Numbers
What PDF app subscriptions really cost, added up over three years
A PDF app for “$9.99” sounds cheap until you notice the small word after it: per week. We wrote down what the most popular PDF apps charge in the US App Store and on their websites, and added it up the way your bank statement will.
Paid PDF apps mostly charge every year, and some every week. On November 4, 2026, a year of the popular plans cost from $44.99 (iLovePDF) to $79.99 (PDF Expert for all devices), and weekly plans like Acrobat Reader’s $9.99 or PDF Editor’s $6.99 come to $363–$519 a year if left running. Over three years that’s $135 to over $1,000 for tools many people use a few times a month. Free options cover the basics; a one-time purchase covers the rest.
The prices, as listed
US prices on November 4, 2026, from each app’s App Store listing or official pricing page. Prices vary by country and change often.
| App | Plans | One year | Three years |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adobe Acrobat Reader (iPhone, iPad) | $9.99 a week; $12.99–$14.99 a month; $48.99–$69.99 a year; AI assistant $6.99 extra | $48.99–$69.99 (yearly); $519 (weekly) | $147–$210 (yearly) |
| Adobe Acrobat Pro (desktop) | About $19.99 a month on an annual plan; $29.99 month to month | About $240 | About $720 |
| PDF Expert | $79.99 a year for iPhone, iPad and Mac; or $139.99 lifetime for Mac only, “additional new features may come at an extra cost” | $79.99 | About $240 |
| PDF Editor® (“PDF 7”) | $6.99 a week; $12.99 a month; $59.99–$69.99 a year | $59.99–$69.99 (yearly); $363 (weekly) | $180–$210 (yearly); about $1,090 (weekly) |
| iLovePDF | $5.49 a month or $44.99 a year in the app; $48 a year on the web | $44.99–$48 | $135–$144 |
| PDFelement (iPhone) | $6.99 or $9.99 a week; $29.99 a year | $29.99 (yearly) | About $90 |
| PDFgear | Free, no purchases | $0 | $0 |
Weekly figures assume the plan keeps renewing, which is exactly what happens when a “free trial” turns into a weekly charge nobody noticed.
What you’re paying for
The paid features are mostly the same everywhere: editing text, converting to Word and Excel, OCR, compression, combining pages, redaction, and now AI. Some of these are free elsewhere: on a Mac, Preview fills, signs, merges, reorders, adds passwords and reduces file size. On iPhone, the Preview app in iOS 26 fills and signs forms.
So the honest question isn’t “which subscription”, but “what do I actually need that’s not free, and how often?”
How to choose
- A few signatures a year: the free tools on your device are probably enough. Make sure they don’t break signatures already in the file.
- Weekly work with forms, conversions and scans: compare a year of subscription with a one-time purchase.
- Several devices: check whether one purchase covers iPhone, iPad and Mac. Many plans don’t.
- Watch the trial. In the App Store, Settings › your name › Subscriptions shows every renewal date. Cancel at least a day before.
- Read the small print on “lifetime”. A lifetime licence for one device, or one that excludes future features, isn’t the same as owning the app everywhere.
Keepsign is free to read, fill, sign (also with a certificate), save without breaking anything and get a receipt. Keepsign Pro, with editing, Word and Excel, OCR, compression, What changed?, on-device AI and batch jobs, is a single purchase of US$29.99 for iPhone, iPad and Mac, shared with your family and including future versions. No subscription, no weekly plan. See pricing.
Sources
- App Store listings (US), in-app purchases, checked November 4, 2026: Adobe Acrobat Reader (id 469337564), PDF Expert (id 743974925 and 1055273043), PDF Editor® by SMM service, iLovePDF (id 1207332399), PDFelement for iPhone (id 1516765045), PDFgear (id 6465897558).
- pdfexpert.com/pricing and ilovepdf.com/pricing, November 4, 2026.
- Acrobat desktop: xodo.com/blog/adobe-acrobat-pricing-explained (third-party summary; adobe.com wasn’t reachable for us that day).
- Apple, Preview User Guide for Mac and iPhone User Guide, support.apple.com.