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.
Updated 2 min read Counts toward edited-document downloads
Step 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.
Step 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.
Step 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.
Step 4: Name it and download
Change the File name if you like and click Download. If Google Drive is connected, 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.
| Feature | No account | Free | Pro | Business |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Edited-document downloads | — | 3 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
If you run out on Free, the dialog explains which limit you hit and offers Pro or a 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.
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.
Tools in this article
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- Redact a PDF permanentlyChoose 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 versionPress ⌘/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 downloadGuests 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 limitWhen 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.