How to Translate PDF Files Using DeepL: Step-by-Step 2026 Guide
Translating PDFs with DeepL is straightforward for text-based PDFs on the Pro plan — but scanned PDFs, complex layouts, and free-plan users need to know the workarounds. Here is the complete guide.
Try DeepL free: deepl.com offers 5,000 characters per translation with no account required. The free API tier at deepl.com/pro-api includes 500,000 characters/month for developers.
Method 1: DeepL Pro Document Upload (Recommended)
- Sign in to your DeepL Pro account at deepl.com
- Click the "Translate Files" tab
- Drag and drop your PDF (or click to browse)
- Select source language (or leave on auto-detect) and target language
- Click "Translate"
- Download the translated PDF — DeepL returns a PDF with translated text and preserved layout
Translation typically takes 30 seconds to 2 minutes depending on document length. Complex PDFs with many images take longer.
Method 2: Free Plan Workaround (No File Upload)
If you're on the free plan and need to translate a PDF:
- Open your PDF in any PDF reader (Adobe Reader, browser, Preview)
- Select all text (Ctrl/Cmd + A) and copy (Ctrl/Cmd + C)
- Paste into the DeepL text translator at deepl.com
- Select target language and translate
- Copy the translated text and paste into a new document
You lose the original formatting but get the translation content. Works well for simple single-column text PDFs.
Handling Scanned PDFs
Scanned PDFs (photographed or printed-then-scanned documents) contain images rather than text — DeepL's PDF translator uses OCR to extract text from these before translating.
Limitations with scanned PDFs:
- OCR accuracy depends on scan quality — blurry or low-resolution scans produce poor results
- Complex multi-column layouts may not preserve column structure correctly
- Handwritten text is not supported
- Tables in scanned PDFs often lose their grid structure
For high-quality scanned PDF translation, consider converting to Word first using Adobe Acrobat's OCR (Edit PDF feature) then translating the Word file with DeepL — better formatting preservation.
Converting PDF to Word for Better Results
For complex PDFs where formatting matters, translating a Word version produces better results:
- Use Adobe Acrobat, Smallpdf, or IlovePDF to convert .pdf → .docx
- Upload the .docx to DeepL
- DeepL translates with full formatting preservation
Best practice: For original documents (reports, manuals, proposals), always keep the source .docx and translate that rather than the PDF export. You will get better formatting preservation and easier post-edit corrections in the translated Word file.
Free DeepL users cannot upload PDF files for translation. PDF translation requires a DeepL Pro plan. However, you can copy text from a PDF and paste it into the DeepL free text translator — you lose formatting but get the translation for free.
DeepL preserves formatting for text-based PDFs (PDFs created from Word documents or digital sources). Scanned PDFs (photographed documents) require OCR processing first — DeepL Pro handles simple scanned PDFs but complex multi-column layouts may lose formatting.
DeepL Pro supports PDF files up to 10MB per document. For larger files, split them into smaller sections before uploading. Very long PDFs (100+ pages) may be better processed as Word documents if you can convert them first.
No. DeepL cannot access password-protected PDFs. Remove the password protection before uploading — most PDF readers and Adobe Acrobat allow you to remove passwords if you know the current password.