With PDF usage continuing to integrate into businesses, education and day-to-day workflows, the demand for efficient, intelligent, and free PDF editors has never been greater. With 2025 being the arrival of a new generation of tools powered by AI and automation, the potential of PDF editing without subscription fees looks very promising. So here is the new rundown of the top 6 best PDF editor apps you can trust this year, starting with a game changer, PDFGPT.
Top 6 Best PDF Editor Apps
1. PDFGPT
PDFGPT, an AI PDF summarizer, took the number one spot in 2025. It has been developed and designed for modern-day professionals and researchers. Simply take a normal static PDF and interact, edit, and modify it by suggesting natural language prompts. You could take a 100-page research paper and summarize it. You could redact sensitive parts of your documents, bootstrap tabular data, and translate multi-linguistic PDFs all with a single instruction.
The collaborative environment, interactive document editing is really what sets it apart! Users can comment, write, edit, and review documents in real-time, across multiple devices. Imagine doing this with the people that you work with, across companies, and without leaving the application? Imagine being able to integrate with cloud storage services like Google Drive, Dropbox, and Notion through API integration, which eliminates unnecessary document workflows and unnecessary document copies with a single document version. The new tool is perfectly suited for professionals who work in legal, financial, research, publishing and with anyone who values their time, life, quality assurance and flexibility.
2. PDFescape
PDFescape remains a popular option among those wanting quick edits from the browser without installing anything. It is also a good tool for users needing to fill in forms or annotate contracts, or make minor adjustments to visuals occasionally and quickly.
The exciting features about PDFescape as it moves into 2025 are that it has an updated user interface, improved rendering engine speed, and additional user-friendly support for cloud storage. It allows you to store projects in the cloud, retains the potential for version histories, and can password-protect the information for secure sharing, all in what is now a free tier service.
While it does not incorporate advanced technologies like OCR or AI assistance, PDFescape is again user-friendly, features fast, and requires no login to access. For the average student, occasional user, or small team, it is a process tool you can count on to take care of common PDF operations quickly and easily.
3. Sejda PDF Editor
Sejda PDF Editor continues to attract users due to its combination of advanced functionality and easy-to-use software. Available as a web-based app, as well as a desktop app for offline editing; the users can accomplish complex tasks such as editing text inline, inserting hyperlinks, merging documents, and adding form fields.
Sejda introduced new smart recommendations such as optimize this for email, or “detect fillable fields and AI-based form detection that identifies and converts scanned documents to fillable editable forms. Live collaboration, team-based permissions, version control, and integrations with e-signature applications are also available.
Although the free version only allows work on three documents per day, it is still powerful enough for most light and moderate users. However, if you find yourself working on resumes, reports, or customer forms regularly, Sejda is a great productivity application.
4. PDFgear
PDFgear is an up-and-comer in the PDF editing world, especially for users who want 100% offline capability. For their 2025 version, they have integrated AI-assisted auto-formatting, precision exports from PDF to Excel, and an intelligent search function for quickly navigating through long documents. It also lets you directly annotate PDFs with a stylus, a great feature for tablet users and digital artists.
On top of typical editing capabilities, it includes file compression, PDF splitting/merging, watermarking, password encryption, and even a dark mode to help when you’re burning the midnight oil. It’s even got some accessibility features, like a voiceover for visually impaired users, and layout toggles for dyslexic users.
For the professional who needs high-performing software without any dependency on the internet, PDFgear provides a comprehensive PDF editing toolbox that does not overwhelm you with unnecessary complexity.
5. LibreOffice Draw
LibreOffice Draw has long been a mainstay of the open-source community, and here in 2025, just like with the previous releases, the project is still going strong. LibreOffice includes Draw, and with Draw you have precision control over every single element of the PDF, including everything from vector images to text boxes.
The key features in the 2025 release of LibreOffice Draw are improved font matching, enhanced fidelity of PDF imports, and better interoperability between LibreOffice applications (Writer and Calc). You can add annotations, forms, reorganize pages, and export in several file formats all without having to worry about losing 100% ownership of your offline content.
Draw supports plugins and scripting. These allow advanced users to automate repetitive edits and potentially integrate several PDF workflows with internal applications or systems. Draw may have a legacy interface that seems less modern than newer platforms but its depth and tonal versatility is something the open-source community should be proud to offer.
6. Xodo PDF
Xodo PDF is recognized as the highest-rated mobile PDF editor of 2025, with optimized versions for iOS, Android, and tablet devices. Users can view, annotate, sign, and fill PDF forms all intuitively through touchscreen gestures. Xodo also includes a real-time sync feature which keeps all documents synced through cloud services such as Google Drive and OneDrive.
Xodo’s newest version allows users to take photos of printed documents and create editable PDF files. It also offers AI-fueled note suggestions and the ability to reflow text for a more active reading experience on mobile devices. At its heart, Xodo includes collaborative annotating abilities, making it a great tool for students to access material with colleagues or professionals and send additional feedback in real time.
Xodo PDF is the ideal interface to this adventure, with a modern UI and a responsive program. It fully supports offline authentication and functions can easily be managed from a mobile device.
Final Thoughts
The future of PDF editing will be smarter, faster, and easier. With tools like PDFGPT paving the way, the line between manual document work and intelligent automation is being eliminated. Whether you are working with PDFs on desktop, mobile, or in the cloud, there is a free editor on this list to fit every need.
As workflows continue to change and AI increasingly becomes a driving productivity component, these tools are establishing the blueprint for how we read, write, and engage with PDF documents in 2025 and beyond. However, if you are looking for the best PDF editor apps, the above-mentioned AI-powered tools will meet your modest demands.