pdfFiller is a capable online PDF editor, owned by airSlate, that a lot of people land on from a search for "fill PDF online". Then they hit the sign-up wall: you start a 30-day trial with a card, and if you forget to cancel, you've got a subscription. If all you need is to fill in one form, sign it and send it back, you don't need any of that. Your browser can fill most forms for free, and our Add Text to PDF and Sign PDF tools handle the rest without uploading anything. Here's the full picture.
pdfFiller has three individual plans. The yearly prices below come from pdfFiller's own blog in 2026. Monthly prices aren't published in the same place, so the monthly figures are from third-party reviews and should be treated as approximate.
| Plan | Billed yearly | Cost for a year, yearly billing | Billed monthly (third-party reports) | Cost for a year, monthly billing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | $8/month | $96 | About $20/month | About $240 |
| Plus | $12/month | $144 | About $30/month | About $360 |
| Premium | $15/month | $180 | About $40/month | About $480 |
So a single form that you forgot to cancel the trial for can cost somewhere between $96 and $240 before you notice. pdfFiller's cancellation guide says you need to cancel at least 24 hours before the trial ends, under My Account, then Subscription and payment.
To be fair to pdfFiller, the paid plans include a lot: editing existing text, building fillable forms, cloud storage, sending documents for signature and team features. If you handle forms every week, it may be worth it. The trouble is that most people searching for it don't.
This decides which free tool works. Open the file and click on a blank line. If a text cursor appears in a highlighted box, it's a fillable form with real fields (government and tax forms usually are). If nothing happens, it's a flat PDF, often a scan or a Word file someone exported, and you'll need to place text on top of the page instead of typing into fields.
| Tool | Cost | Uploads your file? | Fillable forms | Flat forms | Signature |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chrome, Edge or Firefox PDF viewer | Free | No | Yes | Firefox and Edge can add text | Draw in Edge and Firefox |
| Mac Preview | Free with macOS | No | Yes | Yes, text boxes | Yes |
| Adobe Acrobat Reader | Free app | No | Yes | Yes, Fill and Sign | Yes |
| ToolAspect Add Text and Sign PDF | Free | No | Use your browser instead | Yes | Yes, draw, type or upload |
| PDFescape online | Free tier | Yes | Yes | Yes | Basic |
| Sejda Web | Free tier, 3 tasks an hour | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| LibreOffice Draw | Free | No | Partly | Yes, and can edit existing text | Image only |
One honest gap: our Add Text tool places new text on top of the page. It doesn't type into existing form fields, and it can't change text that's already in the document. For true fillable fields your browser's viewer or Acrobat Reader is the better choice, and for editing existing words, LibreOffice Draw is the free option, though the layout can shift on complicated pages.
| What you need to do | Free route |
|---|---|
| Fill a fillable government or tax form | Open in Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Preview, type, then save or download |
| Fill a scanned or flat form | Add Text to PDF: click where the text goes, type, download |
| Sign and date it | Sign PDF, with the optional date stamp |
| Tick boxes or circle answers | Annotate PDF with the freehand pen |
| Lock the answers so they can't be changed | Flatten PDF |
| Combine the form with ID or receipts | Merge PDF |
| Hide something before sending | Redact PDF, which removes the text under the box |
| Get signatures from other people | A dedicated e-signature service; see our DocuSign alternatives |
This is the most common complaint with free form filling, and it's not your fault. Some phone apps and email previews don't display form field values, only the page underneath. The fix is to flatten the PDF before sending, which turns your answers into part of the page itself. Print-to-PDF does the same job in a pinch, though it can drop links and make the text harder to select.
Forms tend to carry exactly the details you'd least want leaked: Social Security numbers, dates of birth, bank details, medical history. pdfFiller and other online editors process your file on their servers. That's normal for cloud software, but for a tax or medical form a tool that runs on your device is the safer choice. Our guide on whether it's safe to upload PDFs online goes through what the big services keep and for how long.
If you build fillable forms from scratch, edit other people's PDFs every week, or send forms out to clients and need them back signed, a subscription can save real time. If you fill a few forms a year, it isn't. Your browser and a couple of free tools will cover it, and you won't need to remember to cancel anything. For other options, our PDFescape alternatives and best free PDF tools roundups cover the rest.
No. pdfFiller offers a 30-day free trial, and you need to enter a payment card to start it. After that it's a paid subscription, with Basic at $8 a month, Plus at $12 and Premium at $15 when billed yearly, according to pdfFiller's own blog in 2026. Paying monthly costs more.
Go to My Account, then Subscription and payment, and cancel there. pdfFiller's own guide says to cancel at least 24 hours before the trial ends, otherwise the trial turns into a paid subscription automatically. Keep the confirmation email.
Open it in your browser. Chrome, Edge and Firefox can all type into fillable PDF form fields and save the result, and Mac Preview does the same. If the form is a scan with no fields, use a tool that places text anywhere on the page, such as our Add Text to PDF tool.
Yes. Our Sign PDF tool lets you draw, type or upload a signature and place it on any page in your browser. Adobe Acrobat Reader's Fill and Sign and Mac Preview's signature tool are free too. If you need other people to sign and want an audit trail, look at a dedicated e-signature service.
Flatten it. Flattening turns filled-in form fields into ordinary page content, so the values can't be changed by clicking into a field. Our Flatten PDF tool does this in your browser. It isn't tamper-proof, but it stops casual edits.