Merge PDFs on iPhone or iPad
iOS and iPadOS can combine PDFs in the Files app. Use the merger below in Safari when you need a specific order, only some pages, or images mixed in.
Drop PDFs to mergeLoading the merger…
With Files app (built in)
- Open Files and go to the folder with your PDFs.
- Tap ⋯ (top right) › Select, and tap each file.
- Tap ⋯ (bottom right) › Create PDF.
- The combined PDF appears in the same folder; rename it with a long press.
Files joins them in the folder’s current sort order, not the order you tapped them.
With the browser merger above
- Tap or click the orange panel and choose your PDFs (images work too).
- Drag them into order; type a page range under any file to take only part of it.
- Press Merge. The new PDF saves to your downloads, built on this iPhone & iPad.
Tips for iPhone & iPad
- In Safari, tap the orange panel › Browse to pick from Files or iCloud Drive; choose several files at once with Select.
- The merged file saves to Downloads (in Files), unless Safari settings say otherwise.
- Older iPhones have less memory: keep a single job under roughly 100 MB.
What carries over
| Situation | What happens here |
|---|---|
| Ordinary PDFs | Pages are copied as-is: text stays selectable, links on the page keep working, images are not re-compressed. |
| Password to open | You type the password; it is used only in this tab. The output can't carry the old encryption, so those pages are re-drawn as images (about 144 dpi) and their text is no longer selectable. |
| Owner password only (no-edit / no-print flags) | Opens without asking, but is handled the same way as above: pages become images. We don't strip protection and hand back an editable copy. |
| Very large jobs | Everything is held in this tab's memory. A laptop copes with a few hundred MB; phones and tablets top out sooner. If a tab crashes, merge in batches and then merge the results. |
| Fillable forms | Field appearance is kept, but fields may stop being fillable in the merged file. Fill and save forms first. |
| Digital signatures | Any change to a signed PDF breaks the signature's validation. Merge copies if you need the signed original intact. |
| Original bookmarks | Not carried over. The merger can add one bookmark per file instead. |
Questions
How do I change the order when merging in the Files app?
Files has no reorder step. Rename the files with 1-, 2-, 3- prefixes and sort by name, or use the browser merger, where you drag files into order.
Can I merge photos and PDFs on an iPhone?
Yes. Files’ Create PDF accepts images too, and so does the merger here; each photo becomes a page.
Does this work offline on an iPhone?
Yes, once the page has loaded. The merging code runs in Safari on the phone.