Frequently asked questions
Answers about uploads, account access, retention windows, limits, billing, and the file tools currently available on PDFWorks.
Privacy
Files and access
Are my files public?
No. Uploaded and generated files are stored outside the public web root. The download endpoint checks job access before serving a file.
When are uploaded files deleted?
Anonymous files are retained for 1 hour, logged-in free files for 2 hours, and paid or admin files for 24 hours. The cleanup service runs regularly and removes expired job files.
Can I recover an anonymous job after clearing cookies?
No. Anonymous access depends on a session token stored in your browser. If the session is gone, PDFWorks has no recovery path for that anonymous job.
Usage
Accounts and limits
Do I need an account?
No. You can upload anonymously for occasional work. A free account raises the daily free limit and shows your retained job history while files are still inside their retention window.
What are the daily limits?
Anonymous users can run 3 jobs per day, logged-in free users can run 5, and paid or admin users can run 50. These counts are cumulative across all tools.
How many jobs can run at once?
Anonymous and logged-in free users can have 1 active async job at a time. Paid or admin users can have up to 5 active async jobs.
Why does a job sometimes wait?
Uploads are accepted by the web app, stored privately, and processed by background workers. The job page updates through Mercure server-sent events or falls back to polling every few seconds.
Tools
Formats and processing
Which tools are available now?
PDF tools: Merge, Split, Compress, PDF to JPG, Rotate, Organize, OCR, Watermark & Page Numbers, Add Page Numbers, Redact, Sign, Protect (password), Unlock, and Word/Excel/PPT to PDF. Image tools: Convert Images, Edit Image, Scan to PDF, JPG to PDF, and Resize Images. Video and audio tools: Compress Video, Video Converter, Video to GIF, Add Subtitles to Video, Audio Converter, and Extract Audio. Logged-in users can also chain tools into saved workflows.
Can I process multiple files at once?
Yes. PDF compression and OCR accept up to 10 PDFs, Merge PDF accepts up to 20 input files and 200 selected output pages, image conversion accepts 10 images for free users or 100 for paid users, and video conversion accepts 3 videos for free users or 10 for paid users.
Are target file sizes guaranteed?
No. Target size compression is best effort. If the exact target cannot be reached, PDFWorks keeps the smallest valid output it can produce and shows a warning.
What are the video upload limits?
Free users can upload videos up to 250 MB each. Paid users and admins can upload videos up to 2 GB each. Accepted inputs include MP4, MOV, WebM, MKV, AVI, and MPEG.
What does OCR PDF do?
OCR PDF creates searchable versions of scanned PDFs by adding a hidden text layer. The current tool supports English and German.
Billing
Paid access
What changes with paid access?
Paid access raises the daily limit to 50 jobs, allows 5 active jobs at once, increases eligible batch limits for images and videos, and keeps downloads available for 24 hours.
Can I manage or cancel a subscription?
Yes. Logged-in users with a Stripe customer can open the billing portal from the account page to manage subscriptions.
Do failed jobs count?
A job uses quota once it is accepted for processing. If processing fails, the page shows a generic error and no file is served.