The best free PDF reader for Mac, honestly compared
For most people the best free PDF reader for Mac is one you already have or one with no strings. Preview is built in and fine for reading. PDF Unlimited adds search results, an outline, slideshow and real editing tools, free with no account. Acrobat Reader suits Adobe-only forms. Skim suits academic papers.
| Price | Account needed | Search results list | Markup | Compress, OCR, redact | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PDF Unlimited | Free | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Preview | Free, built in | No | Yes | Yes | Partly |
| Acrobat Reader | Free, paid upgrades | For some features | Yes | Yes | No (paid) |
| Skim | Free, open source | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Safari or Chrome | Free | No | Varies | Varies by version | No |
What a good PDF viewer on Mac should do
Reading a PDF sounds like a solved problem, and mostly it is. The difference between readers shows up on long documents: how fast they open a 400-page manual, whether search lists every match or makes you press Next forty times, whether you can jump around with an outline, and whether highlighting a sentence takes one click or a trip through three menus.
We compared five free options on the things you can check yourself: what they cost, whether they need an account, and which reading and markup tools are included. No paid upgrades counted.
Preview: already on your Mac
Preview is the default PDF viewer on every Mac, and for reading it is genuinely good. It has thumbnails, a table of contents sidebar when the PDF includes one, search, and a slideshow view. The Markup toolbar adds highlights, notes, text boxes, shapes and signatures.
The catch: it is a viewer first. Heavier jobs like compressing with control over quality, true redaction of areas on a scan, or rearranging dozens of pages are possible in places and awkward in others. More in Preview alternative.
PDF Unlimited: a reader that also edits
PDF Unlimited is a free, native Mac app. In Read mode you get thumbnails, the outline (View > Table of Contents), a full list of matches (View > Search Results) and View > Slideshow for presenting. When reading turns into doing, the same window has annotation, signing, page tools, compression, OCR and redaction.
The catch: it does not edit the existing text of a PDF yet, and it needs macOS 14 or later. No account, no ads, no telemetry. Download it here.
Adobe Acrobat Reader: for Adobe-only forms
Adobe's free reader views, comments on, fills and signs PDFs, and it is the one app that reliably handles forms built with Adobe's XFA technology. Some features ask you to sign in with an Adobe account, and tools like combining, compressing, OCR and editing text are paid upgrades.
Who it is for: anyone handed a form that only Adobe software can fill. You can keep it installed for that one job and read everything else elsewhere.
Skim and your web browser
Skim is a free, open-source PDF reader and note-taker built for scientific papers. It shines at reading long documents and collecting notes, and it is less concerned with forms, signatures or page editing.
Safari and Chrome open PDFs right in a tab and let you read, search and print. They are handy for a quick look at an attachment. Markup tools vary by browser and version, and closing the tab is a fast way to lose your place.
Which free PDF reader should you use
Match the reader to the job:
- Just reading the odd file: Preview, or your browser.
- Reading and then signing, filling, merging or compressing: PDF Unlimited.
- An Adobe-only XFA form: Acrobat Reader.
- Academic papers with lots of notes: Skim.
- Want to make PDF Unlimited open your PDFs by default? See change the default PDF viewer on Mac.
Questions
What is the best free PDF reader for Mac?
For reading alone, Preview is already installed and works well. If you also sign, merge, compress or OCR documents, PDF Unlimited does all of that for free, with no account.
Do I need Adobe Acrobat Reader on a Mac?
Usually not. Preview and PDF Unlimited open standard PDFs. Keep Acrobat Reader for forms built with Adobe's XFA technology, which other apps cannot fill.
Is Preview a good PDF viewer?
Yes, for reading and quick markup. It gets clumsy for bigger jobs like true redaction or heavy page work. See our Preview alternative comparison.
Which PDF viewer is fastest on Mac?
Native Mac apps built on Apple's PDF engine, like Preview, Skim and PDF Unlimited, tend to open files quickly and go easy on the battery. Speed also depends on the file; scanned pages are heavier than text.
Is there a free PDF reader for Mac with no ads or sign-in?
Yes. Preview, Skim and PDF Unlimited have no ads and no sign-in. PDF Unlimited also has no telemetry and works fully offline.