How Smile works
No document uploads. Free Basic tools and paid passes. Here is everything worth knowing about what happens to your files.
How it works
Smile PDF is a collection of PDF tools that run entirely inside your web browser. When you drop a file, it is read by JavaScript running on your own device — the same way a photo app edits pictures locally. The result is generated on your device and downloaded straight back to it.
Because there is no upload step, everything is instant: no queues, no progress bars crawling across a network, no waiting for a server to finish with someone else's file first.
Document privacy & retention
Smile PDF processes your documents only in your browser. Document contents are never uploaded to our servers, whether you use Basic, Day Pass, Premium or Business. We do not receive or retain server copies of your files.
There is no one-hour or two-hour server deletion window: there are no uploaded documents to delete. Closing the tool or tab ends its active processing session; this is not a guarantee of secure erasure from your device. Files you download remain on your device until you delete them yourself.
The same policy applies to Sign PDF. Your drawn signature is added locally, and neither the signature nor the signed document is stored on our servers for a month or any other period. Smile PDF is not affiliated with iLoveSign and does not offer its hosted signing service.
Document privacy is separate from account and payment data. When you sign in, purchase a plan or submit a Business enquiry, the necessary account, billing and enquiry information is handled online. Paid tool authorization sends the tool identifier and file sizes, not document contents.
Zero bytes uploaded
You can verify it yourself: open your browser's network tab while using any tool.
Works offline
Once the page has loaded, most tools keep working even if you disconnect.
The tools
Merge, split, delete pages, rotate, compress, watermark, page numbers, sign, image to PDF, OCR scan-to-text, Word/Excel/PowerPoint conversions, JPG and Markdown export, HTML to PDF, editing, organization, protection, recovery, camera scans, comparison, redaction, cropping and forms — all local. Office exports simplify layouts; PDF to PowerPoint and recovered or redacted PDFs are image-based. OCR requires a paid pass. Each tool also has its own page with details and FAQs:
Limits
Basic permits Office files up to 15 MB (one at a time), Merge/Edit files up to 100 MB, Compress files up to 200 MB, and up to 25 PDFs per merge. Split processes one file at a time. Paid access includes OCR and files up to 4 GB, subject to browser capacity. There is no daily task count limit.