# Adobe Acrobat

> Adobe's PDF editor for desktop, web and mobile, with an AI tier

Adobe Acrobat is a desktop and web PDF editor: the subscription covers the Windows and Mac apps, Acrobat online in a browser and the Acrobat Reader and Adobe Scan mobile apps. Standard edits, converts, signs and protects PDFs, Pro adds OCR, redaction, comparison and bulk e-signatures, and Studio adds AI Assistant, PDF Spaces and Adobe Express Premium. The free Acrobat Reader app views, comments on and signs PDFs.

- **Category:** PDF Editors
- **Made by:** Adobe
- **Website:** https://www.adobe.com/acrobat.html
- **Runs on:** Windows, macOS, Web, iOS, Android, Browser extension
- **Facts last checked:** Oct 18, 2026

## Pricing

Adobe Acrobat has a free plan. Paid plans start at $14.99 per month on an annual plan, billed monthly.

- **Pricing model:** Free plan
- **Free plan:** Acrobat Reader is free: view, print, share and comment on PDFs and sign them, without editing, converting or the paid tools.
- **Free trial:** 7-day free trial of Acrobat Pro or Studio; 14 days on the team plans.

| Plan | Price | What you get |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Acrobat Reader | $0 | Free app for viewing, printing, commenting on and signing PDFs. |
| Acrobat Standard | $14.99 per month on an annual plan, billed monthly ($24.99 month to month) | Edit and organize PDFs, convert to and from Office files, fill and sign forms, request e-signatures and password-protect files. |
| Acrobat Standard for teams | $16.99 per license / month on an annual plan, billed monthly | Standard for several people, managed from one admin console. |
| Acrobat Pro | $19.99 per month on an annual plan, billed monthly ($29.99 month to month) | Adds OCR for scans, comparing PDFs, redaction, branded e-signature requests, web forms, reusable templates and bulk sending. |
| Acrobat Pro for teams | $23.99 per license / month on an annual plan, billed monthly | Pro for several people with admin console license management; 14-day free trial. |
| Acrobat Studio | $24.99 per month on an annual plan, billed monthly ($34.99 month to month) | Pro plus AI Assistant, PDF Spaces for asking questions across many files, and Adobe Express Premium; $29.99 per license for teams. |

Read from https://www.adobe.com/acrobat/plans.html on Oct 18, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Adobe Acrobat before buying.

## Ways to pay less

- **Lower price on an annual plan** (Annual discount): Adobe's plans page lists Standard at $14.99, Pro at $19.99 and Studio at $24.99 a month on an annual plan, against $24.99, $29.99 and $34.99 month to month. Source: https://www.adobe.com/acrobat/plans.html

## Key features

- **Editing and conversion:** Edit text and images with reflowing layout, add, delete and reorder pages, combine files and convert to and from Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
- **OCR, compare and redaction:** Pro turns scans into searchable, editable PDFs, shows the differences between two versions and permanently removes sensitive content.
- **E-signatures built in:** Every paid plan can request signatures and track them; Pro adds branded requests, web forms, reusable templates and bulk sending.
- **Batch actions:** Pro's Action Wizard runs saved sequences such as OCR, redaction, watermarking and conversion across many PDFs at once.
- **AI Assistant and PDF Spaces:** Studio summarizes and answers questions about documents with citations, and PDF Spaces gathers PDFs, Microsoft 365 files and links into one workspace.
- **Shared review:** Share a PDF by link, collect comments from several reviewers in one place and get notified as they respond, including from Teams and Outlook.

## Good for

- Offices that exchange PDFs with clients who also use Acrobat
- People who need OCR, redaction and e-signatures in one desktop app
- Users who read and sign PDFs for free with Acrobat Reader

## Worth knowing

- OCR, redaction, comparing PDFs and bulk e-signatures need Pro; Standard has no free trial.
- AI Assistant comes with Studio, or as an add-on at $4.99 a month on an annual plan for Reader, Standard and Pro users.
- Month-to-month billing costs $10 a month more than the annual plan on each individual tier.
- Adobe no longer sells perpetual licenses; Acrobat Pro 2024 is a one-time purchase for three years of desktop use without online services.

## ToolGPA grades

**GPA: 2.6 out of 4**, graded Oct 18, 2026. Acrobat is a desktop app for Windows and Mac with a web version, and it's the one the rest of this category gets compared to: editing, OCR, redaction and e-signatures in one place. The free Reader is great for reading and signing. Editing starts at $14.99 a month on a yearly plan, though, and we'd only pay that if your work really needs Acrobat.

- **Value for money: D.** Standard, the cheapest plan that edits, is $14.99 a month on a yearly plan, and OCR, redaction and compare need Pro at $19.99. That's the top of what PDF editors charge. Acrobat Pro 2024 is sold once for three years of desktop use, but no price for it is on record.
- **Free plan and trial: C.** Acrobat Reader is free for good and views, comments on and signs PDFs. Nice. But it won't edit or convert, which is the job here. The 7-day trial covers Pro or Studio, and Standard has no trial at all.
- **Features: B.** Edits text with reflowing layout, converts Office files, OCRs scans, compares versions, redacts, runs batch actions and sends documents to sign in bulk. It covers the whole job, though a lot of that sits on Pro rather than Standard.
- **Ease of use: B.** 4.64 from 661,119 App Store ratings for the Acrobat Reader app, just shy of the top grade. Most people have opened a PDF in it already, so there's not much to learn.
- **Platforms and integrations: A.** Windows, Mac, web, iPhone, Android and a browser extension, plus Microsoft 365, Teams, Outlook, OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox and Box. It's everywhere.

These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Adobe's own pages on 18 October 2026, and its App Store rating. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews.

## Where it stands among PDF editors

- Adobe Acrobat's GPA of 2.6 is higher than 6 of the 15 other PDF editors we grade, and level with 2.
- It stands best on platforms and integrations (A, above 13 of 15) and worst on value for money (D, above 0).
- Its paid plans start at $14.99 a month, against a middle price of $6.67 for the category: 9 of the 10 others that charge start lower.
- On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 3.3 out of 4. Nothing scores higher for less, though at least one tool matches that score at a lower price.

The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/pdf-editors

## Keep it, or make your own?

**Keep it.** The plain part of Adobe Acrobat you could make: forms and documents. What surrounds it you could not. The 6 things listed below take a company, not a weekend. It costs $179.88 a year.

- You could make: Forms and documents: an app builder makes these well.
- You could not: Editing the text inside a PDF without breaking its layout.
- You could not: Apps for macOS, Windows, iOS and Android that stay in step with each other.
- You could not: It plugs into other products, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Teams and Outlook among them.
- You could not: AI features, unless you pay a model provider for each request yourself.
- You could not: Sharing with other people, which means accounts and invitations.
- You could not: The depth: we grade its features B, which means it covers the whole job.

A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it.

## What people say

- **App Store rating of the iPhone and iPad app:** 4.6 out of 5 from 661,119 ratings in the United States, read Oct 18, 2026. This is the store's rating of the app, not a score from ToolGPA. Source: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id469337564

## Works with

Microsoft 365, Microsoft Teams, Outlook, OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, Adobe Express

**Tags:** PDF editing, AI features, Forms, Documents

## Alternatives

- [Foxit PDF Editor](https://toolgpa.com/tools/foxit): PDF editor for Windows, Mac and web, yearly or as a one-time license. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/adobe-acrobat-vs-foxit)
- [Nitro PDF Pro](https://toolgpa.com/tools/nitro): Desktop PDF editor for Windows and Mac with AI tools, billed yearly. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/adobe-acrobat-vs-nitro)
- [PDFelement](https://toolgpa.com/tools/pdfelement): Wondershare's PDF editor, by subscription or a one-time license. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/adobe-acrobat-vs-pdfelement)
- [PDF Expert](https://toolgpa.com/tools/pdf-expert): PDF reader and editor for Mac, iPhone and iPad from Readdle. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/adobe-acrobat-vs-pdf-expert)
- [Smallpdf](https://toolgpa.com/tools/smallpdf): 30-plus PDF tools in the browser, with Windows and mobile apps. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/adobe-acrobat-vs-smallpdf)

## Sources

The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Oct 18, 2026:

- https://www.adobe.com/acrobat/plans.html
- https://www.adobe.com/acrobat/free-trial-download.html
- https://www.adobe.com/acrobat/generative-ai-pdf.html
- https://www.adobe.com/acrobat/acrobat-pro.html

Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/adobe-acrobat
Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).