Guide · Updated 25 October 2026 · About 6 minutes

How to send a PDF to your Kindle (and make it readable)

Amazon's free Send to Kindle service accepts PDF files, so getting one onto your Kindle or into the Kindle app takes a minute. The harder part is reading it: a PDF keeps its printed page, and on a 6- or 7-inch screen the text can be tiny. This guide covers the four official ways to send a PDF, the size limits for each, and what to do when the page is too small to read.

Disclosure: we make ArticleFerry, a browser extension mentioned in the section on PDFs saved from web pages. Everything else here uses Amazon's own tools or the free Calibre app.

Before you start: your Kindle address and approved senders

Every Kindle and Kindle app on your account has its own Send to Kindle email address. Amazon lists them under Manage Your Content & Devices → Preferences → Personal Document Settings. On the same page is the Approved Personal Document E-mail List: only addresses on that list can send files to your library (Amazon: Send to Kindle by email). You only need this for the email method; the app, web and desktop methods use your Amazon sign-in.

1. Email the PDF to your Kindle address

From an approved address, write a new email to your Kindle's Send to Kindle address.
Attach the PDF. Amazon says you don't need a subject line.
Send it. The PDF appears in your Kindle library and on the device once it's online.

Amazon's limits for email: up to 25 attachments per email, up to 15 approved sender addresses, and 50 MB or less in total. For more than that, put the files in a ZIP; Amazon opens it and converts what's inside. Delivery is retried for up to 60 days if the device is offline (Amazon help: Send to Kindle email address).

2. Upload it with Send to Kindle for Web

Go to amazon.com/sendtokindle, sign in and drag the PDF onto the page. This route takes files up to 200 MB, four times the email limit, so it's the one to use for big scanned books. Amazon recommends keeping Add to your library switched on so the file can be downloaded on any of your Kindle devices and apps (Amazon help: sending documents to your Kindle library).

3. Share it from your phone with the Kindle app

On an iPhone, iPad or Android device, install the Kindle app, open the PDF (in Files, your mail app or a browser), tap the Share icon and choose Kindle (iOS steps, Android steps). This is the quickest way to send a PDF you received as an email attachment.

4. Right-click it on your computer

Amazon's free Send to Kindle desktop app for Windows and Mac adds a Send to Kindle option to your files. On Windows you right-click the PDF in Explorer and choose Send to → Kindle (Amazon: Send to Kindle for PC).

You can also copy a PDF to a Kindle over its USB cable. Amazon notes one catch for Kindle Scribe owners: handwriting isn't supported in PDFs loaded over USB-C, only in PDFs sent through Send to Kindle (Amazon help: file types that support notes).

The text is too small: how to make a PDF readable

A PDF is a fixed page. You can zoom and turn the Kindle sideways, but you can't change the font size the way you can in a Kindle book. There are three ways to get text that reflows.

Ask Amazon to convert it

The long-standing tip is to type Convert in the subject line when you email the PDF, which asks Amazon to turn it into a reflowable Kindle document (The Verge's guide). Amazon's current help pages no longer mention the subject line, so treat it as worth a try rather than guaranteed. When Amazon can't reflow a document it says so: error E016 means the file was delivered "in original layout instead of reflowable format", and Amazon lists the usual culprits as large or complex tables, SVG images, audio and video, mathematical equations, images with linear gradients, footnotes inside footnotes and documents over 8,000 pages (Amazon's error table).

Convert it yourself with Calibre

The free Calibre app can convert a PDF to EPUB, which you then send to your Kindle like any other file. Calibre's own manual is frank that "PDF documents are one of the worst formats to convert from": it has to guess where paragraphs end, page headers and footers can end up in the text, and complex, multi-column and image-based documents are not supported (Calibre manual: Convert PDF documents). A scanned PDF is pictures of pages, so neither Calibre nor Amazon has any text to reflow. For those, the Kindle's landscape mode or a bigger screen is the practical answer.

If the PDF is a saved web page, start from the page instead

Many PDFs on a Kindle began as a web article that someone printed to PDF. Converting that PDF back into text loses the paragraphs and drags the page furniture along. It's simpler to go back to the article and make an EPUB of it directly: the text reflows, and you can pick the font size on your Kindle. ArticleFerry does this in your browser: it pulls out the article, drops the ads and pop-ups, builds an EPUB on your device and opens an email to your Kindle address. Our guides on sending a web article to your Kindle and converting a web page to EPUB compare it with the other options, including Amazon's own Chrome extension.

Try ArticleFerry. Free: turn a web article into a clean EPUB on your device and send it to your Kindle.

Get ArticleFerry for your browser →

Kindle Scribe: writing on PDFs

On Kindle Scribe you can write directly on the page of a PDF; reflowable documents get sticky notes and active canvas instead (Amazon help: converting personal documents). That makes Scribe the one case where you may want to keep the PDF as a PDF. If handwriting doesn't work, Amazon's advice is to send the file again through Send to Kindle: PDFs loaded over USB-C or sent before 11 November 2022 don't support it.

If the PDF doesn't arrive

E004 or E005: the PDF is password-protected, encrypted or corrupted. Remove the password and check it opens in a normal PDF reader.
E007: an attachment is over 50 MB. Use Send to Kindle for Web (200 MB) instead.
E014: the sending address isn't on your approved list.
E999: an internal error at Amazon; try again later.

All codes are from Amazon's error table. Nothing at all, not even an error email? Work through our Send to Kindle email checklist.

FAQ

Is sending a PDF to Kindle free?

Yes. Amazon describes Send to Kindle as available "at no additional cost" (Amazon help).

What's the biggest PDF I can send?

50 MB in total by email and 200 MB with Send to Kindle for Web.

Can I read my PDF in Kindle for Web?

Not at the moment. Amazon's notes table says personal documents aren't supported in Kindle for Web yet; read them on a Kindle or in the Kindle app.

Can I highlight a PDF on my Kindle?

Amazon lists highlights and text notes for personal documents, including PDFs, on Kindle e-readers, and more tools on Kindle Scribe (file types that support notes).

Sources

Checked 25 October 2026: Amazon's help pages on sending documents, the Send to Kindle email address, error codes, converting personal documents and notes support; Amazon's Send to Kindle pages for email, web, iOS, Android and PC; the Calibre manual. The "Convert" subject line is from The Verge, not from Amazon.