About PDFSearch

The problem

Ctrl+F searches one open document. That is fine until you have forty of them: a semester of lecture notes, a folder of contracts, a batch of résumés, a public-records release. Then the options get worse. Desktop search tools need installing and indexing. Cloud tools want you to upload everything first — a non-starter if the documents are confidential, and slow even when they are not.

The approach

PDFSearch loads the PDF engine into your browser and searches there. Nothing is uploaded, nothing is stored, and there is no account to create. You drop in files, type a word, and get every match with its page number.

This has a real trade-off worth being honest about: the work happens on your device, so a very large batch is limited by your own hardware rather than by a server farm. In exchange, your documents stay private by architecture rather than by promise, and you can verify it in your browser's network tab.

What it does well

• Searches many PDFs at once, ranked by how many matches each contains.
• Exact, whole-word, and case-sensitive matching for precise lookups.
• Reads scanned documents with in-browser OCR in ten languages, including Hindi and Chinese.
• Loads files from your device or from a URL, and exports results as CSV.

What it does not do

PDFSearch is a text-search tool, not an AI product. It does not summarise documents, answer questions about them, or chat with them. It finds the words you asked for and shows you where they are. If you need a summariser, this is not that tool — and pretending otherwise would waste your time.

Who builds it

PDFSearch is designed, built, and maintained by a single independent developer based in India. There is no company behind it, no investors, and no team — which is why the changelog moves in bursts and why your feedback genuinely changes what gets built next.

How it is funded

Running the site costs money: hosting, domains, and the time to maintain it. The tool itself is free and the core search will stay free — no metering, no locked results, no trial that expires.

If you find it useful and want to help keep it running, the support page explains the ways you can. Supporting is entirely optional and nothing is withheld from people who do not.

Using it at work

Teams in legal, compliance, research, and recruitment use PDFSearch precisely because documents never leave the device. If you need something this does not do yet — a self-hosted deployment, a larger batch size, or a specific workflow — please get in touch through the contact page. Those conversations directly shape the roadmap.

Where to go next

• Try the tool — no signup, nothing to install.
• Roadmap — see what is planned and vote on it.
• Changelog — what shipped recently.
• Privacy policy — exactly what is and is not collected.