This Cookie Policy explains how PDF24 Tools at https://pdf24.tech uses cookies and similar browser storage. It sits alongside our main Privacy Policy and does not replace it. Read together, the two pages describe what is stored on your device when you use this site and what choices you have. We have tried to write both in the same direct way, because a policy page nobody can finish reading is not much of a policy.
What a cookie actually is
A cookie is a small text file that a website asks your browser to store, then sends back with later requests so the site can recognise the same browser again.
That is the whole idea. A cookie is usually a short name and a short value. It is not a program. It cannot read other files on your computer, and it cannot see your documents. Some cookies are essential for a site to work at all. Others exist to measure traffic or to serve advertising, and those are the ones you should be able to say no to.
Why this site sets so few of them
The 202 tools on PDF24 Tools run entirely inside your browser using JavaScript, WebAssembly and Canvas. Your files never travel to a server, so no server session has to be kept alive to hold your work. The tools themselves do not need cookies. That is one of the practical benefits of client-side processing, and we are happy to say it plainly.
What you will find below is the honest inventory. Cookies come from the advertising script, from the Cloudflare layer in front of our web server, and from nowhere else that we are aware of. If we discover something we have missed, we will update this page.
Cookies and similar storage used on this site
| Category | Status | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Strictly necessary | Always on | Required for the site to load safely and stay available. Our web server sits behind Cloudflare, which sets security and load-balancing cookies. Those cookies help block bots and abusive traffic and keep the site online. They do not track you around the web and they cannot be switched off if you want the site to work. Because they exist to deliver the page you asked for, they do not need consent. |
| Advertising | Only after you allow it | The site is free to use and funded by advertising, including Google AdSense. When advertising is allowed, Google and its partners set cookies such as __gads and __gpi, along with other Google advertising cookies. These are used to select ads, limit how often you see the same ad, and measure how ads perform. Third-party vendors, including Google, may set or read their own cookies in your browser. Google may use cookies and device identifiers to serve ads based on your prior visits to this site or other websites. |
| Analytics | None set | We currently run no analytics on PDF24 Tools. There is no Google Analytics, no tag manager and no visitor-tracking product of any kind. This is not a promise about the future, it is a statement about now. If we ever add measurement, this page will say which tool, the consent banner will ask you first, and analytics cookies will stay blocked until you agree. |
| Preferences | Stored when you choose | Your consent decision is recorded in your browser’s localStorage under the key z11_consent_v1. That record holds your choice and a version marker so the banner does not ask you again on every page. It is not a cookie and it is never sent to our server. |
Cookies versus localStorage
People often use the two words as if they mean the same thing. They do not, and the difference matters here.
A cookie is attached to requests that your browser sends to a server. That is how advertising and measurement systems read them, and it is also why cookies are limited to a few kilobytes each. localStorage is different. It is a storage area inside your browser that pages read and write locally. Values placed there are not transmitted to a server on every request. A page on one domain also cannot read localStorage written by another domain.
Your consent choice lives in localStorage, under z11_consent_v1, and that was a deliberate decision. It keeps your choice on your device. Nothing needs to reach us for the site to remember it.
The trade-off is practical. localStorage is tied to one browser on one device. If you switch from Chrome to Firefox, use a private window, or clear your site data, the record is gone and the banner will ask again. Clearing cookies by itself may not remove it, because it is not a cookie. Use your browser’s “clear site data” or “cookies and other site data” option to remove both.
How to change your mind
There is a Cookie settings button on this site. Open it, change the advertising choice from allowed to denied, and save. The change takes effect straight away. Any cookies that were already placed by Google are governed by Google’s own expiry rules, but they stop being used for ads on this site from that point on.
Consent is not a one-time decision, and you are entitled to withdraw it whenever you like.
You can also clean up from your side:
- Clear cookies and site data in your browser settings. Every major browser lets you do this for a single site or for everything.
- Control personalised advertising from Google in your Google Ads Settings at https://adssettings.google.com. You can turn personalisation off there without affecting the tools on this site.
- Opt out of many participating vendors at once through https://www.aboutads.info/choices/.
- Visitors in the European Union and the United Kingdom can also use https://www.youronlinechoices.com/.
Blocking cookies does not break the PDF tools. Merging, splitting, compressing, converting or editing a file happens locally, with no cookie involved. The one part of the site that depends on Cloudflare’s strictly necessary cookies is the security layer that keeps the server reachable.
Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control
Most browsers can send a Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control signal. There is still no single agreed standard for how a website must respond to those headers, so sites interpret them differently. Here is how we handle them.
Advertising and analytics cookies on this site default to denied. Nothing is set for either purpose until a visitor chooses to allow it. A DNT or GPC signal is respected in the sense that no advertising cookie is placed while your choice is still denied, which is the state the site arrives in for every new visitor. If you later allow advertising, that decision stands as your instruction and we will not override it. If you want to withdraw it, the Cookie settings button is there, and it takes a few seconds.
How long cookies last
Session cookies disappear when you close the browser. Persistent cookies stay for a defined period. Cloudflare’s security cookies range from a few minutes to about a year, depending on which check they support. Advertising cookies set by Google and its partners can run from a single session up to roughly two years, depending on the cookie. Your consent record in localStorage stays until you clear site data or change your choice.
You never have to wait for a cookie to expire. Clearing cookies in your browser removes them immediately.
Contact
Questions about cookies, consent or anything on this page can go to [email protected]. You can also use the form on our contact page. Email is usually the fastest route, and we read everything that arrives.
PDF24 Tools is operated by an individual publisher based in Pakistan. This site is independent and is not affiliated with any other site that uses a similar or identical name.
Last updated: 10 October 2026