9 Best PDF Readers for Mac in 2026 (Free and Paid)

Choosing a PDF reader for Mac depends on what you actually do with PDFs. Apple Preview is enough for quick viewing and basic markup, while students, professionals, and people working with scanned files may need stronger search, annotation, OCR, form, or AI tools.

Looking for more than a PDF reader? If you need to change existing text, images, or other PDF content, see our guide on how to edit a PDF on Mac. This article focuses specifically on choosing the best Mac PDF reader for viewing, searching, annotating, filling forms, and reading PDFs efficiently.

Quick Answer: Apple Preview is the best free starting point because it is built into macOS and handles everyday viewing, search, markup, signatures, and forms. UPDF for Mac is the better all-around choice if you also need OCR for scanned PDFs, advanced annotation, AI-assisted reading, conversion, and cross-platform access. Adobe Acrobat Reader suits Adobe users, while Skim is a lightweight option for research papers.

If Preview feels too limited for your documents, you can download UPDF and try its Mac reading tools for free before deciding whether its advanced features fit your workflow.

Part 1. Quick Comparison of the Best PDF Readers for Mac

The table gives you the practical differences first. “Free reading” means you can open and read standard PDFs without paying; advanced tools may require a paid plan. Product availability and plan limits were checked against current product information in October 2026 and can change.

PDF reader	Best for	Free reading	Annotation and search	OCR / forms	Main limitation
Apple Preview	Basic everyday reading	Yes	Basic markup and text search	No OCR / fills many forms	No advanced OCR, AI, or full PDF editing
UPDF	Best all-around Mac workflow	Yes	Advanced annotation, search, bookmarks, AI	OCR and form tools available	Some advanced actions require an upgrade
Adobe Acrobat Reader	Adobe ecosystem and shared reviews	Yes	Comments, highlighting, search	Forms; OCR is a paid feature	Many advanced tools require Acrobat Pro
PDF Expert	Polished Apple-focused experience	Basic access	Fast reading and annotation	Form support; advanced tools vary by plan	Most productivity features are paid
Foxit PDF Reader	Business forms and collaboration	Yes	Annotation, search, shared review tools	Forms; OCR depends on paid products	Interface can feel busy
Skim	Academic papers and notes	Yes	Notes, highlights, search, note export	No OCR / limited forms	Focused on reading rather than full PDF work
Kdan PDF Reader	Cross-device reading	Basic access	Markup, search, document organization	Plan-dependent	Advanced features require a subscription
Highlights	Researchers extracting notes	Limited	Highlighting, notes, citation-focused workflow	Not its main focus	Specialized rather than general-purpose
Nitro PDF Pro	Advanced office PDF work	Trial	Reading, markup, search	OCR and forms available	More than casual readers need

For a wider platform comparison, see our guide to the best free PDF readers.

Four Differences That Matter More Than a Feature Count

• Reading several PDFs: In our Mac comparison, UPDF kept multiple files in tabs within one window and also allowed separate windows. Nitro PDF Pro 26.2 opened each document in its own window. Both approaches work, but tabs are easier when you compare several reports side by side.
• Working with scanned PDFs: Search does not work on image-only pages until OCR creates a text layer. UPDF lets you choose custom page ranges and different outputs for editable, text-and-picture, or searchable PDFs. Nitro separates current-page and whole-document OCR. PDF Expert uses a simpler default recognition workflow.
• Reviewing many annotations: A useful comment panel should do more than show a list. UPDF can jump to a comment, reply, hide annotations, and export all or selected annotation types. PDF Expert and Nitro can locate annotations, but the Mac versions tested offered fewer list-management and export controls.
• Presenting a PDF: UPDF can start a full-screen slideshow from the first or current page. This is useful for reports, portfolios, and teaching material. We did not find an equivalent slideshow control in the tested Nitro Mac version.

These are workflow differences rather than scorecard trivia. A reader that saves one step every time you search a scan, switch documents, or review comments can be a better fit even when two products both claim to support “reading” and “annotation.”

Part 2. 9 Best PDF Readers for Mac

Each option below is assessed as a reader first—not simply as a long feature list. Pay particular attention to its best use case and limitation.

1. Apple Preview – Best Built-In Free PDF Reader for Mac

Best for: Mac users who want to open, search, sign, annotate, and fill common PDF forms without installing another app.

Preview comes with macOS, launches quickly, and covers the basics well. You can use thumbnails and a table of contents to navigate, search selectable text, highlight or add notes, create a signature, fill many interactive forms, and rearrange or export pages. It is the sensible first choice for occasional PDF reading.

• Pros: Built in, free, simple, and well integrated with macOS.
• Cons: No built-in OCR for turning image-only pages into searchable text, no document chat or summarization, and no full editing of existing PDF text.

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2. UPDF for Mac – Best All-Around PDF Reader for Mac

Best for: People who read long or scanned PDFs and want stronger navigation, annotation, OCR, forms, AI assistance, and occasional editing in one Mac app.

UPDF keeps common reading controls easy to reach. On Mac, you can switch between single-page, continuous, two-page, and two-page continuous views, show the cover separately, or fit the page to the window, width, or height. Thumbnails, bookmarks or the table of contents, comments, form fields, and attachments are available from the left sidebar. You can also enter a page number directly, use keyboard-assisted zoom, open several PDFs in tabs, move a document to a new window, or start a full-screen presentation from the first or current page.

The annotation workflow goes beyond basic text highlighting. UPDF can highlight selected text, an image, or a rectangular page area, and lets you adjust color, opacity, and marker thickness. Underline, strikethrough, squiggly lines, text boxes, callouts, shapes, sticky notes, stamps, file attachments, and measurement tools cover both study and professional review. The Comments panel can jump to the marked location, support replies, hide annotations, and export all comments or selected annotation types for a separate review record.

The following video was recorded for UPDF 2.0. UPDF has since moved beyond that release, but the core Mac reading, annotation, editing, and document-management workflow shown in the video remains similar, so it is still a useful overview of how the app works.

For image-only documents, OCR can process a custom page range and create an editable PDF, a text-and-picture output, or a searchable PDF that keeps the original page appearance. The Mac version supports selecting more than one recognition language in a mixed-language file and includes controls for images, page headers and footers, color, resolution, and MRC compression. These choices matter when a small searchable archive and a layout-faithful editable copy require different outputs.

UPDF AI can summarize a long PDF, explain selected passages, translate content, and answer questions about the document. Form tools, PDF conversion, page organization, protection, and editing are available when your task goes beyond reading. This makes UPDF useful for people who start with reading but regularly need to extract, review, or reuse information afterward.

• Pros: Broad reading and annotation toolkit; OCR and AI for difficult documents; works across macOS, Windows, iOS, and Android.
• Cons: Reading is free, but some advanced saving, AI, OCR, editing, and conversion actions are governed by the current free-trial or paid-plan limits.

If Preview cannot search your scan or you regularly review long PDFs, try UPDF on Mac with one of your own documents to see whether the extra tools save time.

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3. Adobe Acrobat Reader – Best for the Adobe Ecosystem

Best for: Users who receive Adobe review files, fill standard forms, or already use Adobe Document Cloud.

Adobe Reader for Mac opens, searches, prints, comments on, and signs PDFs. Its familiar commenting tools and cloud connections work well in teams that standardize on Adobe. In our Mac comparison, Acrobat’s comment panel could combine filters such as reviewer, date, annotation type, and color, which is useful in a formal review with many contributors.

Adobe’s Scan & OCR workflow can recognize a scan and move directly into text editing, although the recognized page may be broken into many text boxes. The tested Mac build offered broad language support. These OCR and editing capabilities belong to Acrobat’s paid workflow rather than the basic free Reader, so do not choose Reader on the assumption that every Acrobat tool is included.

• Pros: Widely recognized format support, dependable form and comment workflow, and close integration with Adobe services.
• Cons: The app is heavier than simple readers and many advanced tools require a subscription.

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4. PDF Expert – Best Mac-Native Premium Experience

Best for: Apple users who value a polished interface and frequently move between Mac, iPhone, and iPad.

PDF Expert emphasizes fast document opening, smooth navigation, tabs, search, annotation, and Apple-platform continuity. In PDF Expert 3.11.4 for Mac, highlight, underline, and strikethrough were all directly visible, so common text markup required fewer menu steps. The tradeoff in our test was less control over transparency and line thickness, and its annotation list mainly filtered by color. UPDF offered more sorting and review options, including annotation type and author.

Its OCR workflow is simpler: the tested version used a default recognition mode, supported fewer selectable languages than UPDF, and did not turn recognized text directly into an editable result in the same way. PDF Expert can fill and sign documents, but our Mac test did not find tools for creating form fields such as text boxes, checkboxes, radio buttons, or dropdowns. It remains a polished reader, but these distinctions matter if “forms” means form creation rather than form completion.

• Pros: Clean interface, responsive reading experience, and strong Apple-device integration.
• Cons: The most useful productivity features are not all included in basic free access; verify current OCR availability for your plan and device.

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5. Foxit PDF Reader – Best for Business Forms and Reviews

Best for: Office users who need comments, signatures, forms, and shared-review features.

Foxit PDF Reader for Mac combines viewing, search, annotation, form filling, and signing with collaboration and cloud connections. It offers more controls than Preview, although the ribbon-style interface can feel crowded if you only want to read.

• Pros: Capable free reader, practical business form tools, and cross-platform availability.
• Cons: Some editing, OCR, conversion, and security features require separate paid products or plans.

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6. Skim – Best Free Reader for Academic Papers

Best for: Students and researchers who mainly read and annotate scientific papers.

Skim is a free, open-source Mac PDF reader built around notes and academic review. It supports text highlighting, snapshots, navigation, full-screen presentation, and exporting notes as text. Its narrow focus keeps it lightweight, but it is not intended to replace an OCR or full PDF editing suite.

• Pros: Free, lightweight, research-friendly annotation, and useful note export.
• Cons: No built-in OCR or AI and limited support for broader document workflows.

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7. Kdan PDF Reader – Best for Cross-Device Reading

Best for: Users who want a similar reading and markup workflow across desktop and mobile devices.

Kdan PDF Reader provides page navigation, search, annotation, signatures, and document organization across multiple platforms. Basic use is approachable, but several advanced tools and cloud services are tied to paid access, so check the current Mac plan against the exact features you need.

• Pros: Multi-platform support and a good selection of markup tools.
• Cons: Subscription boundaries may be excessive for someone who only needs a simple reader.

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8. Highlights – Best for Turning Research Notes into Usable Text

Best for: Researchers who want to collect highlights, notes, and citation-related information while reading.

Highlights is designed around active reading rather than general office PDF work. It can extract annotations into a structured notes view and fits well with research workflows on Apple devices. That specialization is valuable for papers, but it is less suitable for business forms, OCR-heavy archives, or advanced editing.

• Pros: Focused annotation workflow and useful note extraction for research.
• Cons: Free access is limited and it is not an all-purpose PDF suite.

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9. Nitro PDF Pro – Best for Advanced Office PDF Work

Best for: Mac professionals who need a traditional desktop PDF application for reading plus OCR, forms, editing, and document production.

Nitro PDF Pro is the successor in the product line previously associated with PDFpen. In Nitro PDF Pro 26.2 for Mac, the core reading controls covered thumbnails, page-number jumps, zoom, single-page, facing-page, and continuous views, plus sidebars for the table of contents, annotations, attachments, and form fields. It handled ordinary navigation well, but each PDF opened in a separate window rather than tabs in one window, and we did not find UPDF-style PDF slideshow controls.

Its annotation tools cover text highlighting, notes, text boxes, callouts, shapes, attachments, and basic measurement. The tested highlight tool focused on selectable text; it did not show the same controls for rectangular-area or image highlighting, opacity, and marker thickness. Nitro OCR can recognize the current page or the entire document and can clear an existing OCR layer. UPDF offered custom page ranges, multiple output modes, simultaneous language selection, and more control over retained images, resolution, color, and compression.

Nitro remains a capable office PDF application, especially when editing, forms, and document production matter. For reading alone, however, its paid desktop scope and multi-window workflow may be more than a casual user needs.

• Pros: Mature desktop feature set and useful tools for forms and scanned files.
• Cons: Paid software with more complexity than basic PDF reading requires.

Part 3. Which Mac PDF Reader Should You Choose?

• Choose Preview if you only open ordinary PDFs, make occasional marks, sign documents, and fill standard forms.
• Choose UPDF if scanned PDFs, OCR, long-document navigation, AI summaries, advanced annotation, or cross-platform work are part of your routine.
• Choose Adobe Acrobat Reader or Foxit if your team already uses their review, form, or cloud ecosystem.
• Choose Skim or Highlights if academic reading and note extraction matter more than business editing.
• Choose PDF Expert if Apple-native polish is your priority and you are comfortable with paid features.
• Choose Nitro PDF Pro if you need a full editor rather than a reader alone.

Before paying, test the app with three files: a normal text PDF, a scanned PDF, and an interactive form. Check search accuracy, scrolling speed, annotation export, form behavior, and whether saved files reopen correctly in another viewer.

Part 4. How This List Was Evaluated

This update focuses on the tasks behind “PDF reader Mac” searches: opening and navigating documents, text search, annotation, bookmarks, forms, scanned-file OCR, reading assistance, macOS availability, and free-use limitations. The detailed comparisons above draw on internal hands-on checks of UPDF and Nitro PDF Pro 26.2 on Mac, PDF Expert 3.11.4 on Mac, and a current Adobe Acrobat Mac build. Foxit findings from a Windows comparison were not treated as proof of identical Mac behavior. The remaining tools were assessed from their current Mac availability and official product information.

Product names, interfaces, plan boundaries, and free limits can change. The version numbers make the hands-on observations reproducible, while the recommendation still asks you to test the current Mac release with your own text PDF, scan, and form before purchasing.

We did not rank products by the length of their feature lists. A lightweight reader can be the better choice when it completes the intended reading task with less friction. For more ways to work with a document after opening it, see our guide on how to read a PDF efficiently.

FAQs About PDF Readers for Mac

Conclusion

The best PDF reader for Mac is the one that matches your documents. Start with Preview for simple files. If you regularly work with scans, long reports, detailed annotations, forms, or AI-assisted reading, UPDF provides a more complete workflow without making basic reading difficult. Download it and test the free version with your own PDFs before upgrading.