macOS ships with everything you need to combine PDFs, but the built-in way is easy to get slightly wrong. Here are two reliable methods.
Method 1: Preview (built into macOS)
- Open the first PDF in Preview.
- Choose View → Thumbnails so the page sidebar appears.
- Drag the second PDF from Finder onto the sidebar. Drop it between thumbnails to insert it at that position.
- Drag thumbnails to reorder pages, or select one and press Delete to remove it.
- Choose File → Export as PDF and give the combined file a new name.
Watch out: Preview autosaves. If you only press ⌘S, the first file is overwritten with the merged version. Exporting to a new file keeps your originals intact.
Preview works well for two or three files. With many files, dragging each into the right position is tedious, and dropping onto a thumbnail instead of between thumbnails can embed a file in the wrong place.
Method 2: In your browser
- Open Merge PDF in Safari, Chrome, or Firefox.
- Select all the PDFs at once, or drag them in from Finder.
- Drag the file cards into the order you want and rotate any that are sideways.
- Click Merge and download.
The merge runs inside the browser on your Mac. Your files are not uploaded, which matters for contracts, statements, and anything else you would not email to a stranger.
After merging
- Need to move individual pages around? Open the result in Organize PDF.
- Merged file too big to email? Run it through Compress PDF.
- Want page numbers across the combined document? Use Add Page Numbers.