, and signing and annotating at no charge, described the app it used to be and are withdrawn rather than softened.
Two smaller claims go with them. This page called it free for personal use; the word free appears nowhere in Microsoft’s description, which says instead that availability of Copilot features may vary and that some capabilities require specific licences or may be disabled by an administrator. The install is free, the listing carries the advertising label, and it sells in-app. This page also called it a heavyweight install, which Microsoft publishes no figure to support, so that goes too. What can be said is that it is not the app to open a PDF with any more.
For: still the right app if what you want is to ask questions about a document; connects Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams in one place; free to install. Against: it is not a PDF reader: uploading a PDF to ask questions about it is the only PDF capability documented; the listing carries the advertising label and sells in-app; Microsoft states that feature availability varies and can be disabled by an administrator.
Skip it if you came here to read PDFs, which is every reader of this page. Choose anything else on this page over it for reading a PDF.
↑ Back to the comparisonOne app for everything
4.4 stars, 5,981,398 reviews · 500,000,000+ installs · free to install · in-app purchases $0.05 to $264.99 per item · by WPS SOFTWARE PTE. LTD. · Contains ads: Yes · checked 18 August 2026 · Listing verified
Google Play listing · 4.4 (5,981,398) · read 18 August 2026
WPS bundles a genuinely good free PDF reader inside a full office suite, and its night mode is documented by WPS in its own Academy article on reading a PDF in a dark environment. It converts documents to PDF on the phone for free. Going the other way is where it charges.
Corrected on this update. This page named the paid tier vaguely as Premium. WPS’s own pricing page names it Pro+ at $5.83 per month, billed $69.99 per year, and states that those prices apply to PC and Android. The same page lists No advertising as a Pro+ benefit alongside full PDF editing and conversion tools, which means the two things people dislike about the free app, the advertising and the conversion wall, are lifted by one subscription rather than two.
One widening for accuracy: the wall is not only PDF to Word. Extracting content out of a PDF at all, to Word, Excel, PowerPoint or an image, is what Pro+ unlocks, while converting into PDF stays free. That is the line to remember when deciding whether it matters to you.
For: a capable free PDF reader with a documented night mode for dark rooms; converts documents and scans into PDF on the phone without paying; one app covering documents, spreadsheets, slides and PDFs. Against: advertising in the free version, removed only by the paid tier; extracting content out of a PDF needs Pro+; you install four components when a reader is all you wanted.
Skip it if you only read PDFs, because a dedicated viewer is quieter. Choose WPS over MobiOffice when you want the suite as much as the reader.
↑ Back to the comparisonHandwriting with a stylus
3.7 stars, 125,684 reviews · 10,000,000+ installs · free to install · in-app purchases $0.99 to $69.99 per item · by Kdan Mobile Software Ltd. · Contains ads: Yes · checked 18 August 2026 · Listing verified
Google Play listing · 3.7 (125,684) · read 18 August 2026
KDAN is the stylus pick, and that part is better than this page said: handwriting with a finger or a stylus is documented for the Android app and KDAN puts it in the free tier on its own pricing page. It also holds the lowest rating on this page, and its free tier is thinner than any other here in a way that matters for reading.
Corrected on this update. This page said cloud and advanced editing sit behind a plan, which is true and incomplete in the wrong direction. KDAN’s own feature matrix marks night viewing mode, read aloud and slideshow mode as absent from the Basic plan. Those are reading features, not editing features, on a page about reading. Document 365 also gates text editing, conversion, OCR, page management and password protection.
What that adds up to is an app worth installing for one specific job, handwritten annotation on a tablet, and a poor choice for long reading sessions, because the comfort features other apps give away are the ones KDAN sells.
For: handwriting with a finger or stylus, in the free tier by KDAN’s own pricing page; smooth navigation through long documents; a genuine tablet and pen focus rather than a phone app scaled up. Against: night viewing, read aloud and slideshow are all absent from the free plan; the lowest rating on this page, and advertising in the free tier; editing, conversion, OCR and page management all sit behind Document 365.
Skip it if you read on a phone without a stylus, because its whole advantage disappears. Choose KDAN over Xodo only for pen notes on a tablet.
↑ Back to the comparisonReading with nothing attached
4 stars, 235 reviews · 100,000+ installs · free to install · no in-app purchases · by Artifex Software LLC · Contains ads: No · checked 18 August 2026 · Listing verified
Google Play listing · 4 (235) · read 18 August 2026
MuPDF mini is the minimalist pick, and the case for it is stronger than this page had made it. Its manifest declares no permissions whatsoever, so it holds no internet access, and its listing carried neither an advertising label nor any in-app purchase on 18 August 2026. Its Data Safety declares no data collected and none shared.
Corrected on this update. One claim against it was wrong. This page said it offers nothing beyond the page in front of you. Artifex documents a toolbar with search, a text size control for EPUB and FB2, a zoom control that toggles fit page and fit width for PDFs, and a table of contents, and its repository adds a page scrubber. What it genuinely does not do, in Artifex’s own words, is support editing annotations or filling out forms, and it offers no user bookmarks.
Two precisions this page owed you. Its ebook support is for unprotected EPUB only, so a DRM-protected store purchase will not open in it. And open source here means dual licensed: MuPDF is AGPL v3 or a paid commercial licence from Artifex, per the Artifex licensing page. Its rating rests on a few hundred reviews against hundreds of thousands elsewhere on this page, so treat the score as thin evidence and the permission list as the real reason to install it.
For: no permissions at all in its manifest, so it cannot reach the network; no advertising, no in-app purchases, and no data collected or shared by its own declaration; search, table of contents, zoom modes and a text size control for EPUB and FB2. Against: no annotation and no form filling, both stated by Artifex; no user bookmarks, and unprotected EPUB only, so DRM purchases will not open; a very small review base next to everything else here.
Skip it if you ever highlight or sign, because it is read-only by design. Choose MuPDF mini over Librera when you want nothing running but a reader.
↑ Back to the comparisonGalaxy owners
4.1 stars, 545,672 reviews · 5,000,000,000+ installs · free to install · no in-app purchases · by Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. · Contains ads: No · checked 18 August 2026 · Listing verified
Google Play listing · 4.1 (545,672) · read 18 August 2026
On a Galaxy, My Files opens the occasional PDF with nothing to install, and it is one of the cleanest entries on this page: no advertising label and no in-app purchases at all.
Corrected on this update. This page printed n/a for its rating and its in-app purchases, on the basis that it has no listing. It has a full one, and the figures are in the table now. It also said My Files is on every Galaxy; Samsung says most Galaxy devices, not all of them, and it is a free download where it is missing.
The honest description of what it is has not changed: a file manager that hands the PDF to a viewer rather than a reader in its own right. The app Samsung documents for actually writing on a PDF is Samsung Notes, which is preinstalled on Galaxy phones, carries no advertising label and no in-app purchases, and supports S Pen annotation. If you own a Galaxy and want to mark up a PDF without installing anything, that is the app to open, and this page had never named it as such.
For: already on most Galaxy phones, with no advertising label and no in-app purchases; keeps documents beside everything else in your storage; free, and a free download on the Galaxy devices that lack it. Against: it is a file manager: it hands the PDF to another app rather than rendering it as its own feature; no markup of its own; the S Pen annotation people expect lives in Samsung Notes.
Skip it if you annotate anything, because that is a different app even on a Galaxy. Choose Samsung Notes over My Files the moment you want to write on the page.
↑ Back to the comparisonOne-off file surgery
4.5 stars, 123,829 reviews · 5,000,000+ installs · free to install · in-app purchases $7.99 to $119.99 per item · by Smallpdf AG · Contains ads: No · checked 18 August 2026 · Listing verified
Google Play listing · 4.5 (123,829) · read 18 August 2026
Smallpdf is for the read-then-fix job: compress, merge, convert or sign a file straight after opening it. Its listing carried no advertising label on 18 August 2026. Two things about how it works were missing from this page, and both change who should install it.
Corrected on this update. This page said the free tier caps daily tasks. Smallpdf publishes the actual number and it is one: its own listing says Smallpdf is free to use with one daily tool task per day, and its pricing page marks free mobile app access as a daily task limit. A cap of one is a different product from a cap, and a reader deciding between apps should see the number.
The second thing is where the work happens. Smallpdf processes tasks on its own servers: its listing states that all uploaded files are deleted one hour after processing, and its help pages describe securing file transfers in transit. So the file leaves your phone, and nothing works without a connection. On a contract or a medical record that is a decision, not a detail. One qualifier on the advertising column too: Play shows no advertising label, though Smallpdf lists zero ads among the things a subscription unlocks on its own help pages.
For: compress, merge, convert and sign in one clean interface; no advertising label on its Play listing; the highest rating on this page alongside Acrobat. Against: one free tool task per day, by Smallpdf’s own listing; tasks run on Smallpdf servers, so your file is uploaded and nothing works offline; in-app prices start at $7.99 per item.
Skip it if you only ever read, because the toolbox is the entire point of it. Choose Smallpdf over Xodo for occasional file surgery rather than daily reading.
↑ Back to the comparisonSigning inside a suite
4.4 stars, 1,482,885 reviews · 100,000,000+ installs · free to install · in-app purchases $1.49 to $149.99 per item · by MobiSystems · Contains ads: Yes · checked 18 August 2026 · Listing verified
Google Play listing · 4.4 (1,482,885) · read 18 August 2026
MobiOffice reads, annotates, signs and converts inside one suite, and the reader works free. MobiSystems publishes a own step-by-step guide for signing a PDF on Android, which is more than most vendors on this page do for their own free features.
Corrected on this update. The rename direction is settled and this page had it inverted in the table: MobiSystems’ own help centre states OfficeSuite is now MobiOffice, so MobiOffice is the current name and OfficeSuite the historical one. The tablet framing is withdrawn as well. This page sold it on tablet comfort and a tablet-shaped layout; the word tablet does not appear in MobiSystems’ own description of the app at all, so there is nothing to stand that on.
Two qualifiers the vendor supplies itself. Conversion is a Premium feature and needs an internet connection, by MobiSystems’ own conversion guide, so it is neither free nor offline. And the thing that removes the advertising is MobiOffice Premium, which the listing sells as covering two mobile devices and one Windows PC alongside cloud storage and unlimited PDF conversion.
For: signing a PDF is documented step by step by the vendor, and the reader works free; annotate, sign and convert without leaving the suite; no rating problem: it sits with the strongest here. Against: conversion is Premium and needs a connection, by the vendor’s own guide; advertising in the free version, removed only by Premium; you install a full office suite to read a PDF.
Skip it if you want a reader rather than a suite, because that is what you are installing. Choose MobiOffice over WPS when signing matters more than converting.
↑ Back to the comparisonStart by not installing one. On Android 12 and up Chrome opens a PDF from a website in the browser itself, and Google Drive’s preview opens files already on the phone and annotates them. Most people asking this question are served by those two, and everything below is for the cases where they are not.
After that, match the app to the job, because the free tiers on this page differ far more than the readers do. Every app here renders a PDF competently. What separates them is the fourth column of the table above.
Privacy is not only about uploads. The Google Play policy for the All files access permission names the permitted uses for the broadest storage permission there is, and document management apps are on that list, so a PDF reader asking for it is not automatically suspect. What is worth reading is the Data Safety section beside it. On this page it separates the entries more sharply than any feature does: MuPDF mini declares no data collected and no data shared and requests no permissions, while Librera, the other free-and-open pick, declares personal information and approximate location shared with third parties for advertising. Both are open source and both are honest about it; they are simply different bargains.
My Files opens a PDF by handing it to another app. The app Samsung documents for writing on a PDF is Samsung Notes, which is already installed, carries no advertising label and no in-app purchases, and takes S Pen annotation. That is the zero-install answer on a Galaxy, and it is not the one this page used to give.
For most people, Xodo: annotating, form filling and signing are free, saving a marked-up file is not rate limited, and its listing carried no advertising label on 18 August 2026. The catch is that its own Free versus Pro screen puts No Watermark on Files and PDF to Office in the Pro column, so exporting is where you pay. If you want the smallest and most private option instead, MuPDF mini requests no permissions at all and has no ads and no in-app purchases, but it cannot annotate or fill forms. Checked 18 August 2026.
Usually yes, and this is the answer most people need. Google documents that from Android 12 onward Chrome opens a PDF from a website in the browser itself, with no download and no PDF reader needed, and you can scroll, zoom, select text and search in it. For a file already on your phone, the Google Drive app previews it and additionally supports freehand annotation and form filling. On a Galaxy, Samsung Notes opens and annotates PDFs and is already installed. Checked 18 August 2026.
MuPDF mini and Samsung My Files, on this page. Both listings carried neither an advertising label nor any in-app purchase when we read them on 18 August 2026. MuPDF mini goes further and declares no data collected and no data shared, and its manifest requests no permissions at all. Librera has no in-app purchases either, but its Play build carries advertising and its Data Safety declares sharing with third parties. Checked 18 August 2026.
Some do and some cannot. Smallpdf processes tasks on its own servers and states that all uploaded files are deleted one hour after processing, so nothing works offline. Google Drive is cloud storage by design, and a file has to be marked available offline before you lose signal. At the other end, MuPDF mini requests no permissions at all, so it has no internet access whatsoever. If the document is a contract or a medical record, that difference is worth a pause. Checked 18 August 2026.
Reading, annotating, form filling and signing are, and saving a file you have marked up is not capped, which this page previously said it was. What is not free: the app’s own Free versus Pro screen lists No Watermark on Files, Unlimited Actions and PDF to Office in the Pro column, and Xodo licenses free view and annotate for personal use only. For reading and markup it remains genuinely free; for getting a clean file back out, it is a paid job. Checked 18 August 2026.
Because it is no longer a PDF reader. The package that was Microsoft 365, and Office before that, was renamed Microsoft 365 Copilot and repositioned as an AI assistant. PDF appears once in its description, to say you can upload one and ask questions about it. The three things this page used to credit it with described the app it replaced. Its entry is kept below so anyone arriving to look for it finds out what happened. Checked 18 August 2026.
A reader displays a document and lets you annotate, fill forms and sign. An editor changes the document itself: rewriting text, deleting or rearranging pages, merging files, running OCR on a scan. Everything on this page reads PDFs well, and the paywalls almost all sit on the editor side of that line. For real editing see our PDF editor guide. Checked 18 August 2026.
Librera reads aloud using whatever text to speech engine your device has, so whether it works offline depends on your Android voices rather than on Librera itself. Be careful with KDAN here: read aloud is marked absent from its free plan on KDAN’s own feature matrix, along with night viewing and slideshow mode. Android’s built-in TalkBack can also speak text on screen. Checked 18 August 2026.
Checked 18 August 2026: the page was rebuilt around a single question, what each free tier actually takes away, and fourteen claims did not survive the rebuild. The finding that matters most is one that was nearly removed in error. An audit of Xodo’s help centre and website found no Android document supporting this page’s claim that free exports carry a watermark, traced the only documented watermark to Xodo PDF Studio on the desktop, and recommended withdrawing the caveat; a second adversarial check agreed. Both were wrong, and the evidence was already on this page: the emulator capture shows Xodo’s own Free versus Pro screen listing No Watermark on Files in the Pro column. The caveat stays, regrounded on that screenshot and reworded to match the app, which says files rather than exports. Retracted: daily save and export caps, and the body sentence that daily save and export actions are capped. Xodo’s Actions article scopes the daily limit to converting, editing and managing pages; saving a marked-up file is not an Action. Added in their place, from the same in-app screen, that PDF to Office is premium and that free use is licensed for personal use only. Retracted from the Google Drive entry: no form filling; no real signatures. Google documents form filling in the Drive Android app under Edit, then Form Filling, so the first half was wrong; the second half is narrowed rather than dropped, because eSignature is a paid Workspace feature Google does not name Android for. Also corrected, the name: there is no Google product called the Google Drive PDF Viewer, only the preview built into Drive. And preinstalled on most Android devices is withdrawn, because Google publishes no such figure and documents preloading as a manufacturer choice. Retracted: that MuPDF mini has no extras at all. Artifex documents search, a table of contents, zoom modes and a text size control for EPUB and FB2. What it does not do, in the vendor’s words, is annotation or form filling, and its EPUB support is for unprotected files only. Added: it requests no permissions at all, which is the strongest privacy statement any entry on this page can make, and its licence is AGPL v3 or a paid commercial licence rather than open source unqualified. Retracted: lighter than Adobe, from Foxit’s table cell, heading and body. Foxit publishes no size figure and no comparison with Acrobat; the entry now leads on what Foxit does document, signing and form filling without an account. Retracted from Microsoft 365 Copilot: one app for Word, Excel and PDF, photo to PDF, and free sign and annotate, all of which described the app before it was renamed and repositioned as an AI assistant. It is removed from the comparison table and its entry now explains why, because readers arrive looking for the Office app. Retracted from MobiOffice: the comfortable tablet reader and clean tablet layout, since the word tablet appears nowhere in MobiSystems’ own description; and the rename direction in the table is corrected, since MobiSystems states that OfficeSuite is now MobiOffice. Retracted from the FAQ: the advice that for a clean export without a stamp, Adobe Acrobat Reader does it at no cost. Adobe puts Office export in its own paid features block, so the free tier is not the answer to that question and this page should not have sent anyone there. Retracted from Librera: has slipped from 4.2 to 4.1 stars, a trend sentence that rots twice over, since both halves of it go stale; live ratings sit in the dated table instead. Retracted: small 231-review base on Play, a figure that had already moved by the time this update ran. Corrected in the apps’ favour: Samsung My Files and Google Drive both printed n/a for rating and in-app purchases, and both have full Play listings, now read; Librera is open source under GPL v3 with an ad-free F-Droid build, which this page had credited only to MuPDF mini; and KDAN’s stylus handwriting is in its free tier by KDAN’s own pricing page. Added, and it reverses a recommendation: KDAN’s own feature matrix marks night viewing mode, read aloud and slideshow as absent from the free plan, which are reading features on a page about reading. Added too: the zero-install route this page never gave, that Chrome opens web PDFs on Android 12 and up with nothing installed, and that Samsung Notes rather than My Files is what writes on a PDF on a Galaxy. One layout fix: the emulator paragraph and screenshots added to this page earlier today sat after the Adobe anchor, so they rendered under Adobe’s verdict line and the Adobe jump link landed on Xodo’s screenshots. They are moved back inside the Xodo entry, carried across unchanged.
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