Find answers to the most common questions about GoatPDF's tools, privacy, and how it works.
GoatPDF never uploads your PDFs to any server — not ever. Every single one of the 30+ tools (OCR, Compress, Convert, Edit, Sign, and so on) runs using on-device libraries. There is no back-end server involved in any document processing.
This isn't a policy promise — it's a technical reality. GoatPDF holds zero internet permission in its Android manifest for document operations, meaning the OS itself would block any upload attempt.
Yes, GoatPDF makes exactly two types of lightweight network requests, and neither involves your documents:
1. App Update Checker: A tiny JSON file (~1 KB) is fetched to check if a newer version of the app is available. It contains only the latest version number — no data about you or your files is sent.
2. Featured Sponsors List: A small JSON payload loads the optional sponsors/partners list shown in the app. Again, no personal data or document data is transmitted.
That's it. These are the only two outbound calls GoatPDF ever makes.
GoatPDF's update checker pings a static JSON file hosted at a public URL. It sends no device identifiers, no user IDs, and no document metadata. It is a one-way read — the app fetches the file, checks the version number, and acts accordingly. See my Privacy Policy for the full technical breakdown.
No. GoatPDF contains no analytics SDKs, no Firebase Crashlytics, no hidden telemetry modules, and no advertising libraries. I do not track how you use the app, which tools you open, how often you launch it, or anything else. Your usage patterns are your business.
Yes — Redact in GoatPDF performs a destructive, irreversible blackout of the selected content. The underlying text or image data is removed from the PDF structure itself, not merely painted over with a black box. Once you save the redacted file, the content is gone permanently. I recommend always keeping the original file as a backup before redacting.
No — not for a single one of the 30+ PDF tools. All operations, including OCR text extraction, format conversions, document scanning, signing, and compression, run strictly on your device's own hardware and storage. GoatPDF works perfectly on a plane, in a basement, or anywhere without Wi-Fi or mobile data.
No. Because GoatPDF processes everything locally on your device, there is no server-side file size restriction. You are limited only by your device's available storage and RAM. A 2 GB, 1,000-page scanned archive? GoatPDF will handle it — it just depends on whether your device has enough RAM to load it comfortably.
For very large files, I recommend closing other background apps first to free up memory for the best performance.
Cloud-based PDF apps upload your file to a remote server, process it there, then download the result back to you. That round trip — even on a fast connection — adds seconds or minutes of latency for every operation.
GoatPDF skips all of that. Processing happens directly using Apache PDFBox™ running on your device's CPU and RAM. There are no network hops, no queues, and no waiting. The result is instantaneous for most operations.
GoatPDF's OCR engine runs entirely on your device using bundled machine learning models — no cloud API calls required. The same text recognition technology is used for the built-in document scanner (powered by Google ML Kit, which runs its models locally on Android).
The first time you use OCR, the model may take a moment to initialize. After that, recognition is fast and fully offline.
GoatPDF embeds signatures directly into the PDF as a certified annotation, which is legally recognized in most jurisdictions as an electronic signature under laws such as the US ESIGN Act and the EU eIDAS regulation.
For highly regulated documents (e.g., notarized contracts, deeds), consult a legal professional about whether a qualified electronic signature with a certificate authority is required.
The Scan to PDF feature uses Google ML Kit's Document Scanner API, which runs entirely on-device. It detects document edges, corrects perspective, enhances contrast, and exports a crisp PDF — all without sending your camera feed or scanned image to any server.
The ML Kit models are bundled with the app or downloaded once to your device during first use (device-local, not cloud-dependent after that).
GoatPDF is completely free to download and use. There is no subscription, no freemium paywall, no "premium tier," and no in-app purchases required to unlock any of the 30+ tools. Every feature is available from the first launch.
GoatPDF includes a built-in update checker. When you open the app, it makes a single, tiny request to fetch a public JSON file containing the latest version number. No personal data, device ID, or document information is included in this request.
If a newer version is available, you'll see a non-intrusive banner with a link to download it from Uptodown or directly as an APK. You are never forced to update.
The update check is a plain HTTP GET to a static JSON file. It is a one-way read — the app never sends any payload. The JSON response contains only {"version":"x.x.x","url":"..."}. That's all.
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