How to Save Any Webpage as PDF Online Free
You hit Cmd+P on a long article you want to save. The browser Print dialog opens, the preview shows the article mangled into pieces, the sidebar ads bleed across pages, the layout breaks because no one designed a 1500-word essay to print on paper. You give up and screenshot it instead, ending up with a JPG that has no selectable text, no working links, and looks blurry on retina displays. This is the universal experience of trying to save a webpage as PDF using your browser.
iHatePDF Webpage to PDF does it properly. Paste any public URL, pick the page size and orientation, decide on backgrounds and margins, and the tool renders the page on a real server-side browser, exactly as a browser would display it, then saves the rendered output as a clean PDF. Articles save as proper articles. Recipes look like recipes. Wikipedia entries become readable documents you can keep forever, even if the original page changes or disappears. A separate tool, HTML to PDF, converts raw HTML markup or .html files, useful for previewing email templates, system-generated invoices, or any HTML you have on hand without needing to host it on a public URL first.
For a webpage URL: Open Webpage to PDF → paste the URL → pick page size and margins → Convert → Download
For an .html file or raw HTML markup: Open the separate HTML to PDF tool, which accepts either a URL (same input as Webpage to PDF) or an .html file upload from your device.
Webpage to PDF lets you choose A4, A3, Letter or Legal, portrait or landscape, the margin width and whether backgrounds are included.
How to convert a webpage to PDF online for free
- Paste the URL of the webpage you want to save as PDF. Any public webpage works, articles, receipts, recipes, documentation, anything.
- Choose your page size (A4, A3, Letter or Legal), orientation (portrait or landscape) and margin width.
- Decide whether to include the page background colours and images. Long pages are split across as many PDF pages as needed, with page numbers at the bottom.
- Click Convert. The tool fetches the page on the server and renders it, fonts, images, layout, everything, exactly as it appears in a real browser.
- Download the finished PDF, save it to Google Drive, Dropbox or OneDrive, or send it without re-uploading to another tool, for example Compress PDF.
Working with HTML markup or .html files? Use HTML to PDF (separate tool)
Webpage to PDF only accepts a URL. For raw HTML markup or .html files, use the separate HTML to PDF tool. It accepts three input types: a URL (same as Webpage to PDF), pasted HTML markup, or an .html file uploaded from your device.
- Open the separate HTML to PDF tool.
- Provide your input: paste a URL, paste raw HTML markup, or upload an .html file from your device.
- Pages come out on A4 with standard margins; this tool has no page size or margin options.
- Click Convert. The input is rendered server-side using the same browser engine and saved as a PDF.
- Download the result, or send it without re-uploading to another tool, for example Compress PDF.
When HTML to PDF is the right choice
- Email template previews. HTML email designs do not have public URLs. Paste the markup and get a PDF preview.
- System-generated invoices. E-commerce platforms and billing systems produce HTML invoices. Paste the HTML output to get a PDF receipt.
- Internal dashboards and reports. Reports from internal tools (Tableau exports, custom dashboards) often have non-public HTML output. Paste them in directly.
- Local .html files. Have an .html file saved on your computer? Upload directly, no need to host it anywhere.
- Code or markup snippets. Convert formatted HTML fragments or design system samples into shareable PDFs.
- Quick mockups. Paste a one-off HTML/CSS mockup and share a PDF without deploying anywhere.
Quick decision rule: if your input is a URL, either tool works. If your input is HTML markup or an .html file, only HTML to PDF handles it.
- Works best with public pages. Login-protected pages cannot be accessed.
- Some sites (Google, Twitter, LinkedIn) may block automated access. Try once, if it fails the site is blocking us specifically.
- Enable Include backgrounds to capture the full page design as-is.
- Use Landscape for wide tables and dashboards.
- Wikipedia, news sites, blogs, documentation and recipe sites usually work well.
Why this instead of browser Print or screenshots
- vs Browser Print (Cmd+P / Ctrl+P). Browser print dialogs were designed for traditional documents, not modern responsive layouts. Long articles get mangled, sidebars bleed into content, ads print as huge blocks, navigation menus repeat on every page. The server-side renderer handles modern CSS properly and produces a clean linear PDF.
- vs Screenshots. Screenshots are images. No selectable text, no working hyperlinks, no copy-paste, blurry on retina displays. A real PDF preserves text as text, keeps links clickable, and stays crisp at any zoom level.
- vs Browser extensions. Save-as-PDF extensions require install, take up memory, request permissions to read every page you visit, and break with browser updates. A server-side tool is install-free and runs in any browser including mobile.
- vs print-friendly websites. Whatever converter you use, check for ads, paid tiers, watermarks or sign-up walls first. The tool here is free, with no watermark and no sign-up.
- vs developer tools (wkhtmltopdf, Puppeteer). Developer tools work perfectly but require installation, configuration, and command-line skills. The tool here gives you the same engine quality with a paste-and-click UI.
What to save as PDF and why
| Content type | Why save as PDF |
|---|---|
| News articles and long-form journalism | Read offline, archive before paywalls or removals |
| Receipts and order confirmations | Tax records, expense claims, warranty documentation |
| Recipes | Cook offline without a screen on the counter, share with friends |
| Documentation (technical, API, software docs) | Offline reference, version-stable copy of the docs as of a date |
| GitHub READMEs and wiki pages | Snapshot of a project state, attach to internal reports |
| Wikipedia entries | Reference material, study material, knowledge archive |
| Travel reservations and tickets | Offline-accessible at airports with no signal, immigration evidence |
| Job postings | Save the JD before it expires, reference for interviews |
| Real estate listings | Snapshot before the listing goes off-market, comparison archive |
| Tax and legal information pages | Record of what was published on a specific date, evidence in disputes |
| Blog posts and tutorials | Reference offline, share with team via email or Slack |
| Product pages and reviews | Compare offers, save price-at-date for warranty disputes |
Page size, orientation, and margin guide
The defaults work for most uses, but matching the settings to your downstream use produces a cleaner result.
- A4, portrait, default margins. The safest universal default. Works for any article, blog post, or text-heavy page anywhere outside the US.
- Letter, portrait, default margins. Same as above but for US contexts (US Letter is slightly wider and shorter than A4).
- Legal, portrait. For long-format pages where you want fewer page breaks. Common in US legal contexts.
- A4 or Letter, landscape. For wide tables, dashboards, code blocks, infographics, comparison charts. Anywhere horizontal width matters more than vertical length.
- A3, portrait or landscape. Large-format archives, posters, exhibition material, or content with very wide images.
- Tight margins (5-10mm). For content-rich pages where you want to maximise text density.
- Wide margins (20-25mm). For clean reading copies, or PDFs you want to annotate by hand after printing.
Backgrounds: when to include and when to strip
The Include backgrounds toggle controls whether the page's coloured backgrounds, hero images, and decorative elements are kept in the PDF or replaced with plain white.
- Keep backgrounds on when archiving a page exactly as it looked, when preserving brand design, when capturing infographics or visual articles, when the design is part of the content.
- Strip backgrounds off when you plan to print the PDF (saves ink), when the dark theme of the page makes text hard to read on paper, when you only care about the article text and the rest is decoration.
A quick rule: digital archive = backgrounds on. Print copy = backgrounds off.
Workflow chaining
The webpage-to-PDF result is rarely the end. Common chains:
- Save, then merge. Save five recipe pages, then Merge PDF them into a personal cookbook.
- Save, then compress. Long pages with many images produce large PDFs. Compress PDF brings them under email attachment limits.
- Save, then sign. Some receipts and order confirmations need a signature for reimbursement. Sign PDF adds yours.
- Save, then convert. If you need the page content as a Word document for editing, PDF to Word extracts the text into an editable .docx.
- Save, then share. Use Share PDF as Link to send the saved page to someone with a temporary expiring link instead of an email attachment.
- Save, then archive. Combine with Google Drive / Dropbox / OneDrive integration to drop the saved page directly into a research folder.
Limitations: what cannot be saved
The tool is honest about its limits:
- Login-protected pages. Anything behind a username/password (private social media, banking, internal company tools, paywalled subscriptions) cannot be reached because the server has no session. Use browser Print to PDF after logging in instead.
- Sites that actively block automated access. Google search results, Twitter/X, LinkedIn, and some news sites detect server-side fetches and serve a block page or captcha. For those, use a browser extension or browser Print.
- Highly dynamic content. Pages that load most of their content via JavaScript user interactions (clicking through a slideshow, scrolling to load more) may render only the initial state. For those, scroll the page first in your own browser to load everything, then use browser Print to PDF.
- Locally hosted pages. URLs starting with localhost, 127.0.0.1, or internal corporate domains (10.x.x.x, 192.168.x.x) cannot be reached from the public internet. Open in your browser and Print to PDF instead.
iHatePDF Webpage to PDF vs alternatives
| iHatePDF | Browser Print (Cmd+P) | |
|---|---|---|
| Modern layout rendering | Faithful | Often broken |
| Page size / margin control | Yes | Limited |
| Background images | On or off | Browser-dependent |
| Cookie banners and pop-ups | Common ones hidden | Printed with the page |
| Watermark on free output | No | No |
| Workflow chaining to PDF tools | Yes (Compress, Sign, Translate and more) | No |
| Account required | No | No |
Privacy and security
The page is opened on our server, converted, and the PDF is sent straight to your browser. It is not saved on our servers and not shared with third parties, and no account is needed. If you create a share link, that copy stays available until the link expires. Only public pages can be opened, so pages behind a login are never fetched. Full picture in the privacy and security guide.
Frequently asked questions
Will the PDF look exactly like the webpage?
Yes, in most cases. The conversion uses a real browser engine on our server to fetch and render the page just as your browser would, then captures the rendered output as a PDF. Fonts, images, CSS layout, and styling all transfer. Small differences may occur with very dynamic content (auto-playing animations, video embeds), JavaScript-heavy single-page applications, or pages that adapt to viewport size in unusual ways. For static-content pages (articles, blogs, documentation, recipes, Wikipedia entries), the result is essentially identical to what you see in a browser.
Can I save webpages that need a login?
No. The tool fetches the URL from our server, which has no access to your authenticated session. Pages behind a login (private Facebook, your bank statements, internal company tools, paywalled news articles you subscribe to) cannot be reached. For those, use Print to PDF in your own browser after logging in (Cmd+P on Mac, Ctrl+P on Windows, then save as PDF), or copy-paste the content into a Word document and use Word to PDF instead.
Will images and styling be included?
Yes. The renderer downloads all images, fonts, and CSS files just like a normal browser. Background images, embedded photos, infographics, icons, and custom fonts all appear in the PDF. The Include backgrounds option is separate, that controls whether the page's coloured backgrounds are kept (for a true archive of how the page looked) or stripped (for cleaner print output with less ink usage).
Can I archive an article so it survives if the original site goes down?
Yes, this is one of the most common use cases. News articles get removed, blogs disappear, companies redesign their sites and break old URLs, paywalls go up, individual posts get deleted by their authors. Save articles you might want to reference later as a PDF and they are yours forever. The PDF includes the full text content, images, and styling, so it remains readable years later regardless of what happens to the original page. For long-term archival, also note the URL itself so you have a record of where it came from.
Why is my page split across multiple PDF pages?
The PDF uses standard paper sizes, so a long article is split across as many pages as needed, with page numbers at the bottom. There is no option to save a webpage as one endless page. To fit more on each page, choose A3 and a smaller margin, or switch to landscape for wide content.
What page sizes do you support?
A4 (210x297mm, the international standard), A3 (297x420mm, a larger format), Letter (216x279mm, the US standard) and Legal (216x356mm, common in US legal documents), each in portrait or landscape. A4 is the safest default for international use and Letter for US use. Pick what fits your intended downstream use: printing, emailing or archiving.
Is there a file size limit on the source page?
There is no fixed size limit, but the page has to finish loading within about half a minute, so extremely heavy pages may fail. Most articles, blogs and documentation pages produce PDFs of just a few MB. If a PDF is too large for an email attachment, run it through Compress PDF afterwards.
Are the URLs I submit kept private?
Yes. The page is opened on our server, converted, and the PDF is sent straight to your browser. It is not saved on our servers and not shared with third parties, and no account is needed. If you create a share link, that copy stays available until the link expires.
Is this webpage to PDF converter really free?
Yes. No account required and no watermark on the output PDF. Without an account you convert one link at a time; a free account converts up to 3 links at once. There is a fair-use limit of 60 conversions per hour, and every option (page size, orientation, margins, backgrounds) is free.
How do I convert a link to PDF?
Copy the link (URL) of any public web page, paste it into Webpage to PDF and click Convert to PDF. You can leave out https://, it is added for you. The page comes back as a PDF named after the website, with selectable text and clickable links.
How do I save a web page as a PDF on my phone?
On iPhone or Android, open the page, tap Share and copy the link. Open Webpage to PDF, paste the link and tap Convert to PDF. The PDF is created on our server, so it looks the same as on a computer, and it is saved to Downloads on Android or the Files app on iPhone.
How do I save a webpage as PDF in Chrome?
Press Ctrl+P (Cmd+P on a Mac) and choose Save as PDF as the destination. That prints the site's print version, which can drop backgrounds, images or menus and may include a cookie banner. For a PDF that looks like the page on screen, paste the link into Webpage to PDF instead.
Can I download a PDF from a link?
If the link already opens a PDF file, there is nothing to convert: open it and use your browser's download button, or long-press the link on a phone and choose download. Webpage to PDF saves web pages themselves, so a direct link to a PDF file cannot be converted with it.
Server-side render, custom page size, backgrounds on/off. Free, no signup, no watermark.
Open Webpage to PDF →Use other tools
Everything you need to work with PDFs, free, fast, and private.
Show all tools →