Batch Process PDFs Free: 21 Tools for Many Files at Once

PDF work rarely comes one file at a time. A year of bank statements arrives locked with the same password. A scanner hands back forty sideways pages. A client wants every proof stamped DRAFT before Friday. The task is the same each time, and the only thing that changes is the file — so doing it by hand means repeating the same five clicks forty times and hoping you did not skip one.

Batch mode removes the repetition. On 21 of the tools on ihatepdf.cv you can now select or drop several files at once, choose the settings a single time, and let the tool work through the whole stack. Nothing is uploaded: every file is processed inside your browser, one after another, and you download the results as a single ZIP. This guide covers how it works, what each tool does in a batch, and the few things worth knowing before you point it at a folder of important documents.

How to process many PDFs at once

1. Open the tool for the job — for example Rotate PDF, Add Watermark or PDF to Word. There is no separate batch page; batch mode is part of each tool.
2. Select or drop two or more files. In the file picker, hold Ctrl (Windows) or Cmd (Mac) to choose several, or drag a whole selection out of a folder onto the page. The tool switches to its batch view as soon as it sees more than one file.
3. Choose the settings once. The same options you would use for a single file appear above the file list, and they apply to every file in it.
4. Press the run button — it names the job and the count, such as "Rotate 12 files". Each row shows its own progress as the tool works down the list.
5. Download. "Download all" saves one ZIP containing every result. Each row also has its own download button if you only need one.

What happens to your files during a batch

Every file is read, processed and written inside your browser tab. The PDFs are never sent to a server, which matters more in a batch than anywhere else: forty payslips or a quarter of medical invoices is exactly the kind of collection you do not want sitting on somebody else's machine, even briefly.

Files are processed one after another, not all at once. That is deliberate. Each PDF has to be held in memory while it is worked on, and opening twenty large documents simultaneously is how a phone browser tab runs out of memory and reloads, losing everything. Working sequentially means the batch only ever needs as much memory as its largest file, so a long run on a modest laptop or a phone completes instead of crashing halfway.

While the batch runs you can watch each file's progress, and a Cancel button stops the run. Finished files stay finished and downloadable; the rest are left untouched so you can start again. Before you start, you can add more files to the list or remove any you picked by mistake.

Because the work happens in the tab, the tab has to stay open until the batch is done. Browsers also slow down tabs you are not looking at, so for a long run — OCR on a hundred scanned pages, say — leave the tab visible in its own window rather than hidden behind another.

Reading the results

Each file in the list ends in one of three states, and the difference between them is useful:

• Done shows the size before and after, such as "1.2 MB → 1.4 MB", and the number of files produced when a tool makes several from one PDF ("· 8 files" after a split).
• Skipped means the file had nothing to do, and the reason is given: "not password-protected" when removing passwords, "no bookmarks" when splitting by chapter, "no embedded images" when extracting images. Skipped files do not count as failures, so a mixed folder is fine to drop in whole.
• Failed means something went wrong with that file and says what — a wrong password, a document that is encrypted, a file that is not really a PDF. The rest of the batch carries on regardless.

If you change a setting after a run, the old results are cleared, because they no longer match what is on screen. Press the run button again to rebuild them with the new settings.

How the download is organised

When each PDF produces one result — a rotated PDF, a Word document, a watermarked copy — the ZIP holds those files side by side, named after the originals with a short suffix (report_rotated.pdf, watermarked_report.pdf, report.docx). When a tool produces several results per PDF — every page as a JPG, a document split into chapters, the images pulled out of a brochure — each source file gets its own folder inside the ZIP, so the pages of one document never mix with another's. Two inputs with the same name are kept apart with a "(2)" rather than one overwriting the other.

The ZIP is stored rather than recompressed. PDFs, JPGs and Word files are already compressed, so squeezing them again saves almost nothing and only makes the download slower to build.

Converting a batch

• PDF to Word — one editable .docx per PDF, using the mode and options you choose for the whole batch, with scanned pages read by OCR. Full guide: convert multiple PDFs to Word at once.
• PDF to JPG — every page of every PDF as a JPG or PNG, or just the first page of each, from 150 to 600 DPI. Full guide: convert multiple PDFs to JPG.
• Word to PDF — a PDF of each .docx, laid out with fonts that match Word's measurements so pages break where Word breaks them. Full guide: convert multiple Word files to PDF.
• Extract Text — a plain .txt file per PDF or image, with OCR for scans. Extract Images does the same for the photos and graphics embedded in each file. Full guide: extract text from multiple PDFs.

Pages and layout

• Split PDF — every splitting method except picking pages by hand works on a batch: page ranges, every page, by file size, in half, by chapter bookmarks and by a phrase in the text. Full guide: split multiple PDFs at once.
• Rotate PDF — turn every page, or only the pages you list, by 90° either way or 180°. Full guide: rotate multiple PDF files at once.
• Flip PDF — mirrors pages left-to-right, top-to-bottom or both, for iron-on transfers, screen printing and printing on the back of film. In a batch you can limit it to a page range that is checked against each file, so "1-2" mirrors the first two pages of every document. The mirroring is a vector transform, so text and line art stay sharp. Why you would need it: mirroring a PDF for iron-on transfers.
• Pages per Sheet — lays 2, 4, 6, 9 or 16 pages (or a custom grid up to 6 × 6) on each A4, Letter or Legal sheet. Running it on a batch is the quick way to turn a set of slide decks or lecture handouts into print-ready handouts with one layout. Every option — paper, orientation, fill order, margins, gaps and borders — applies to every file, and the output is named with the layout, such as lecture-3-4up.pdf. More on choosing a layout: printing several pages per sheet.

Stamping and labelling

• Add Watermark — the same text, pattern, angle, colour and opacity on every page of every file, placed relative to each page's own size and orientation. Full guide: watermark multiple PDFs at once.
• Page Numbers and Headers & Footers — numbering restarts in each file, and headers can print each file's own name. Full guide: add page numbers to multiple PDFs.

Security and privacy

• Encrypt PDF — one password on every file, with AES-256. Full guide: password protect multiple PDF files at once.
• Remove Password — unlock a set of files that share a password, such as a year of statements. Full guide: remove the password from multiple PDFs.
• Unlock PDF — removes the printing, copying and editing restrictions from files that open without a password. Nothing needs typing: every file in the batch is checked, restricted ones are decrypted, and files that carry no restrictions are skipped. A file that needs a password to open fails with a pointer to Remove Password instead, because that is a different kind of protection.
• Flatten PDF — merges form fields, comments and annotations into the page so nothing can be edited or cleared. In a batch the chosen mode applies to every file: Standard keeps text searchable, Full Flatten renders each page to an image at the DPI you pick, and Strip + Flatten also removes the hidden metadata. Flattening a batch of filled-in forms before sending them is the reliable way to make sure every recipient sees the answers. Background: how flattening works.
• Edit PDF Metadata — sets the title, author, subject, keywords, creator, producer and dates across a batch. A field you leave blank keeps each file's own value, so you can, for instance, set the author on fifty files without wiping their individual titles. "Copy from a PDF" fills the fields from a template document, and a Clear all fields mode empties them on every file. Note that many PDFs also keep a second copy of this information in an XMP packet, which is not rewritten; for a file with nothing identifying left, flatten it in Strip mode. Background: what your PDF metadata reveals.
• Fingerprint — computes the SHA-256, SHA-1 and MD5 of every file you drop, of any type, not just PDFs. Instead of a ZIP you download one CSV listing each file's name, size and hashes: a record of exactly what you sent or received on a given day. Each row can also be saved as a .sha256 file in the standard sha256sum format, so anyone can later confirm a file is unchanged with sha256sum -c on Linux or macOS. Background: fingerprinting documents.

Reading, fixing and recolouring

• OCR PDF — turns every scanned PDF into a searchable one, in any of twenty languages. Full guide: batch OCR PDFs.
• Repair PDF — runs the same diagnosis and five recovery strategies as a single repair on each damaged file: a direct structural repair, normalising stream lengths, rebuilding the cross-reference table by hand, recovering truncated files, and salvaging page by page as a last resort. Files with no PDF structure at all fail with that reason, and a badly truncated file may come back with only the pages that survived. Background: repairing a corrupted PDF.
• Invert PDF — Dark Mode, Full Invert, Sepia or Grayscale on a stack of documents, handy for loading a reading list onto a tablet for the evening. The Text-Selectable engine rewrites colours in place and keeps files small and searchable; the Universal engine recolours everything including photos and scans, at the cost of turning pages into images. Background: inverting PDF colours.

Tools that already work on many files

Some tools have always taken several files, because combining them is the point: Merge PDF, Compress PDF, Images to PDF, Bates Numbering, Alternate & Mix and PDF to ZIP. Bates numbering is worth singling out: unlike ordinary page numbers, which restart in every file, Bates numbers run continuously across a whole set of documents, which is what a legal production needs (Bates numbering guide).

Chaining several steps

Batch mode repeats one job across many files. When each file needs several jobs — rotate, then watermark, then encrypt — you have two options. You can run the tools in turn, feeding the files from one ZIP into the next tool. Or you can build the sequence once in the Workflow Builder, which applies a chain of steps to every file you give it and is the better choice for a routine you repeat every week.

Tools without batch mode, and why

Some jobs need a decision on every page, and repeating one set of choices across files would do the wrong thing. Editing text, signing, filling forms, redacting, organising pages and comparing two documents are all like that: what you do depends on what is on each page, so they stay one file at a time. The AI tools — summarising and reading aloud — are heavy enough per file that running them back to back in a tab would mostly be waiting, so they also stay single.

Practical limits

There is no fixed cap on the number of files. The real limit is your device: a batch needs enough memory for its largest single file plus whatever that tool builds from it. Rotating, watermarking, numbering and encrypting are light and run through dozens of ordinary documents in seconds. The heavy jobs are the ones that render pages to pixels — OCR, PDF to JPG at high DPI, Full Flatten, the Universal invert engine — where time and memory grow with the number of pages.

Three habits make big batches go smoothly:

• Try the settings on one file first. Single-file mode shows previews that batch mode does not, such as the watermark on the page or the page-number position. Once it looks right, remove that file and drop the whole set; the settings stay in place.
• Split very large batches by weight. Two hundred one-page receipts are an easy batch; ten 500-page scans at 600 DPI are better run a few at a time.
• Close other heavy tabs on a phone or an older laptop, so the browser has memory to spare.

Why it is free

Batch processing is usually where free PDF sites stop being free. Converting or OCR-ing fifty files on a server costs real money in compute and bandwidth, so it sits behind a subscription or a daily task limit. Here the work happens on your own device, so there is no per-file cost to pass on, and no reason to limit how many files you process.

Frequently asked questions

How do I process multiple PDF files at once?

Open the tool you need on ihatepdf.cv and select or drop several PDFs instead of one. The tool switches to batch mode, where you choose the settings once and process every file in a single run, then download them all as a ZIP.

Which PDF tools support batch mode?

Twenty-one: PDF to Word, PDF to JPG, Word to PDF, Extract Text, Extract Images, Split, Rotate, Flip, Pages per Sheet, Watermark, Page Numbers, Headers & Footers, Encrypt, Remove Password, Unlock, Flatten, Edit Metadata, Fingerprint, OCR, Repair and Invert. Merge, Compress, Images to PDF and Bates Numbering already accept many files.

Are my files uploaded during a batch?

No. Every file is processed inside your browser and never leaves your device, which is why batch mode is safe to use on payroll, statements and other sensitive documents.

Is there a limit on how many files I can add?

No fixed limit. Files are processed one at a time, so the practical limit is your device's memory for the largest single file, not the number of files.

What happens if one file fails?

It is marked as failed with the reason, and the rest of the batch carries on. Files that simply have nothing to do, such as an unprotected PDF in a password-removal batch, are marked skipped rather than failed.

Can I download the results one at a time?

Yes. Every finished file has its own download button, and "Download all" saves everything as a single ZIP.

Can I apply different settings to different files?

Not within one batch — one set of settings applies to every file. Run separate batches for groups that need different settings, or use the tool one file at a time.

Does batch mode work on a phone?

Yes. Select several files in the file picker and the tool switches to batch mode. Because files are processed one after another, a phone only needs memory for one file at a time.