DOCX to PDF free: 9 converters and the limits they set
Turning a DOCX into a PDF looks like a solved problem. Search for it and the first page is CloudConvert, iLovePDF, Adobe, FreeConvert, Canva and a handful of others, all free. But free means something different on each of them. One gives you a single file per task. Another gives you three tasks an hour. One keeps your document for two hours, another for eight, another for up to a day.
I went through nine ways to convert DOCX to PDF free on 3 October 2026 and wrote down only what each company says on its own tool page, pricing page, help page or privacy policy. Where a company does not publish something, I say so. Limits change, so the date matters.
The first one is AnyFileKit, which is this site. Its section is mostly about what it does not do.
AnyFileKit: the file stays on your computer, the layout is its own
The Word to PDF tool opens your .docx inside your browser tab and writes the PDF there. Nothing is uploaded. If the document has characters outside the basic Western set, such as Chinese or Japanese, the page downloads one font file from this site to draw them. That is the only thing it fetches.
By default you get one PDF for the whole document. You can also cut it at the page breaks recorded in the file, or have every page saved as its own PDF. Several files can go in at once, and more than one result comes back as a single zip. There is no account and no watermark. The only size limit is the browser's, at about 2 GB per file.
Now the part that matters before you use it for anything formal. It does not use Word's layout engine. It lays the text out again itself, so pages can break in different places than they do in Word. Your fonts are replaced: Western text is set in Helvetica, and other scripts in one substitute font with no true bold or italic.
Some things are not drawn at all: headers, footers, page numbers, footnotes, comments, text boxes, shapes, charts and equations. Underline, strikethrough and superscript are lost. Tables keep their columns but not vertically merged cells, and a table inside a table, or a picture inside a cell, is dropped. EMF and WMF drawings, common in diagrams pasted from other programs, are left out. Links keep their text but cannot be clicked.
After each run the page lists what it could not carry over, so you see the gaps before you send the file. It does not accept the older .doc format.
CloudConvert: 10 conversions a day, kept up to 24 hours
CloudConvert's pricing page gives the free tier 10 conversion credits a day, files up to 1 GB, five tasks running at once and five minutes of processing time per task. Paid plans lift those limits. The price of the cheapest plan sits behind a slider and did not show in the page I read, so I cannot quote it.
Your file is uploaded. The privacy policy says files are deleted automatically "at the latest after 24 hours", or right away if you delete them yourself. On quality, the tool page claims the result is as good as saving the PDF from the latest version of Word.
iLovePDF: 15 MB and one file at a time
iLovePDF puts its limits in the page source. For Word to PDF, a visitor without an account gets 15 MB and one file per task. A free account gets exactly the same. Premium raises it to 4,000 MB and 10 files, at $7 a month, or $4 a month billed yearly.
The free plan runs on the web only and shows ads. The privacy policy says files are deleted within two hours of being processed.
Drawboard: free, no account, and a page that contradicts itself
Drawboard, which makes a PDF markup app, has a free DOCX to PDF tool with no account and no payment. It says there are no limits on how many files you convert in a session, and several files come back as a zip. It claims headings, tables, spacing and layout carry over.
On uploading, the same page says two different things. One line says your files are uploaded for conversion and deleted straight after. Another says nothing is uploaded, saved or tracked. Both cannot be true, and I could not tell from the page which one is.
Adobe Acrobat online: one free conversion without signing in
Adobe's Word to PDF page accepts files up to 100 MB. Its help page says that without signing in, most tools let you complete one free transaction and download the result once. The page does not say how many conversions a free account gets for this tool.
Your file is uploaded. Adobe says it is deleted unless you sign in to save it, within a short time, and gives no exact window. On quality, the tool page promises your fonts, images and alignment will look as expected.
FreeConvert: 20 minutes a day, kept 8 hours
FreeConvert counts free use in time: 20 conversion minutes a day, which its pricing FAQ says works out to about 20 files, with up to 5 minutes and 1 GB per file. No account is needed on the website, and you can convert several files at once.
Files are uploaded and, in FreeConvert's words, automatically deleted after 8 hours. The tool page says it uses Microsoft Office software to render the document. Paid plans start at $12.99 a month for Basic, which adds 1,500 conversion minutes and removes ads.
Canva: upload, edit, then download
Canva's Word to PDF page describes a three-step route: upload the .docx, edit it in Canva if you want, then download it as a PDF. It works in the browser or the mobile app, and the page says fonts, line spacing, page numbers and indentation are kept.
The page does not state limits, how long the upload is kept, or whether you need an account.
Sejda: 200 pages, 50 MB, 3 tasks an hour
Sejda prints its free limits on the tool page: documents up to 200 pages or 50 MB, and three tasks an hour. Converting several files at once needs an upgrade. Files are automatically deleted after two hours.
Paid options start with a Web Week Pass at $5 for seven days, then $7.50 a month, or $63 a year for desktop and web. There is also a desktop app.
Microsoft Word: Save As, if you already have it
If the document came from Word, Word itself can make the PDF. On Windows it is File, Save As or Save a Copy, then PDF. On a Mac it is the PDF option under File Format. In the iPhone and iPad app it is File, Export, PDF. The desktop versions do this on your own computer.
Word for the web makes a PDF through File, Print, Save as PDF, and Microsoft calls the result a basic PDF: bookmarks need the desktop app. On a Mac, one of the PDF options goes through a Microsoft online service, and the support page warns that only fonts Microsoft has the rights to can be used that way.
Google Docs: open it, then download as PDF
Google Docs can open a .docx and save it as a PDF through File, Download. Google's help says a converted document can be up to 50 MB, and for very large documents suggests printing to PDF instead. Converting changes some things on the way in: embedded charts become images, SmartArt becomes drawings, and macros are not kept.
The converted file sits in Google Drive. Google's help pages do not state a limit beyond the 50 MB, or say how long the file is kept.
If you only care about one thing
The document cannot leave your computer. Use Word's own Save As PDF on the desktop, or AnyFileKit in the browser. Every other web tool here has you upload it, and Drawboard's page says both.
The layout has to look like it does in Word. CloudConvert says its result is as good as saving from the latest Word, FreeConvert says it renders with Microsoft Office, and Adobe says fonts, images and alignment will look as expected. AnyFileKit lays the pages out again, and they can break differently.
You have a lot of files. FreeConvert allows about 20 a day in batches. CloudConvert allows 10 conversions a day. iLovePDF free takes one file per task, and Sejda free does not batch at all.
You care how long your file is kept. iLovePDF and Sejda say two hours, FreeConvert eight hours, CloudConvert up to 24 hours. Adobe and Canva give no number.
You do not want an account. AnyFileKit, iLovePDF, FreeConvert and Drawboard work without one. Adobe gives you one conversion without signing in.