diff --git a/packages/payload/src/uploads/getFileTypeFallback.spec.ts b/packages/payload/src/uploads/getFileTypeFallback.spec.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..6cb8fc19641
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/payload/src/uploads/getFileTypeFallback.spec.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+import { describe, expect, it } from 'vitest'
+
+import { getFileTypeFallback } from './getFileTypeFallback.js'
+
+describe('getFileTypeFallback', () => {
+  it('should use application/pdf for PDF files', () => {
+    expect(getFileTypeFallback('document.pdf')).toStrictEqual({
+      ext: 'pdf',
+      mime: 'application/pdf',
+    })
+  })
+
+  it('should fall back to text/plain for unknown extensions', () => {
+    expect(getFileTypeFallback('file.unknown')).toStrictEqual({
+      ext: 'unknown',
+      mime: 'text/plain',
+    })
+  })
+})
diff --git a/packages/payload/src/uploads/getFileTypeFallback.ts b/packages/payload/src/uploads/getFileTypeFallback.ts
index 1007ae5764a..4ef3ad23402 100644
--- a/packages/payload/src/uploads/getFileTypeFallback.ts
+++ b/packages/payload/src/uploads/getFileTypeFallback.ts
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ const extensionMap: {
   js: 'application/javascript',
   json: 'application/json',
   md: 'text/markdown',
+  pdf: 'application/pdf',
   svg: 'image/svg+xml',
   xml: 'application/xml',
   yml: 'application/x-yaml',