PDF Edit Craft Files never leave your device

How to search for text in a PDF

Find every occurrence of a word or phrase across the whole document, jump from match to match, and highlight or redact all of them in one step.

Do it now in the free PDF editorOpens in your browser. No sign-up, no watermark — your PDF is never uploaded.
Open the PDF editor

Search a PDF in four steps

  1. Open the PDF editor and choose your PDF.
  2. Press Ctrl+F (⌘+F on a Mac) or click Find in the toolbar, and type what you are looking for.
  3. Press Enter for the next match and Shift+Enter for the previous one. The counter shows where you are, for example “2 of 5”.
  4. Click Highlight all to mark every match, or Redact all to remove them. Press Esc to close the search.

See how it works

Searching a PDF for “client”: every match is highlighted, with buttons to highlight or redact all
  1. Press Ctrl+F and type
  2. Step through the matches
  3. Highlight or redact all of them

Searching in the editor

The search bar opens above the pages and the match counter updates as you type. The current match is outlined in blue and scrolled into view; the other matches are marked in amber. Because the editor searches the text stored in the PDF, results are exact — the search does not depend on what happens to be visible on screen.

Turn search results into highlights

Reviewing a long contract for a party’s name or a keyword? Search for it and click Highlight all. A highlight is added over every match in the whole document, in the current highlight color. Each highlight is a normal item you can recolor, move or delete, and Ctrl+Z removes them all in one step.

Turn search results into redactions

The same works for confidential data: Redact all places a redaction box over every match. When you download, those pages are saved with the text removed. Read the guide to redacting a PDF for what this means for the file.

Good to know

  • The search finds text inside words as well: “port” also matches “report”. Add a space to search for whole words.
  • Text you added yourself with the Text tool is not part of the original PDF and is not searched.
  • Pages you rotated, moved or inserted are searched in their new order.

Frequently asked questions

Is the search case-sensitive?

No. Upper and lower case are treated the same, and accents are ignored too, so “resume” also finds “Résumé” and “sasa” finds “Šaša”.

Why does my search find nothing in a scanned PDF?

A scanned PDF is a picture of the pages and contains no text to search. Run it through OCR software first to add a text layer.

Does it search all pages?

Yes, every page of the document, starting from the page you are looking at.

Can I search for a phrase across a line break?

Yes. Line breaks and extra spaces count as a single space, so a phrase that wraps onto the next line is still found.

Ready to try it?Drop your PDF into the editor and download the result in seconds.
Open the PDF editor

More guides

Edit existing PDF textClick a line that is already in the PDF and retype it in a matching font.Add text to PDFType anywhere on a page in 26 fonts, any size and color.Sign a PDFDraw, type or upload your signature and place it on the page.Fill out a PDF formFill fields, tick checkboxes and choose options — even on non-fillable forms.Highlight text in a PDFHighlights that snap to the words and lines under them.Draw and add shapes to a PDFFreehand drawing, rectangles, ellipses, lines and arrows.Add an image to a PDFInsert a JPG, PNG, HEIC or WebP image, logo or stamp.Add a watermark to a PDFStamp text or a logo on every page, or only the pages you choose.Redact a PDF permanentlyBlack out confidential text so it is removed from the file for good.Password protect a PDFLock a PDF with a password and AES-256 encryption, or restrict printing and copying.Unlock a PDFRemove the password and printing, copying or editing restrictions from a PDF.White out a PDFCover content with a white box and type over it.Reorder, rotate and delete PDF pagesReorder, rotate and delete pages; insert blank pages, other PDFs or images.Crop PDF pagesTrim white margins or keep just part of a page, on one page or all of them.Split a PDF into several filesCut a PDF at the pages you choose, every N pages or at each bookmark.Extract pages from a PDFPick pages by clicking them and save them as a new PDF.Merge PDF filesCombine PDFs and images into one file, in any order you like.Keyboard shortcuts and tipsUndo, copy and paste, select all, snap guides, layers and zoom.Compress a PDFMake a PDF smaller for email and upload limits while text stays sharp.Convert PDF to JPG or PNGSave PDF pages as high-resolution JPG or PNG images.Convert a text file to PDFTurn a .txt file into a clean PDF with your page size, font and margins.Repair a damaged PDFOpen a corrupted or cut-off PDF and save a clean, working copy.