Online2PDF or PDFGym: whose limits fit your files?

A free tool that shows its ceilings

Online2PDF's front page states the maximum file size as 150 megabytes, all files together as 200 megabytes at most, up to 30 files per run, and page caps of 500 without recognition or 100 with it. Checked 10 September 2026. The recognition caps were still on the page at the November read, checked 2 November 2026. Stating numbers like that is the correct behaviour: you see the wall before you start instead of discovering it mid-job.

Pavel, a solicitor's assistant, faces 24 scanned exhibits that must become searchable PDFs by Friday. He reads the caps, sees his batch fits inside 30 files and 100 recognised pages, and runs it in a single sitting. Had he held 60 exhibits, the same numbers would have told him to split the work across two runs before uploading anything. Limits you can read are limits you can plan around.

The same reads confirm what the site does: convert, edit, unlock, merge and export PDFs, with exports to Word, Excel, PowerPoint and JPG, plus recognition in many languages. Checked 2 November 2026. On retention the site promises uploaded files are never stored and all data goes after conversion, which is a clear policy, though your document still visits its servers for the actual work.

Online2PDF and PDFGym compared

Who should pick which

Count files first, then weigh sensitivity.

• Up to thirty files in one run: Online2PDF. Batch conversion and merging are its home ground and no tab keeps up.
• Scanned pages needing recognition: Online2PDF, within the 100-page recognised cap. PDFGym has nothing that reads scans.
• One file that must stay private: PDFGym. Medical letters, legal drafts and anything with an identifier should never depend on a deletion promise.
• Exact size targets and checked results: PDFGym. A typed kilobyte goal with a read-back check beats preset compression.

Where Online2PDF wins

Volume and honesty. Thirty files per run with printed size and page caps is a genuine batch workflow, free, and the recognition option in many languages covers the scanned archives PDFGym cannot touch. The export list, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and JPG, handles the office pairs as well. For a folder of routine documents this is simply the stronger tool, and this page recommends it for that work without reservation.

Credit where it is due: publishing every cap is how all free tools should behave. Most leave users to discover the ceiling by collision. Online2PDF marks the ceiling, in megabytes, files and pages, before you begin.

Where PDFGym fits

PDFGym fits the single sensitive file and the result you want proven in front of you. Merge accepts any number of files you drop in, needs at least two, flags interactive form or signature fields before running, and then checks that the result opens with nothing missing or misordered. There is no fixed file-count limit in the tool; the practical ceiling is tab memory, stated openly on the merge page.

Elsewhere the ceilings are equally explicit. Page export caps a page at 40 million pixels and says so instead of handing over a truncated image. Images to PDF lays a set of pictures out as pages locally. And nothing crosses the network in any of them, which answers the question of who else touched the document with a single word: nobody. The converter roundup fits better when the task changes a format instead of the file itself.

How this comparison was checked

Online2PDF's front page was read on 10 September 2026 for the size, file-count and page caps, and again on 2 November 2026 for the feature list, recognition caps and retention sentence. Claims this page could not re-check, such as script or API use, were left out. PDFGym's caps and checks quote the tool pages in this site's source. Neither product processed a test batch for this page.