Redact PDF
Black out sensitive content, remove what's underneath, and strip document metadata.
- Free — no signup, no account, no watermark
- Runs entirely in your browser — nothing is uploaded to a server
- Works on mobile, tablet and desktop
- Instant — results appear as soon as you enter your input
Why this is private
- Processed entirely in your browser. Your file is never uploaded to a server. Redacted pages are converted to an image with the boxes burned in, so the underlying text and data are removed — those pages lose selectable text. Document metadata (title, author, subject, keywords) is stripped from the output too.
- Open your browser's DevTools → Network tab while using this tool — you won't see a request carrying your input, because it never leaves your device.
- Nothing you enter is uploaded to a server or shared with us — the processing happens entirely on your device.
Overview
Draw boxes over anything sensitive. On export, every page you marked is rendered to an image with the black boxes painted in and re-embedded — so the text, form data and vectors beneath are genuinely gone, not just covered, unlike simply painting a black rectangle over live text (which leaves the underlying text fully copyable — a well-known, real-world redaction failure). Pages you don't mark are copied through untouched and keep their selectable text. The output's document metadata (title, author, subject, keywords) is also stripped, since a perfectly redacted page can still leak the same sensitive information through leftover metadata a user would have no reason to check separately.
How to use it
- 1Drop in the PDF.
- 2Drag a box over each thing to hide (on any page).
- 3Apply — marked pages are flattened and document metadata is stripped. Download the redacted PDF.
Frequently asked questions
What people use it for
Related guides
- How to convert images to PDF (JPG, PNG, phone photos)Turn one or several JPG or PNG images into a single PDF, in the right page order — what the tool does, the steps, and the common snags.
- How to merge PDF files into oneCombine two or more PDFs into a single file, in the order you choose — the steps, what merging does to quality and size, and how to handle pages and images.
- How to compress a PDF to under 1 MBA 1 MB upload limit is common on application portals. Here's what's realistic, how to get there, and when 1 MB simply isn't possible without losing the text.
- How to compress a PDF for email attachmentsGmail, Outlook and most providers cap attachments around 20–25 MB. Here's how to get a PDF under the limit — or send it without shrinking it at all.
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