How to scan a document to PDF on iPhone
Your iPhone has had a genuinely good document scanner built in for years, and most people never find it because it is hidden behind a menu nobody opens. Start here before installing anything.
Who wrote this: Mantra Factory — we make AddToPDF, one of the apps in the table below. The first two sections tell you to use software Apple already gave you, because for scanning specifically that is usually the right answer, and our app does not even do the one thing (OCR) that most people are actually missing.
The fast answer: the Files app
- Open Files.
- Tap the More button, then tap Scan Documents.
- Hold the page in view. In Auto mode it captures by itself; otherwise tap the Shutter button or press a volume button, drag the corners to fit the page, and tap Keep Scan.
- Scan any further pages the same way — everything captured in one session becomes a single multi-page PDF.
- Tap Done, pick a folder, tap Save.
That is a real PDF, saved on your device, for free, with no account and no app to install. Edge detection and perspective correction are handled for you, which is the part cheap scanner apps historically got wrong.
Multi-page scanning is also the built-in way to combine paper into one file. If you have three separate sheets that belong together, scan them in a single session rather than three — you will not need a merge tool afterwards.
The Notes route, and when to use it
Notes has the same scanner: open a note, tap the camera button, choose Scan Documents. The difference is where it ends up. Notes keeps the scan inside a note, which is good for capture — a receipt, a whiteboard, something you want turned up by search later. Files gives you a PDF in a folder, which is what you want when the scan is a document you intend to send.
Rule of thumb: if the scan has a recipient, use Files. If it has a future you, use Notes.
iOS 26 changed this: Preview is now on the iPhone
With iOS 26 and iPadOS 26, Apple shipped a dedicated Preview app on iPhone and iPad, and the Files app now opens PDFs in it by default. Preview can scan documents, and — the part worth noticing — it can fill in PDF form fields, including with AutoFill, and take a signature from your finger or an Apple Pencil.
We should be straightforward about what that means, since we sell a paid app that overlaps: for scan → sign → send, a stock iPhone on iOS 26 now covers the whole path at no cost. If that is your entire need, you are done, and you should not pay us or anyone else. Try it first.
What the built-in scanner genuinely will not do
Three real limits, and only the first surprises people:
1. The PDF is a picture, not text
This is the big one. Live Text can recognise words on screen, but the file you save is essentially a photograph of the page, generally with no permanent searchable text layer. You cannot search it, and you cannot copy a paragraph out of it.
The five-second test: open the PDF, try to select a word. If nothing highlights, there is no text layer. Adding one is OCR, and that needs a different app — Adobe Scan, PDFgear, PDF Expert. Not ours: AddToPDF has no OCR.
2. It cannot add pages to a PDF you already saved
Multi-page works beautifully within one session and not at all across sessions. Remembered the fourth page after tapping Save? The built-in tools will not append it. You need something that combines files.
3. A scan has no form fields
Scan a form and you get an image of a form. There is nothing to type into, because interactive fields are a property of the digital file, not of the paper. Anything that "fills" a scan is really placing text on top of the picture. That is fine — it is how everyone does it — but it explains why tapping a scanned box does nothing.
The options, side by side
| Option | Cost & account | Where the scan lands | OCR / searchable text | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Files (built in) | Free, no account | A PDF in the folder you choose, on device | No | The default. A document you want to keep or send, in three taps. |
| Notes (built in) | Free, no account | Inside a note; PDF via an extra share step | No | Quick capture you want searchable alongside your notes. |
| Preview (built in, iOS 26) | Free, no account | On device | No | Scanning and then filling a form or signing, without installing anything. |
| Adobe Scan | Free download, Adobe account required; heavier features push toward a paid plan | Adobe's cloud | Yes, with page limits on the free tier | You need searchable text and already live in Adobe. |
| PDFgear | Free | On device | Yes | Free OCR and real editing without a subscription. |
| PDF Expert | Subscription | On device | Yes | Heavy PDF work on Apple devices, OCR included. |
| AddToPDF (ours) | One-time purchase, no account | On device; out via the share sheet | No | Scan, then immediately sign it or fill it in and send it back, without a subscription. |
Checked against each vendor's own documentation in August 2026. We deliberately list no prices — they change, and a stale figure is worse than none.
Microsoft Lens — free, well liked, roughly 50 million downloads — was retired on 9 January 2026, pulled from the App Store a month later, and stopped creating new scans in March. Users were pointed at OneDrive, which stores scans in the cloud rather than locally. Nobody did anything wrong; the app simply stopped having a reason to exist. It is a clean illustration of why it is worth being able to name what funds the software you rely on.
When a separate app earns its place
Having recommended the built-in scanner twice, here is the honest boundary.
Get an OCR app if you need searchable text. Archiving receipts, invoices or contracts you will later need to search is the clearest case. Adobe Scan does it free with an account and page limits; PDFgear does it free without one; PDF Expert includes it in a subscription.
Get an editing app if the scan is only step one. The common real-world sequence is not "scan" — it is scan the form, fill it in, sign it, send it back before the end of the day. On iOS 26, Preview covers a good part of that natively. Where a dedicated app still helps is when you are moving between several documents, reordering pages, or doing this often enough that the rough edges matter.
That last case is what AddToPDF is for: scan with the same Apple scanner you would use in Files, then place text, sign with a finger, fill detected fields on a digital PDF, reorder pages, and send it back out through the share sheet — one purchase covering iPhone, iPad and Mac, no account, no subscription, and nothing uploaded anywhere. It has no OCR and does not edit existing PDF text. If those are what you came for, use one of the others above.
AddToPDF — the app we make
A deliberately small PDF editor for Mac, iPhone and iPad: add text, sign, fill forms, organise pages. Fully offline, no account, one-time purchase covering all three devices. It does not edit existing body text or do OCR.
Download on the App StoreFrequently asked questions
How do I scan a document to PDF on my iPhone without an app?
Open the Files app, tap the More button, then tap Scan Documents. Position the page in view of the camera; in Auto mode it captures by itself, otherwise tap the shutter, adjust the corners and tap Keep Scan. Scan any further pages, then tap Done, choose a location and tap Save. The result is saved as a PDF. No third-party app is needed.
Does the iPhone scanner make PDFs searchable?
Generally not. Live Text can recognise words on screen, but the PDF that gets saved is essentially a picture of the page and usually has no permanent searchable text layer. There is a five-second test: open the PDF and try to select a word. If nothing highlights, there is no text layer. Adding one requires OCR, which needs a separate app.
What is the difference between scanning in Files and scanning in Notes?
Files saves a PDF straight to a folder you choose, which is what you want when the scan is a document to send or keep. Notes puts the scan inside a note, which suits quick capture and search alongside your other notes; getting a PDF out of it is an extra share step. Same scanner underneath.
Can I scan several pages into one PDF on iPhone?
Yes. Keep scanning pages before you tap Done — every page captured in that one session becomes a single multi-page PDF. What the built-in scanner will not do is add pages to a PDF you saved earlier; that needs an app that can combine files.
Can I sign or fill in a form I just scanned on my iPhone?
On iOS 26, Apple's Preview app can fill PDF form fields and add a signature, and Files opens PDFs in Preview by default. Note that a scan has no real form fields in it — it is an image of a page — so filling it means placing text on top rather than typing into fields.
Is Adobe Scan better than the built-in iPhone scanner?
It does more, at a cost. Adobe Scan is free to download but requires an Adobe account before the camera opens, saves into Adobe's cloud, and includes OCR with page limits on the free tier, with heavier features pushed toward a paid Acrobat plan. If you want OCR and already use Adobe, it is reasonable. If you want a PDF on your device with no account, the built-in scanner is faster and asks nothing of you.
Related guides
How to sign a PDF on iPhone or iPad
The free built-in way, and the full round trip inside Mail.
Read the guide ›Fill out a PDF form without Adobe
Real fields vs. flat scans — the distinction that decides your tool.
Read the guide ›Mac PDF editors: an honest comparison
Eight tools, what each is genuinely best at — including where ours loses.
Read the comparison ›