PDF24 Fax: send a fax online or from your PC, no fax machine

Need to send a fax but don't have a fax machine? PDF24 Fax sends faxes over the internet: right in your browser on a PC, Mac or phone, or on Windows with the free PDF24 Creator from any program. This page shows step by step how it works, how to enter the fax number correctly, how you know your fax arrived, and what to do when something goes wrong.

Contents

What is PDF24 Fax?
What does PDF24 Fax cost?
Which way suits you?
Send a fax online: step by step
Enter the fax number correctly
Send a fax from PDF24 Creator
Several documents in one fax
Did my fax arrive? Outbox and transmission report
Which countries can I fax to?
Receive faxes: your own fax number
Station ID and header line
Limits: pages, file size, file types
Tips for a readable fax
Cancel a fax plan, delete your account
Turn off fax in companies
Problems and solutions

What is PDF24 Fax?

PDF24 Fax is an internet fax service by PDF24 at fax.pdf24.org. You upload a document or print it to the fax printer, enter the recipient's fax number, and PDF24 transmits the fax from its servers to the recipient's fax machine. You need no fax machine, no modem and no phone line with fax. The recipient gets an ordinary fax.

Sending works in the browser on any device, and on Windows with PDF24 Creator.
Receiving works with a PDF24 fax number of your own. Incoming faxes arrive as PDF by email (more).
To send, you need a free PDF24 account. Under "Your faxes" it lists your sent and received faxes with their transmission reports.

PDF24 Fax is still in its beta phase.

What does PDF24 Fax cost?

Without a fax plan, PDF24 Fax is free: you can send up to 5 pages each month, to one recipient per fax. Receiving faxes, a fax number of your own and automatic retries are not included without a plan.
Fax plans add more pages per month, a fax number of your own for receiving, automatic retries when the line is busy and, depending on the plan, several recipients at once. What the plans include is listed under Services & Prices.
Beta phase: fax.pdf24.org says: "You order the plans with costs, but they are only billed after the beta phase. Until then there are no costs for you."

There is no charge per fax or per minute; plans come with a number of fax pages per month. Fax pages per recipient count, not faxes, per calendar month. If no connection was made (e.g. the line was busy), the fax does not count. Faxes to premium-rate destinations and service numbers are not included.

PDF24 Creator itself is a free program and has nothing to do with a fax plan.

Which way suits you?

Fax a file from any device (PC, Mac, iPhone, Android): in the browser on Send a Fax → step by step
From Word, Excel or any other program on Windows: print to the printer "PDF24 Fax", or click "Send by Fax" in the PDF printer assistant → PDF24 Creator
A file that is already on your PC: right-click › "PDF24" › "Send by Fax" → File Explorer
Several documents as one fax: Several documents in one fax
Receive faxes: your own fax number

The free PDF24 Creator is available for Windows. When you fax from PDF24 Creator, the fax also goes through the internet service PDF24 Fax; you finish sending in your browser.

Send a fax online: step by step

Open Send a Fax. You also get there from fax.pdf24.org with "Send a Fax" or "Send a fax now".
Step "1 Documents": click "Choose files" or drop the files into the box. You can use PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, images (JPG, PNG, TIFF) and more. Several files become one fax in the order shown; drag and drop to change the order. Then click "Prepare fax".
Step "2 Preview": PDF24 prepares the fax and shows every page as the recipient gets it: black and white, in fax resolution. Click a page to enlarge it. If something is wrong, go back to the files with "Back". Otherwise click "Continue". (If your browser cannot show the preview, you see "Open the preview as PDF" instead.)
Step "3 Send": log in now at the latest. No account yet? Click "Create a free account". Before your first fax, PDF24 asks for your name and address if your account does not have them yet.
Under "Recipients", enter the fax number with the country code, e.g. +49 30 1234567 (how).
Click "Send fax now". You see "Your fax is on its way", and the fax is in the "Outbox".

As soon as the fax has been transmitted, you get an email with the transmission report (more).

Enter the fax number correctly

PDF24 Fax needs the recipient's fax number in international format:

It starts with + and the country code, e.g. +44 for the UK, +1 for the USA and Canada, +49 for Germany.
Then the area code without the leading 0 (in most countries; Italy keeps the 0), then the number.
Spaces, /, -, dots and brackets are allowed for readability.

Examples: the UK number 020 7946 0123 becomes +44 20 7946 0123. The US number (212) 555-0100 becomes +1 212 555 0100. The German number 030 1234567 becomes +49 30 1234567.

Without the + at the start (also with 00 instead), PDF24 marks the number red: "Please check the fax numbers marked red. They start with + and the country code." If PDF24 says "PDF24 Fax currently does not support the following numbers", the number is not valid (check the country code and the digits) or it is a premium-rate number, which PDF24 Fax does not send to.

PDF24 Fax dials from its own servers. Your router, phone line or fax modem is not used, so there is nothing to set up there.

Send a fax from PDF24 Creator

PDF24 Creator for Windows has several ways to fax. All of them work the same:

A window "Confirm" asks whether the fax should be transferred to the PDF24 online fax service. Click "Continue".
The window "PDF24 Fax" shows "Sending the fax to the fax service..." with a progress bar.
Then your browser opens with the preview of the fax. From here it is the same as online from the preview (step "2 Preview"): check, log in, enter the number, "Send fax now".

Your PC needs an internet connection for this. The document is transferred to the PDF24 fax service.

With the fax printer "PDF24 Fax"

If the fax printer is installed, choose the printer "PDF24 Fax" in the print dialog of any program (Word, Excel, your browser, Outlook …) and click "Print". The steps above start right away.

The fax printer is not installed by default. To add it:

Download the setup of PDF24 Creator and run it (also if PDF24 is already installed).
In the list of components, tick "Fax Printer" and finish the setup.

"PDF24 Fax" is then in the Windows printer list. An installed fax printer is kept by updates.

Remove the fax printer again: delete the printer "PDF24 Fax" in the Windows Settings under "Bluetooth & devices" › "Printers & scanners".

From the PDF printer assistant

You don't need the fax printer for this: print to the normal PDF printer "PDF24" and click "Send by Fax" in the window of the PDF24 assistant. How to print with the PDF printer is explained under Create PDF files.

In File Explorer, PDF24 Creator and PDF24 Reader

Windows File Explorer: select one or more files, right-click them and choose "PDF24" › "Send by Fax" (on Windows 11 in the new context menu or under "Show more options"). PDF24 joins several files into one fax.
PDF24 Creator (the window with the document list): select a document and click the button "Fax selected document", or choose "Send by fax" in the document's menu.
PDF24 Reader: click "Forward file tools" and then "Fax".
PDF24 Toolbox: the tiles "Send a Fax" and "Open PDF24 Fax" open the send page or fax.pdf24.org in your browser.

From the command line

For scripts there is the DocTool command -sendAsFax. It joins the files into one fax and starts the steps above; you finish sending in the browser here too:

"C:\Program Files\PDF24\pdf24-DocTool.exe" -sendAsFax letter.pdf attachment.pdf

Several documents in one fax

Online: in step "1 Documents", simply choose all files, e.g. a Word document and a PDF. They become one fax in the order shown, at most 10 files.
In File Explorer: select several files › "PDF24" › "Send by Fax" (becomes one fax).
In PDF24 Creator: drag all documents into Creator, click "Merge all or selected documents", select the merged document and click "Fax selected document". More on merging under Merge PDF files.

Sending the same fax to several recipients at once ("Add another recipient") needs a fax plan that includes several recipients. Without a plan, a second recipient leads to "Fax output busy"; send the fax to each recipient one after the other, each time once the previous one has been sent.

Did my fax arrive? Outbox and transmission report

The outbox shows what is happening with your fax right now: "Being handed to the fax server", "Waiting for a free line", "Being transmitted right now", "Transmission ended, being finished". If a call failed (e.g. busy) and your plan retries automatically, it shows "Did not get through, next attempt at … (attempt … of …)". As long as no call is running, you can stop a fax with "Cancel". Finished faxes are listed under "Recently finished" as "Sent", "Failed" or "Canceled".

By email, PDF24 Fax automatically sends you a message after every transmission; there is nothing to switch on:

"Fax transmitted successfully": with the receiver, date, number of pages and the ID of the receiving machine ("Remote ID"). The fax you sent is attached as PDF and TIFF.
"Error while transmitting your fax": with the reason, e.g. "The recipient's line was busy, the fax was not transmitted. Please send it again later.", "The called station sent no answer.", "The called station hung up.", "The called station is not reachable." or "Error while transmitting your fax".

In your account, Your faxes lists your faxes in the folder "Sent"; the icon "Download transmission report" gives you the report as a PDF. How long faxes are stored there is listed under Services & Prices (14 days without a fax plan).

Transmitting a fax can take a while: it depends on the number of pages, the connection and whether the number has to be redialled because it was busy. If no email arrives, check your spam folder first (more).

Which countries can I fax to?

PDF24 Fax sends to many countries, among them the USA and Canada, the UK, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, most EU countries, Norway, Australia, India and South Africa. The complete, current list with the country codes is under Services & Prices in the section "Countries, into which faxes can be sent".

Receive faxes: your own fax number

To receive faxes you need a PDF24 fax number of your own. It comes with a fax plan; without a plan you can only send.

Log in at fax.pdf24.org and subscribe to a plan under "Fax Plans".
In your plan, request a number with "Request a fax number". The numbers have a German area code. When you request one, PDF24 asks for documents that prove your name and address; the form says which (for private persons e.g. an ID card). The address in the form must appear in the documents. PDF24 checks them by hand; the number is set up after that.
Once the number is set up, every fax to it arrives as a PDF by email, for one or several users of your account. It is also stored under "Your faxes" in the "Inbox".

For callers, a PDF24 fax number is an ordinary fax number. If you already have a fax number, set up call forwarding from your old number to your PDF24 number with your phone provider. Faxes to the old number then arrive by email too.

Your own number also helps when sending: the recipient's machine shows it as the sender (more).

Station ID and header line

Without a fax number of your own, PDF24 Fax sends with a sender number of PDF24, not with a phone number of yours. The header line of the fax then shows your PDF24 user ID and the IP address you sent the fax from. With a fax plan and a fax number of your own, you set these under "Sender details" in step "3 Send":

"Sender number": your PDF24 fax number, shown on the recipient's fax machine.
"Station ID": the ID in the header line of the fax (at most 25 characters).
"Header line": a text for the header line, e.g. your name or company name (at most 40 characters).

Limits: pages, file size, file types

At most 50 pages per fax. Split longer documents into several faxes, e.g. with Split PDF.
The files together at most 100 MB, at most 10 files per fax. Make large scans smaller first with Compress PDF.
File types online: PDF, text documents (DOC, DOCX, ODT, RTF, TXT), spreadsheets (XLS, XLSX, ODS), presentations (PPT, PPTX, ODP), images (JPG, PNG, TIFF, GIF, BMP, WEBP) and HTML. Print other files from their program to the fax printer, or convert them to PDF first.
Pages per month and recipients per fax: see What does PDF24 Fax cost?

Tips for a readable fax

A fax is black and white and has a low resolution. What is hard to read in the preview is hard to read for the recipient too.

Dark text on a white background works best. Colors and photos turn black and white; check in the preview whether light text and colored areas are still readable.
Scans for a fax are best made at 200 DPI in black and white. Color scans in high resolution have to be scaled down by PDF24, which costs quality.
The output profile "Fax quality" of PDF24 Creator saves PDFs in grayscale at 200 DPI, already suited to a fax.

Cancel a fax plan, delete your account

Cancel a fax plan: log in at fax.pdf24.org, open "Fax Plans" › "My fax plans", choose the plan and click "Terminate this plan". You don't need to send an email or a letter.
Delete your account: in your PDF24 account under "Delete account". This works once all fax plans are canceled.
PDF24 Creator needs no canceling: it is free and not a subscription. If you no longer need it, uninstall it in Windows.

Please don't post cancellations or customer data in the forum, the posts are public.

Turn off fax in companies

Don't install the fax printer: it is off by default. With the EXE setup, don't name the component faxPrinter; with the MSI package, set FAXPRINTER=No (an update then also removes an installed one) → PDF24 Creator in companies: components and MSI.
Hide all fax buttons (assistant, Creator, File Explorer, Reader, Toolbox, Launcher): in the PDF24 Settings on the page "Features", untick "Fax"; for all users with the registry value NoFax = 1 → Hide functions. This only hides the buttons and menu entries: an installed fax printer still prints to PDF24 Fax, and so does the command -sendAsFax. So leave out the fax printer as well (above).
Hide the profile "Fax quality": untick "Fax output profile", or NoFaxProfile = 1.

Problems and solutions

The fax number has a red frame

The number must start with + and the country code, e.g. +44 20 7946 0123 (Enter the fax number correctly).

"The fax could not be sent to the fax service."

PDF24 Creator shows this when it could not upload the document to PDF24 Fax. The technical reason is in brackets.

Click "Retry". Often the connection was only gone for a moment.
Check that the PC can reach the internet (e.g. whether fax.pdf24.org opens in the browser).
In company networks a firewall or proxy may block the upload; ask your IT.
If it still fails, save the document as a PDF and send it online.

The fax printer does not print ("Error - Printing")

The fax printer works like the PDF printer. If the job is stuck in the print queue, the same steps help as under Print jobs are stuck in the print queue.

I don't get a transmission report

Check your spam folder; the message comes from "PDF24 Fax".
Did you actually click "Send fax now"? A sent fax is in the "Outbox" and afterwards under "Your faxes" › "Sent".
If the fax is still in the outbox, it is not finished yet, e.g. because the line was busy.
You can also download the report under "Your faxes".

"The recipient's line was busy", "The called station sent no answer" or "… hung up"

The recipient's fax machine was busy, switched off or did not answer as a fax. Send the fax again later. If it keeps happening, check the number with the recipient; it may be a phone number rather than a fax number. If the transmission failed ("Error while transmitting your fax"), send the fax again as well. A fax for which no connection was made does not count towards your pages per month.

With a fax plan, PDF24 redials up to 2 times after a failed call when the box "If the transmission fails (e.g. busy), try again up to 2 times" is ticked. The outbox shows when the next attempt is due.

"Sending Limit Reached" or "Fax output busy"

"Sending Limit Reached": the pages for this month are used up. More pages come with a fax plan; otherwise wait for the next month.
"Fax output busy": as many faxes are already waiting in the outbox as your account allows at a time; without a fax plan, that is one fax. Each recipient number counts as a fax of its own. Wait until the fax has been sent, then send the next one.

"The fax could not be sent" with "(PERMISSION_DENIED)"

With an account whose address is in the USA, you cannot send faxes with PDF24 Fax. Faxes to numbers in the USA are possible.

"Your account profile is still incomplete"

Before the first fax, PDF24 needs your name and address. Fill in the form that opens and click "Send fax now" again.

"Your document has more than 50 pages" or the upload breaks off

Split the document into several faxes with Split PDF. If the upload breaks off ("The upload was interrupted …"), check your internet connection (e.g. Wi-Fi instead of mobile data) or make the file smaller with Compress PDF.

All my PDFs are suddenly gray

The profile "Fax quality" was chosen in the PDF printer assistant. It saves in grayscale, and the assistant remembers your choice. Choose another profile there, e.g. "Good quality".

The button "Send by Fax" or the printer "PDF24 Fax" is missing

The printer "PDF24 Fax" is only installed if you choose it in the setup (how).
If all fax buttons are missing, "Fax" is unticked in the PDF24 Settings under "Features", or your IT has hidden the fax buttons. You can still send online: Send a Fax.