# PDF Expert > PDF reader and editor for Mac, iPhone and iPad from Readdle PDF Expert is a desktop and mobile PDF app for Apple devices only: Mac, iPhone and iPad, with no Windows or browser version. The free app reads, annotates, fills and signs PDFs, and Premium adds text and image editing, conversion to and from Office files, merging, compression, redaction, OCR and the PDF Copilot AI assistant. One Premium subscription covers all three devices. - **Category:** PDF Editors - **Made by:** Readdle - **Website:** https://pdfexpert.com - **Runs on:** macOS, iOS - **Facts last checked:** Oct 18, 2026 ## Pricing PDF Expert has a free plan. Paid plans start at $79.99 per year. - **Pricing model:** Free plan - **Free plan:** The free app reads PDFs, highlights and marks them up, adds notes and stamps, and fills and signs forms; editing, converting and AI need Premium. - **Free trial:** 1-week free trial of Premium through the App Store. | Plan | Price | What you get | | --- | --- | --- | | Free | $0 | Read, annotate, fill and sign PDFs on Mac, iPhone and iPad. | | Premium | $79.99 per year | Edit text, images and links, convert, OCR, merge and compress, redact, translate and PDF Copilot, on iPhone, iPad and Mac, with a 30-day money-back guarantee. | | Business | $80 per seat / year, before tax | Premium for teams bought online, each seat covering up to 3 devices, with a Business Manager to add, remove and reassign seats. | Read from https://pdfexpert.com/pricing on Oct 18, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with PDF Expert before buying. ## Ways to pay less - **Discount for students and educators** (Education): Verifying a school email on the pricing page sends a discount on the annual plan, given there as 30% and also as 50%; the App Store lists an education purchase at $39.99. Source: https://pdfexpert.com/pricing ## Key features - **Text and image editing:** Premium edits text in a PDF much like a word processor, adds, replaces and resizes images, and adds links and outlines. - **Convert, merge and compress:** Creates PDFs from Word files and images, converts PDFs to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, images and text, and merges, splits and shrinks files. - **Annotate, fill and sign:** Highlight, draw, add notes, stamps and audio notes, and fill and sign forms, including AcroForms and static XFA forms, in the free app. - **PDF Copilot:** Premium's AI assistant lists main points, summarizes, answers questions with references and explains words or phrases in a document. - **OCR and scan clean-up:** Recognizes text in scanned documents on Mac, and an AI Enhance feature removes shadows and distortion from scans. - **Measuring and redaction:** Scale and measure drawings with polygon, polyline and redline tools, and permanently black out sensitive text. ## Good for - Mac, iPad and iPhone users who want one subscription across all three - iPad users who annotate PDFs with Apple Pencil - Students and readers who mostly read, mark up and sign PDFs for free ## Worth knowing - Runs on Apple devices only: there is no Windows, Android or browser version. - Editing, converting, merging, compressing, redaction and PDF Copilot all need Premium; the free app reads, annotates and signs. - The education discount is stated as 30% off the annual plan in one place on the pricing page and as 50% in another. - The Mac App Store also sells an in-app purchase named PDF Expert for $139.99 without saying what it covers; pdfexpert.com does not list it. ## ToolGPA grades **GPA: 2.2 out of 4**, graded Oct 18, 2026. PDF Expert is a desktop and mobile app for Apple devices only: Mac, iPhone and iPad. The free app reads, marks up and signs, and Premium at $79.99 a year edits text, converts and redacts on all three. If anyone you work with is on Windows, though, it's a non-starter. - **Value for money: C.** Premium is $79.99 a year and covers your Mac, iPhone and iPad in one go. That's right in the middle of what PDF editors charge: fair, nothing special. Business is $80 a seat a year. - **Free plan and trial: C.** The free app is genuinely useful: read, highlight, add notes, fill and sign forms. But editing text, converting, merging and the AI all need Premium. The 1-week trial runs through the App Store. - **Features: C.** Edits text like a word processor, converts to Office, merges, compresses, redacts and measures drawings, with an AI assistant. The gaps: OCR is listed for the Mac only, and there's no form builder or sending for signature on record. - **Ease of use: B.** 4.67 from 216,183 App Store ratings, a whisker off the top grade. It's an app you open and use, and it's made for marking up with an Apple Pencil on an iPad. - **Platforms and integrations: C.** Mac, iPhone and iPad only. No Windows, no Android, no browser version, and no integrations on record. Lovely if you're all-in on Apple, no use if you're not. These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Readdle'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 - PDF Expert's GPA of 2.2 is higher than 0 of the 15 other PDF editors we grade, and level with 4. - It stands best on ease of use (B, above 2 of 15) and worst on free plan and trial (C, above 0). - Its paid plans start at $6.67 a month when paid by the year, against a middle price of $6.67 for the category: 5 of the 10 others that charge start lower. - On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.3 out of 4. 5 tools score higher and cost less. 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 PDF Expert you could make: forms. What surrounds it you could not. The 3 things listed below take a company, not a weekend. That makes this kind of software worth paying for, not this one in particular: 11 of the 15 other PDF editors grade higher. It costs $79.99 a year. - You could make: Forms: an app builder makes this well. - You could not: Editing the text inside a PDF without breaking its layout. - You could not: Apps for macOS and iOS that stay in step with each other. - You could not: AI features, unless you pay a model provider for each request yourself. 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:** 4.7 out of 5 from 216,183 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/id743974925 **Tags:** PDF editing, AI features, Forms ## Alternatives - [UPDF](https://toolgpa.com/tools/updf): PDF editor with AI chat, one license across desktop and mobile. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/pdf-expert-vs-updf) - [PDFelement](https://toolgpa.com/tools/pdfelement): Wondershare's PDF editor, by subscription or a one-time license. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/pdf-expert-vs-pdfelement) - [Adobe Acrobat](https://toolgpa.com/tools/adobe-acrobat): Adobe's PDF editor for desktop, web and mobile, with an AI tier. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/adobe-acrobat-vs-pdf-expert) - [PDFgear](https://toolgpa.com/tools/pdfgear): Free PDF editor for desktop, mobile and web with an AI copilot. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/pdf-expert-vs-pdfgear) - [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/foxit-vs-pdf-expert) ## Sources The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Oct 18, 2026: - https://pdfexpert.com/pricing - https://pdfexpert.com - https://pdfexpert.com/business - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pdf-expert-editor-reader/id743974925 - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pdf-expert-edit-sign-pdfs/id1055273043 Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/pdf-expert Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).