--- title: "Download your edited PDF, fillable or flattened" description: "Download your edited PDF as a fillable or flattened file, with or without comments. What counts as a download on each plan and what guests need to do." url: https://help.pdfbetter.com/editing/download-edited-pdf/ collection: "Editing & annotating" section: "Redact & download" updated: 2026-10-18 publisher: "PDFBetter (AI Generated Inc.)" --- # Download your edited PDF, fillable or flattened > Click **Done** → **Download**, choose **Keep fillable** or **Flatten**, decide whether to **Include comments and sticky notes**, and click **Download**. Downloading needs a free account; Free includes 3 edited-document downloads a month, and Pro is unlimited. - Counts toward: Edited-document downloads Do it in PDFBetter: https://pdfbetter.com/app/documents/ 1. **Open the download dialog**: Click **Done** at the top right and choose **Download**. On wide screens the download icon in the top bar does the same. 2. **Choose fillable or flattened**: Under **Form fields and annotations**, pick **Keep fillable** or **Flatten**. Documents with form fields default to Keep fillable; others to Flatten. 3. **Pick what to include**: Leave **Include comments and sticky notes** on to keep them. Turn on **Only what I added** to get just your text, marks and signatures on blank pages, for printing onto a pre-printed form. 4. **Name it and download**: Change the **File name** if you like and click **Download**. If [Google Drive is connected](https://help.pdfbetter.com/automation/google-drive-import-save/), you can save to Drive instead. | Option | What you get | | --- | --- | | **Keep fillable** | Fields stay interactive in Acrobat, Preview and browsers. Notes and comments stay as annotations. | | **Flatten** | Everything is drawn into the page. It looks the same everywhere and can't be changed by clicking. | ## Accounts and limits You can edit without an account, but downloading is the account checkpoint. Click **Download** as a guest and you're asked to create a free account; your draft is kept and the download continues after you sign in. Each first download of an edited version counts once; downloading the same unchanged content again is free. Printing counts as a download too. | Per month | No account | Free | Pro | Business | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Edited-document downloads | — | 3 | Unlimited | Unlimited | "Unlimited" is subject to fair use; "—" means not included. If you run out on Free, the dialog explains which limit you hit and offers Pro or a [Day Pass](https://help.pdfbetter.com/account-billing/day-pass/) ($6 for 24 hours of Pro, nothing renews). ## Other formats **Done** → **Other formats…** lists Word, Excel, PowerPoint, JPG, PNG and plain text. Download the PDF first, then convert it with the matching tool, for example [PDF to Word](https://pdfbetter.com/tools/pdf-to-word/). > **Heads up:** If any redactions are marked but not applied, **Download** stays disabled. Apply them (content is removed permanently) or delete the marks. ### Does downloading change my original file? No. Your edits are rendered into a new PDF; the original upload is never changed. ### Which should I pick for a form I'm sending back? Flatten, if the recipient only needs to read or print it. Keep fillable if they need to edit the answers. ### Do the browser tools count toward my downloads? No. Merge, split, rotate and the other browser tools download free without an account. Only rendered copies of edited documents count. ## Related articles - [Redact a PDF permanently](https://help.pdfbetter.com/editing/redact-pdf-permanently.md): Choose Redact (in the Cover group), drag over everything to remove, then click Apply redactions and confirm. Text, images and drawings under each mark are removed from the file, not just covered, and the affected pages become images. - [Undo changes and restore an earlier version](https://help.pdfbetter.com/editing/undo-and-version-history.md): Press ⌘/Ctrl Z to undo and ⇧ ⌘/Ctrl Z (or Ctrl Y) to redo. Your work saves automatically; to go further back, open More (⋯) → Version history and click Restore on any version. Restoring never erases the current state. - [“Create a free account” or “Limit reached” when you download](https://help.pdfbetter.com/troubleshooting/download-limit-reached.md): Guests need a free account to download edited documents; your work moves into it and the download continues. Free includes 3 edited-document downloads a month. When they run out, Limit reached offers Pro, Business or a Day Pass, or wait for the reset. - [What happens when you reach a monthly limit](https://help.pdfbetter.com/account-billing/monthly-limits-and-credit-packs.md): When you use up a monthly allowance, PDFBetter stops before the task and offers to wait for the reset, buy a Day Pass or upgrade. For AI credits and fax pages you can also buy a pack that never expires. - [Import from and save to Google Drive](https://help.pdfbetter.com/automation/google-drive-import-save.md): Click Connect Google Drive in Settings → Integrations. Then use New → Import from Google Drive to bring files in, and Save to Google Drive (editor Done menu or a document's menu) to send PDFs back. - [Print a PDF from PDFBetter](https://help.pdfbetter.com/editing/print-pdf.md): Click Done → Print (or the printer icon in the top bar), then Print. PDFBetter prepares a flattened copy and opens your browser's print dialog, where you pick the printer, pages and scale. Printing counts as a download, so it needs a free account. --- Source: https://help.pdfbetter.com/editing/download-edited-pdf/ · PDFBetter Help Center · Last checked against the product 2026-10-18. Questions: support@pdfbetter.com