Format conversion
PDF to Word online — free conversion that preserves layout
PDF-to-Word conversion is the single most-searched PDF task on the internet, and most free tools do it badly: they rip the text out paragraph by paragraph and lose every table, every two-column layout, every image anchor. Opening that in Word is a worse starting point than retyping.
PennyPDF uses a layout-aware pipeline — LibreOffice Draw, plus cleanup passes for table detection and font matching. Two-column academic papers reflow correctly. Invoice tables stay as tables. Footnotes stay attached. Images keep their anchors relative to nearby paragraphs, not floating randomly.
If your PDF was made by scanning, run it through OCR first (/ocr, 3 coins) — the conversion needs a real text layer to work against, and a pure image PDF produces a .docx that's just one big picture.
How it works
- 1Upload the PDF (up to 100MB for signed-in users, 25MB free tier).
- 2Pick the output mode — editable Word (.docx) or PDF-like layout (.docx with text boxes).
- 3Wait for the conversion — typically under 15 seconds.
- 4Download the .docx and open in Word, Google Docs, or LibreOffice.
Frequently asked
Will tables stay as tables?+
Yes, for PDFs with a clear text layer. We run a table-detection pass that reconstructs rows and columns as real Word tables — not images, not tabs.
What about scanned PDFs?+
Run OCR first at /ocr. The output of OCR is a searchable PDF; feed that into the PDF-to-Word tool for a proper editable .docx.
Do I need Microsoft Word to open the output?+
No. The .docx format opens cleanly in Google Docs, LibreOffice Writer, Apple Pages, and every modern word processor.
Are fonts preserved?+
If the source PDF embeds its fonts, we extract and use them. If the PDF references system fonts that aren't on your computer, Word substitutes the closest match — same behavior as any other tool.
Is my PDF uploaded to a server?+
Yes, for this conversion. LibreOffice doesn't run in the browser, so the file is uploaded over TLS to a private bucket and auto-deleted within 2 hours of the job completing.
Why PennyPDF
- No subscription. Ever.
- Coins never expire — use them in 5 years.
- Client-side processing for 14 of 22 tools.
- No watermarks at any tier.
- Per-operation pricing, shown before you click.
- Same coins for web + public API.