Crop PDF Pages Free Online

Upload your PDF, drag to select the area to keep on the live preview, then download your cropped file. Set different crops per page or apply one crop to all — no account, no watermarks.

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Upload
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Set crop area
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Download
or drag & drop your PDF here
Up to 15 MB  •  All pages supported  •  Free forever
No files stored
Per-page crop support
No watermarks

What This PDF Cropper Does

Upload your PDF and a live preview of the first page appears immediately. Drag the handles to frame exactly the area you want to keep, or type precise margin values in mm or pt. For multi-page PDFs you can navigate between pages and set a different crop for each page — each page remembers its own crop area independently. Choose All pages to apply one crop uniformly, or This page only to crop pages individually.

Cropping sets the PDF CropBox — the standard property that tells every PDF viewer which area to display. The operation is non-destructive: content outside the crop area is hidden, not permanently deleted. Text stays selectable, links stay clickable, and the output is a true PDF.

Live page preview

See your actual PDF before cropping. Navigate pages and drag 8 handles for precise control.

Different crop per page

Navigate pages and set a unique crop area for each. Pages with saved crops are shown with a green indicator.

mm or pt precision

Switch between millimetres and points. Inputs sync live with the drag handles.

True PDF output

Text stays selectable and links stay clickable. Not rasterised — still a real PDF.

Tips for Getting the Right Crop

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this PDF cropper completely free?

Yes, completely free with no hidden catches. There is no account required, no watermarks added to your output, and no limit on how many files you can crop in a session. The only constraint is a 15 MB upload limit per file, which covers the vast majority of documents people need to crop.

If your file exceeds 15 MB, you can reduce its size first using our Compress PDF tool, or extract only the specific pages you need with Split PDF before cropping.

Can I set a different crop area for each page?

Yes, and this is one of the key features that sets this tool apart. Navigate to each page using the arrow buttons in the page navigator, drag the handles to set the crop area for that page, then click Page X only in the Apply to section. The green badge below the page counter shows how many pages have a saved crop. You can freely mix: some pages with a custom crop and others that pass through unchanged.

When you are satisfied with all your page crops, click the Crop PDF button. The tool will apply the correct crop to each page independently, so pages with very different layouts — such as a title page, body pages, and an appendix — can each be trimmed to exactly the right area.

Does cropping permanently delete content outside the crop area?

No. PDF cropping works by adjusting the CropBox, which is a standard PDF property that tells viewers and printers which area of the page to display. Content outside the CropBox is hidden but remains in the file. This means the crop is non-destructive by default — the original content is preserved in the file's data stream.

If you need to permanently remove content and reduce the underlying file size, run the cropped output through our Compress PDF tool, which can also help re-optimise the internal structure. For most practical purposes, however, the CropBox approach is exactly what you need: it is the industry-standard method used by tools like Adobe Acrobat.

Will text remain selectable and links stay clickable after cropping?

Yes. Because this tool adjusts the CropBox rather than rasterising the page to an image, the output is a true vector PDF. All text layers remain fully selectable, copy-pasteable, and searchable. Internal and external hyperlinks remain functional, and any embedded fonts, vector graphics, or form fields are preserved exactly as they were in the original file.

This is an important distinction from tools that convert PDF pages to images and then repackage them — those approaches destroy the text layer entirely. If maintaining text fidelity is critical for your use case, such as legal documents, academic papers, or fillable forms, this CropBox method is the correct approach.

What is the difference between CropBox, MediaBox, and TrimBox?

A PDF page can define several overlapping bounding boxes. The MediaBox is the full physical page size — everything the PDF engine knows about. The CropBox is the region displayed to the viewer and is what this tool sets. The TrimBox is used in print production to indicate the final trim size after bleed areas are cut. When a viewer opens a PDF, it respects the CropBox if one is set; otherwise it falls back to the MediaBox.

By setting the CropBox, this tool tells every compliant PDF viewer — Adobe Reader, macOS Preview, browser PDF viewers, and print drivers — to show only the area you selected. The full MediaBox data is still there underneath, which is why the crop is reversible by any PDF editor that exposes box settings.

Why do pages look different sizes after cropping with per-page crops?

When you assign a different crop to each page, each page will have a different visible area and therefore a different effective display size. This is intentional and correct — it reflects the fact that you trimmed each page to a different region. PDF viewers handle mixed-size pages natively; Adobe Acrobat, macOS Preview, and most browsers will simply display each page at its own cropped dimensions.

If you want all pages to end up the same physical size after cropping, use the All pages option and set a single uniform crop. This applies identical margins to every page so the output has consistent dimensions throughout. If your pages have different original sizes (for example, a landscape cover mixed with portrait body pages), you may still see size differences even with the same margin values applied, because the margins are removed from each page's own dimensions.

What if my PDF is password-protected or encrypted?

This tool cannot open or process password-protected PDFs. If you try to upload one, you will see an error message saying the file could not be read. You will need to remove the password from the PDF before uploading. If you own the document and know the password, you can open it in Adobe Acrobat or a PDF reader, then print it to a new PDF file (using a PDF printer driver or the Save as PDF option), which typically strips the encryption.

If the PDF is encrypted at an owner level (where the file opens normally but certain operations are restricted), the tool may still be unable to modify the CropBox, depending on the permissions set by the document creator. Owner-level restrictions commonly prohibit page modifications, which includes setting crop boxes.

How precise is the drag-to-crop selection?

The drag selection works in real PDF point coordinates mapped to the live preview image. When you drag the handles, the margin values shown in the inputs are the exact point or millimetre values that will be applied to the PDF — there is no pixel-snapping or rounding beyond one decimal place in mm mode. The crosshair guides inside the selection box help you align the crop to the vertical and horizontal centre of the page content.

For the most precise results, drag close to the area you want and then fine-tune using the numeric inputs directly. You can switch between mm and pt at any time — the inputs convert automatically without losing precision. Typing values directly into the inputs and pressing Tab updates the selection box on the preview in real time, so you can verify the exact crop visually before committing.

Are my files kept private and secure?

Yes. All file transfers between your browser and the server use HTTPS encryption. Your uploaded PDF and the cropped output are stored temporarily on the server only for as long as needed to complete the operation. Files are automatically deleted within one hour. No account is required, and no personal data is collected or retained beyond the session needed to process your file.

The preview image shown in the crop interface is generated server-side and sent to your browser as a compressed JPEG — your original PDF data is never sent to any third-party service. Once your session ends or the one-hour window expires, all temporary files associated with your upload are permanently removed from the server.