Open a fillable PDF, type your answers into every detected field — text, checkbox, dropdown, radio — and download the completed file. Optionally flatten it so the values become permanent.
PDF forms can hide a dozen different widget types — short text fields, multi-line text areas, checkboxes, radio buttons, dropdowns and list boxes. Acrobat-style desktop apps cost money. Online tools usually only handle plain text. PdfDocShift detects all of them and renders a clean form for you to complete in the browser.
Type each answer, tick each box, pick from each dropdown, then click download. We rebuild the PDF with your values applied and (optionally) flatten the form so the result is no longer editable — perfect for sending finalised paperwork.
Fill IRS, HMRC and immigration PDFs in your browser without installing Acrobat. Flatten before submission.
Complete loan applications, KYC forms and disclosures that arrive as fillable PDFs by email.
New-hire packets and patient intake forms with dozens of fields — fill them all from one screen.
Fill, flatten and send. Pair with Sign PDF to add your signature on top.
No account. No software. Files are encrypted in transit and auto-deleted after 2 hours.
A PDF form filler is a tool that recognises the interactive widgets embedded in a PDF — text boxes, checkboxes, dropdown menus, radio buttons — and lets you complete them without owning expensive desktop software. Until recently, filling a PDF form online meant either uploading your file to a service that re-typed it as a plain image, or installing Adobe Acrobat. PdfDocShift's fill PDF online tool removes both compromises: the form widgets are read straight out of the PDF, and your values are written back as native form data — exactly the same way Acrobat does it.
Whether you need to complete a PDF form for a tax return, a job application, a rental contract or a school permission slip, this is the fastest way to do it from any browser. No installation. No watermarks. No paywall after three uses.
PDFs store fillable widgets inside an AcroForm dictionary — a list of named fields, each with a type (Tx for text, Btn for buttons including checkboxes and radios, Ch for choice fields). We open your PDF in the browser with pdf.js and render every page exactly as it appears, then overlay the real form widgets — text boxes, checkboxes, radio groups, dropdowns and list boxes — as native HTML inputs positioned in the same spot. You fill the form directly on the page; nothing is paraphrased or re-typed.
Any field that already has a default value — for instance the issue date on a government form — is pre-filled so you only need to override what changes. When you click download, your values are sent to our server and applied with pdf-lib; widget appearances are regenerated so the filled values render correctly in Acrobat, Preview, Chrome, Edge, and every mobile PDF viewer.
A fillable PDF contains AcroForm or XFA form widgets that can be edited interactively. A flat PDF is just an image of a form — there are no widgets to fill, so any "filling" is really adding free-floating text overlays. If your PDF has no detectable fields, this tool will tell you and you can switch to Edit PDF to type directly onto the page instead.
This tool also handles the common case of hybrid XFA forms: PDFs designed in Adobe LiveCycle that ship with both an XFA dictionary and an AcroForm fallback. We use the AcroForm fallback, which is what every non-Adobe viewer uses too — so the result matches what you'd see in Preview, Foxit, or Chrome's built-in viewer.
By default, the downloaded PDF still contains live form widgets — so you (or anyone else) can re-edit it later. Toggle Flatten when downloading to bake your values into the page content and strip the widgets entirely. The output looks identical, but the form fields are gone — exactly what you want when sending a finalised application to a bank, an immigration office, an employer, or a vendor.
Flattening also makes the PDF safer to print or photocopy without leaving editable artefacts behind. Pair this with Protect PDF if you also need to add a password.
Form widgets are parsed and rendered entirely inside your browser using pdf.js — your file isn't analysed by a third-party API. When you click download, only your filled values are sent back to our server to be applied losslessly to the original PDF. Both the uploaded file and the output are deleted from secure cloud storage after 2 hours; we never log field contents or share files with anyone.
Everything you need to know about filling fillable PDFs online for free.
PdfDocShift fills standard AcroForm PDFs containing text fields, checkboxes, dropdowns, list boxes and radio buttons. It also fills the AcroForm fallback layer inside most XFA (Adobe LiveCycle) forms, so the majority of XFA forms can still be completed. Pure XFA-only forms with no fallback layer are not editable in any browser-based tool — they require Adobe Reader.
Flattening bakes your filled values into the page content and removes the editable form widgets. The downloaded PDF still looks identical, but the fields can no longer be re-edited — exactly what you want when sending a finalised form. Flatten is off by default so you can re-open the file and keep editing later.
Form widgets are parsed and rendered entirely in your browser using pdf.js — there's no third-party form-recognition service involved. Your filled values are then sent only to our server to be baked into the final PDF. Both the input and output files are auto-deleted from secure cloud storage after 2 hours. We never log or persist field values.
Yes — download the PDF without flattening. The widgets stay editable, so you can re-upload the partly filled file later (here or in any PDF viewer) and finish the rest. Only flatten on the final pass.
Many "forms" sent by email are actually flat scans without true form widgets. If no AcroForm fields are found we'll show you a message and suggest using Edit PDF instead, where you can type free-floating text directly onto the page.
If the PDF is password-protected, please unlock it first with Unlock PDF. Once decrypted, you can fill the form here. PDFs with only "owner password" restrictions usually open directly without a password.
All file transfers use 256-bit SSL encryption. Uploaded files are stored in isolated cloud storage and automatically deleted after 2 hours — no exceptions. We never access the content of your files, share them with third parties, or require you to create an account.
Yes. Every page renders at its natural ratio and scales to fit your screen, so the form widgets land in the right place on phones, tablets and desktops. For dense forms with very small inputs, a wider screen is more comfortable.