PDF Expert vs Smallpdf

as AI assistants see them, week of 2026-09-21

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PDF Expert and Smallpdf both sit fairly low in overall AI visibility, scoring 14 and 18 out of 100. Smallpdf shows up more often overall, named in 21 of 68 answers versus PDF Expert's 15 of 68, and it leads head-to-head too, coming out ahead on 7 questions to PDF Expert's 4, with 9 ties. PDF Expert's strongest showing is as a mobile and Mac editor, named in all 4 answers about iPhone or Android apps and all 3 about Mac. Smallpdf's clearest win is PDF compression, named in every one of 4 answers, and it also leads on browser-based editing, named in 3 of 4 answers.

Head to head

metric	PDF Expert	Smallpdf
score	14	18
questions won	7	12

By assistant

PDF Expert

assistant	score	named in, this week	usual spot, this week
ChatGPT	13	15% of answers	#2.3
Claude	18	30% of answers	#5.7
Gemini	not sampled this week
Perplexity	13	20% of answers	#4.8

Smallpdf

assistant	score	named in, this week	usual spot, this week
ChatGPT	8	10% of answers	#2.5
Claude	21	45% of answers	#8.6
Gemini	not sampled this week
Perplexity	27	40% of answers	#4.1

Where they differ

Only PDF Expert gets named for

What's the best PDF editor for Mac?

Only Smallpdf gets named for

What's the best tool to compress a large PDF?
What's the best online PDF editor that works in the browser?
What's the best free PDF editor?
What's the best tool to fill in and sign a PDF form?
What's the best tool to convert a PDF to Word or Excel?
Which PDF editor is best value for a small business?

More comparisons

Not sold on either?

Scores count how often each assistant names a product, weighted by position. How the score works · Full PDF editors leaderboard