By default, Google Chrome includes a robust, built-in PDF viewer. When you click a link to a PDF document on the web, Chrome opens the file directly in a new tab, allowing you to read it immediately without waiting for a download or opening a separate application like Adobe Acrobat.
However, if you have recently changed your Chrome settings (or if an aggressive PDF extension altered your preferences), you might find that Chrome has stopped opening PDFs and has instead started automatically downloading every PDF straight to your hard drive the moment you click a link.
If you prefer the speed and convenience of reading PDFs inside your browser window and only downloading the ones you actually need to save, you can easily restore Chrome’s default behavior.
How to Force Chrome to Open PDFs in the Browser
You can adjust how Chrome handles PDF documents within the Site Settings menu.
- Open the Google Chrome browser.
- Click the three vertical dots in the top-right corner of the window.
- Select Settings from the drop-down menu.
- In the left-hand sidebar, click on Privacy and security.
- In the main window, click on Site settings.
- Scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page and click to expand the Additional content settings menu.
- Click on PDF documents.
You will now see a setting that dictates the default behavior for PDF files. You will likely see that the option “Download PDFs” is currently selected.
- Click the radio button next to Open PDFs in Chrome to change the setting.
The change is instantaneous. You can close the Settings tab. The next time you click a PDF link on a website, Chrome will instantly render the document in a new tab, utilizing its built-in viewer instead of cluttering up your Downloads folder.