3 Best Free PDF to Word Converters

Free Programs That Convert PDF to Word (DOC or DOCX)

by
Stacy Fisher
Stacy is a freelancer with over 18 years experience writing about technology and personal finance. She has published hundreds of articles and co-authored a book.
our editorial process
Stacy Fisher
Updated on June 03, 2020

A PDF to Word converter does just that: converts a PDF file, which can't be edited with most software, to a Microsoft Word format, like DOCX or DOC, which can be edited easily with many different programs.

Renaming a PDF to a Word format like DOC won't work. You'll have to use a program or service that will convert PDF to Word (or some other editable file format) before you can make changes to it. Once the changes are made, you can use a free PDF converter program to turn your Word document ​back into a PDF file...if you want to.

You can convert PDF to Word with any of these completely free programs and online services.

Some programs let you edit a PDF without converting it. On the other hand, if all you really want to do is view the PDF file, you don't need to do any converting—see our list of free PDF readers for tools that open PDF files.

01
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UniPDF

UniPDF Free home screen
What We Like

  • Intuitive, easy-to-use interface.

  • Accurately converts PDFs with lots of graphics.

  • Multi-page documents convert successfully.

What We Don't Like

  • Can't convert PDF to DOCX.

  • Loses complex text formatting in conversion.

  • Limited to three conversions per day.

UniPDF is a free PDF to Word converter, and easily the best one we've tried. It's fast and simple to use, but most importantly, it does an excellent job at keeping images and text where they belong once converted to DOC.

Another benefit to this PDF converter is that it has a straightforward user interface and isn't bogged down with advertisements or confusing settings.

UniPDF also converts PDF files to popular image formats like JPG, PNG, TIF, and others, as well as the text format RTF.

Batch PDF to Word conversions and the ability to convert more than three PDFs in a single day are supported only if you pay for an upgraded version of the program.

You can install UniPDF in Windows 10 down through Windows XP.

02
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PDFMate PDF Converter Free

PDFMate PDF Converter Free
What We Like

  • Wizard-guided conversion process.

  • Convert multiple PDFs at the same time.

  • OCR to convert scanned PDFs to editable files.

What We Don't Like

  • Prompts you to buy full version after conversion.

  • Limits OCR conversion to three pages.

PDFMate PDF Converter Free is another excellent tool that will convert PDF to DOCX, which is the newest Microsoft Word document file format.

In out tests, PDFMate PDF Converter Free did a great job at converting PDF to the Word format, retaining nearly all the proper formatting and color.

Batch PDF to Word converting is supported, as well as PDF to PDF conversions, which is helpful for making changes to PDF security settings.

One drawback with this tool is that text found in the PDF will only be editable on the first three pages of the DOCX file it creates, but that may not be a concern depending on the PDF you happen to be converting to Word.

PDFMate PDF Converter Free can also convert from PDF to EPUB, HTML, JPG, SWF, and TXT.

This PDF to Word converter works in Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, and XP.

03
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FreeFileConvert

FreeFileConvert website
What We Like

  • Online converter; doesn't require a software download.

  • Conversion process is simple.

  • Accepts uploads of up to 300 MB.

What We Don't Like

  • Upload limited to five files at a time.

  • You have 24 hours to download converted files.

  • Can't download in bulk.

FreeFileConvert is a free online PDF to Word converter that supports file uploads (up to five at a time) as large as 300 MB combined size. You can load a local PDF, one from a URL, or a PDF stored in your Google Drive or Dropbox account.

In addition to DOCX, FreeFileConvert supports PDF conversion to EPUB, HTML, MOBI, TXT, and lots of other file formats, including images. In total, this service supports several thousand different conversion combinations.

This PDF to DOC converter runs in your web browser, so it works with all operating systems.