Questions About Monstera PDF Editor

Is Monstera PDF Editor really free?

Yes. Monstera is free to download and use, with no trial period, no subscription, no paid tier and no watermark. There are no page limits or file size limits, and you do not need an account. It is released as open source software under the GNU AGPL 3.0.

How does Monstera make money if it is free?

It does not. Monstera is funded by Tenslor Inc., the company that publishes it, and by voluntary donations from users. The donate page explains how your support helps keep Monstera free for everyone.

What can Monstera PDF Editor do?

Monstera includes over 150 tools, covering all the tools you would expect from a PDF editor:

• Edit the text already on a page, keeping the original font wherever that font can draw the letters
• Merge, split, reorder, insert, delete, rotate, crop and resize pages, and add Bates numbers and watermarks, which you can edit or remove later
• Annotate: highlight, sticky notes, ink, shapes, callouts, stamps, and measure to scale
• Fill every field type, including signature fields; build text, checkbox, radio, dropdown, list, button, signature and date fields; set the tab order; and flatten the whole form or only selected fields
• OCR scanned documents in 14 languages
• Turn handwriting into Excel and Word files with your own Azure or Anthropic account
• Redact content, find and redact by search, Sanitize, and set passwords and permissions
• Sign and certify documents with your certificate, add trusted timestamps, and verify signatures
• Compare two documents: changed and moved text, annotations, pictures, and added or removed pages, marked on both
• Convert Word, Excel and PowerPoint files to PDF on your computer, offline
• Convert to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, images and text
• Archive to PDF/A, save a smaller copy, and print
• Check a PDF's accessibility against PDF/UA rules
• Ask an optional AI assistant about a document, with answers that cite the pages they came from, and translate a whole page in place

The features page lists all thirteen groups in detail.

Does Monstera work offline?

Yes. Editing, page management, forms, OCR, redaction, signing and conversion all run on your own PC with no internet connection. Only optional features you switch on, such as the AI assistant or cloud storage, need a connection.

Can Monstera edit the text that is already in a PDF?

Yes, Monstera has an Edit text tool that efficiently handles text editing. Click a line and retype it. Monstera changes only the letters you typed and keeps the original font wherever that font can draw them; where it cannot, it uses the closest standard font.

Does Monstera do OCR on scanned documents?

Yes. Monstera detects image only pages and reads them in 14 languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Arabic, Hebrew, Hindi, Japanese, Korean and Chinese (Simplified). It then lays invisible selectable text over the scan so you can search and copy from it like any other document. Standard OCR (Tesseract) runs entirely on your device, so the scan is not sent anywhere.

Can Monstera read handwriting?

Yes, and it can turn handwritten pages and tables into a real Excel or Word file. Monstera reads handwriting with your own Azure Document Intelligence or Anthropic account. An editable grid lets you correct any misread word before the Excel file is created.

Does Monstera's redaction actually remove the text?

Yes. Many tools draw a black rectangle over text that can still be copied out from underneath. Monstera removes the content from the file itself, and its automated tests confirm the removed text cannot be extracted again. Even so, reopen any redacted document and check it before you send it on, as the terms page explains.

Are my documents uploaded anywhere?

No. Monstera has no server that receives your documents, no account system and no telemetry in the app, and your documents stay on your computer by default. Optional features you turn on, such as the AI assistant, cloud reading or cloud storage, send data directly to the provider you choose. The connection table lists every connection the app can make and exactly what is sent.

Does the Monstera website use cookies or analytics?

The website uses Tess Console Analytics, Tenslor's own private analytics service, to see which pages are read, but only if you accept it in the banner. It sets no cookies, and its data is kept for six months. If you reject, or have not chosen, no analytics script loads. Your choice is stored in your browser, not sent to us, and you can change it at any time by clearing this site's data in your browser, after which the banner asks again. The Monstera app is separate and has no telemetry. The privacy policy has the details.

Do I need to pay for the AI assistant?

Monstera does not include an AI subscription and ships no API key. To use the assistant you connect your own account with one of ten providers, Anthropic, OpenAI, Google Gemini, Mistral, xAI (Grok), Azure OpenAI, OpenRouter, Groq, Perplexity or DeepSeek, and you pay that provider directly for what you use. The AI is optional and stays off until you set it up, and every other tool in Monstera works without it. The assistant reminds you that AI can make mistakes and replies should be checked.

Does Monstera run on Mac, Linux or phones?

No. Monstera currently supports Windows 10 and Windows 11 only. There are no macOS, Linux, web or mobile versions at this time. However, we hope to make the app available on these platforms in the near future.

How do I install Monstera PDF Editor?

Monstera is distributed exclusively through the Microsoft Store, so installing takes about a minute and updates arrive through Windows. There is no installer to download from this website. A Monstera setup file found anywhere else is not genuine, so please do not run it. See the download page for system requirements.

Is Monstera safe for opening untrusted PDFs?

PDFs can carry scripts, automatic actions and links that fetch content the moment a file opens. Monstera treats every document as untrusted and processes it inside isolated sandboxed processes in a Windows AppContainer, with no network access and no access to any of your files other than the one handed to it. Embedded JavaScript is never executed. The security section has the detail.

Is Monstera open source?

Yes. Monstera is licensed under the GNU AGPL 3.0 or later, and the complete source is published on GitHub (opens in a new tab), including the source of the copyleft components that ship with the app. You can read it, build it, modify it and share it under that licence.

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Still stuck? The support page tells how to send your questions, and the right email address to use.