Should I send my resume as a PDF or a Word document?

Both formats get read — this isn't a real risk

The premise behind most PDF-vs-Word anxiety — that one format quietly gets you rejected — doesn't hold up against what the systems themselves accept.

• Greenhouse, a major ATS, lists its supported resume uploads as .doc, .docx, .pdf, .rtf, and .txt (Greenhouse Support).
• Workable, another major ATS, accepts .pdf, .doc, .docx, .rtf, .html, and .odt (Workable Help Center).

Both PDF and Word sit squarely inside those lists. So the decision isn't "which one survives the robot" — both do. It's about which one better protects your specific resume.

The file size is a different question from the file type, and one system is unusually specific about it: Greenhouse accepts uploads up to 100 MB but does not parse anything over 2.5 MB. We cover that, and the rest of its documented parsing limits, in our Greenhouse walkthrough.

Where a PDF has the edge

A text-based PDF preserves your layout: margins, headers, and line breaks aren't altered on the recipient's screen (Jobscan). What you see is exactly what a recruiter sees. If you spent time getting spacing and section breaks right, a PDF freezes that work in place regardless of which app or device opens it.

Where Word (.docx) has the edge

A .docx file is highly ATS-compatible and simple for parsers to analyze, according to a third-party resume guide from Eval Community. Because Word documents store text as plain, structured content, there's less for a parser to trip over. That simplicity is exactly why some employers still ask specifically for .docx.

The honest caveat — neither format is universally "more reliable"

Here's the nuance most one-line answers skip. Some ATS have trouble parsing special characters or formatting inside a .docx, which is why Jobscan recommends defaulting to PDF unless a posting specifically requests a Word file.

That's a lean toward PDF, not a verdict that PDF is always better. Both formats are widely accepted; PDF protects your layout, .docx gives the parser less to misread. The realistic takeaway: when nothing is specified, a clean text-based PDF is a sound default — and when the posting asks for Word, give it Word without worrying.

The one file that always fails: a scanned or image-based PDF

There's a version of "PDF" that genuinely breaks: a scanned or image-based (non-editable) PDF, which an ATS cannot read (Resume Worded). To the software, that file is just a picture — there's no text to pull out. So the format label "PDF" isn't the point; whether it contains real, selectable text is.

Two habits keep you on the safe side of that line, both per the same Resume Worded guide:

• Export straight to PDF from Word or Google Docs. Don't scan a printout, and don't run it through a lossy converter.
• Run the five-second highlight test. Open the PDF and try to select the text with your cursor. If you can highlight it, the file is text-based and readable; if the whole page selects like an image, it isn't.

Once your file is genuinely text-based, you can check how well its wording lines up with a specific role — paste the job description and your resume into our free ATS checker to see the match.

When the posting names a format, that decision is already made

Above everything else: follow the format the posting specifies. If a job application requires a certain file type, use it (Jobscan). A stated requirement overrides every general preference — including the PDF default — because ignoring it is the one choice that can actually count against you.