How to Add a Header or Footer to a PDF Online

Every page of a multi-chapter report needs the same header — title at top, page number at bottom. Doing it in Word means re-flowing the whole document; doing it in Acrobat means a paid subscription. Adding it to the final PDF is fifteen seconds.

When you actually need Header & Footer

Reports that finished as PDFs but never got headers, scanned documents that need branding added, drafts that need DRAFT in the header, contracts that need parties' names in the footer.

How to header & footer, step by step

Open the tool

Go to convertpdfgo.com/header-footer. No account, no email, no installation.

Drop the PDF in

Drag the file onto the upload area or click to pick. Files up to 30 MB go through without a queue. Encrypted in transit (TLS 1.3), encrypted at rest, deleted within one hour.

Configure your run

Type the header and/or footer text, pick alignment.

Download

The output is a clean PDF — open in any reader.

Common problems and how to avoid them

Footer overlaps the bottom-of-page content

Reduce font size, switch alignment from center to right (smaller footprint), or just use header-only / footer-only.

Page numbers don't update

Use %P (capital P). That expands to the current page index. Plain text like "Page 1" stays literal.

Header in wrong language

We render literal text — whatever you type appears as-is. Unicode (Cyrillic, Arabic, CJK) all work as long as the document fonts include those glyphs.

A short word on privacy

Three things to know. One: files go over TLS 1.3. Two: files are encrypted at rest while we process them, then deleted automatically within one hour. Three: we don't look at your files or train on them.

How we compare to other free tools

Feature	convertpdfgo	Smallpdf	iLovePDF
Sign-up	None	After 2/day	Optional
Watermark	None	None	None
Auto-delete	1 hour	Vague	2 hours

Frequently asked questions

Can I include the page number in the footer?

Yes — use %P in your footer text and it expands to the current page number.

Can I add a different header per page?

Not in one job. For per-page text, run multiple passes or use page-specific tools.

Are my files private?

Files are encrypted in transit (TLS 1.3) and at rest, then auto-deleted within one hour.

Will it work on protected PDFs?

Not directly — unlock the PDF first with our Unlock PDF tool if you know the password.

Is there a usage limit?

No. Free, no daily cap, no sign-up wall, no watermark.

How long does it take?

About 1-3 seconds for most files. Larger or image-heavy PDFs can take up to 30 seconds.

What's the file size limit?

30 MB as a guest, 50 MB when signed in.

What to do next

Now you can Page Numbers, Watermark, or Merge PDF. All free.

Or browse our full list of 49 free PDF tools.