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Compress, convert, merge or sign a PDF without uploading it to an AI

PDFCheetah compresses a PDF to a size, turns JPG photos into a PDF, merges PDFs and signs them in your browser, so the file never leaves your device: it is not sent to us, and it is not sent to an AI service. Uploading the same file to an AI chat sends it to the company that runs the chat, and what happens to it after that is set by that company's own terms.

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The same jobs, in your browser

  • Compress PDFPDFCheetah's free Compress PDF tool makes a PDF smaller in your browser, mostly by re-saving its pictures, so the text stays selectable — and your file never leaves your device.
  • JPG to PDFPDFCheetah's free JPG to PDF tool turns JPG photos into one PDF in your browser — a page per photo, in the order you choose — and your pictures never leave your device.
  • Merge PDFPDFCheetah's free Merge PDF tool combines several PDFs into one in your browser — preview, reorder, rotate or leave out pages first — and your files never leave your device.
  • Sign PDFPDFCheetah's free Sign PDF tool puts a visible signature you draw, type or take from a picture onto a PDF in your browser — not a certificate-backed one — and your file never leaves your device.

Need a set size for an upload form? Start from Compress a PDF to 200KB, or look your form up in PDF size limits on Indian forms.

What happens to a file you upload to an AI assistant

Each company sets its own rules for files uploaded to its assistant, and changes them. This is what each one's own help pages said when we read them; follow the link for the current wording. They describe the services for individuals: business and work accounts have terms of their own.

ChatGPT, from OpenAI

  • OpenAI says a chat stays saved to your account until you delete it, and a deleted chat is scheduled for permanent deletion from its systems within 30 days, unless it was already de-identified and disassociated from your account or has to be kept longer for security or legal reasons. Deleting a chat does not delete a file that is still saved in ChatGPT's Library. (Chat and file retention in ChatGPT)
  • OpenAI says it may use your content from ChatGPT to train its models, and that you can opt out by turning off Improve the model for everyone under Settings > Data controls. (How your data is used to improve model performance)

Microsoft Copilot, from Microsoft

Claude, from Anthropic

  • Anthropic says a conversation you delete is removed from your chat history immediately and deleted from its back-end storage systems within 30 days, though it may keep chats longer as required by law, to resolve disputes or to combat violations of its Usage Policy, and keeps a chat flagged as violating that policy for up to two years. (How long do you store my data?)
  • It says it uses your chats to improve its models if you choose to allow that, if a chat is flagged for safety review, or if you otherwise opt in, such as by joining a testing programme; feedback you send on a response may also be used. (Is my data used for model training?)
  • If you allow it, Anthropic says it may keep that data in a de-identified form for up to five years in its model training pipelines. (How long do you store my data?)

Read on each company’s own site on October 4, 2026.

When an AI chat is the right tool

An AI chat is a reasonable place for a file you would not mind that company keeping: a public brochure, a menu, a form you have not filled in yet. It can also do things these tools do not, such as summarize a document or answer questions about it.

For a scanned ID card, a mark sheet, a bank statement, a medical report or a signed contract, the question is different. Compressing or converting it does not need anyone else to see it, so a tool that never sends the file anywhere does the job without that question arising.

How to check the file stays with you

Watch the network while the tool runs. Open your browser's developer tools, go to the Network panel and turn on Preserve log. Load the tool page, choose your PDF, and run the job. A tool that uploads shows a request going out roughly the size of your document. A tool that does not shows nothing of the kind.

PDFCheetah's No-Upload Check, an automated test, drives all twenty tools in a real browser, records every request, and fails if your document's bytes or a phrase from inside it turn up in one. Merging, splitting, compressing, organizing, rotating, deleting PDF pages, turning JPGs into a PDF, turning PNGs into a PDF, saving pages as JPGs, saving pages as PNGs, extracting pages, cropping, removing blank pages, reversing page order, adding page numbers, watermarking, editing, signing, password-protecting and unlocking: every tool on this site, with none left out. One more cannot be published without one — our build fails if any published tool is missing this check.

That check compares literal bytes and a planted phrase. A hashed or re-encoded copy of your document would match neither, so it is evidence rather than proof.

What PDFCheetah itself sends and keeps, line by line: Is PDFCheetah safe?