How do I search inside a PDF in Safari or Chrome?

Last reviewed: October 15, 2026 · Markdown version

Open the PDF in the browser and use the browser's own find command: Ctrl+F (⌘+F on a Mac) in Chrome or Safari on a computer, More, then Find in page in Chrome on Android, and the Page Menu, then Search Document in Safari on iPhone. Google has written help for PDFs in Chrome specifically; for Safari, Apple's guides cover searching a webpage. Each section below says which vendor page it rests on.

Chrome on a computer

Chrome opens PDFs in its own viewer, and Google's page on it begins: "You can open, search, and edit PDFs in Chrome." To search, use the find bar, which Google's shortcut list describes as "Open the Find Bar to search the current page": Ctrl + f or F3 on Windows, ⌘ + f on a Mac, then Ctrl + g (⌘ + g) to jump to the next match and Ctrl + Shift + g (⌘ + Shift + g) to go back (Chrome keyboard shortcuts, Google Chrome Help, read 15 October 2026).

The detail that matters for PDFs is on the viewer page: "scanned PDFs of physical documents are automatically converted to be searchable and selectable using Optical Character Recognition (OCR)", after which "you can highlight, search, copy, paste, and find text within the document", and Google says the conversion "is completed on your device without sending any data to Google or third parties" (Manage PDFs in Chrome (Computer), Google Chrome Help, read 15 October 2026). Google's download page adds that a scan with several pages can take a while, with the notice "Extracting text from PDF…" while it works (Download a file (Computer), Google Chrome Help, read 15 October 2026). So if a search in a freshly opened scan finds nothing, wait for that notice to clear and search again. If Chrome downloads PDFs instead of showing them, the switch is covered on stopping Chrome downloading PDFs.

Chrome on Android

Google's Android page has a section headed "Find text in a PDF": in an open PDF, "at the top right, tap More", select Find in page, enter the text, and use the up and down arrows for the previous or next match. The same page sets two conditions: "your device must run Android 12 and up" for these PDF features, and "You can't open a PDF with Chrome while in Incognito mode", where you are offered a download instead (Manage PDFs in Chrome (Android), Google Chrome Help, read 15 October 2026). Unlike the computer version, the Android page does not mention OCR, so do not expect a scanned PDF to become searchable there.

Chrome on iPhone

Google's Manage PDFs in Chrome page is published for Computer and Android only; asking for the iPhone version returns the Android page (the Android page above). What Google does document for Chrome on iPhone is the general find command: tap More, then Find in Page…, enter the term, and tap Done when finished (Search the web in Chrome (iPhone version), Google Chrome Help, read 15 October 2026). That page is about web pages and does not mention PDFs, so whether it reaches inside a PDF is something to try on your own phone rather than something Google promises.

Safari on iPhone

Apple's steps for searching in Safari are under "Search a webpage": tap the Page Menu button, then the Search Document button, "Enter the word or phrase in the search field", and tap the Next Result button "to jump to other mentions" (Search for websites in Safari on iPhone, iPhone User Guide, read 15 October 2026). The section does not mention PDFs. If the command does not reach a PDF you have open, save it with Save to Files (Apple's steps are on opening PDF files in Safari on iPhone) and search it in Apple's Preview app, which Apple does document; Ctrl+F on a phone has those steps.

Safari on a Mac

Apple's keyboard shortcut list for Safari gives Command-F for "Search the current webpage" (Keyboard shortcuts and gestures in Safari on Mac, Safari User Guide, read 15 October 2026). As on iPhone, the guide does not single out PDFs, and it says nothing about reading scanned pages. A PDF saved to the Mac can also be searched in Preview or from Spotlight; searching inside PDFs on a Mac covers what Apple says those look at.

When find comes back empty

An empty result in a PDF usually means one of two things: the page is a scan with no stored text, or the word is in a different file. Chrome on a computer handles the first case itself, as above; elsewhere, searching for a word in a PDF explains how to tell the cases apart. For the second, a browser can only search the one PDF in front of it, and searching many PDFs at once is a different job.