Redact PDF
Black out sensitive information and have it permanently removed from the file — not just covered up. Everything happens in your browser.
Actually removed
The page is rebuilt without the hidden text, so nothing survives underneath the black box.
Verify it yourself
Before you download, compare what text the original and the redacted file give up.
Nothing is uploaded
The documents you redact are the ones you least want on someone else’s server. Yours never leave.
Finds the obvious ones
Emails, phone numbers and card numbers are detected for you. You still decide what goes.
In short: To redact a PDF properly, the sensitive content has to be deleted from the file — not hidden behind a rectangle. This tool rebuilds each page without the covered content, then shows you proof that the words are gone. It all runs in your browser.
Why a Black Box Is Not Redaction
Open a PDF, draw a black rectangle over a name, save it, send it. It looks redacted. In most PDF editors, it is not.
The rectangle is a new object drawn on top of the page. The text is still sitting underneath it, untouched, in the file you just emailed.
The mistake that leaks documents
This is one of the most repeated document-handling failures there is. Court filings, government reports and corporate disclosures have all leaked this way — the black boxes were there, and the words behind them came out with a mouse drag.
Why copy and paste still finds the text
Selection works on the text layer, not on what you can see. Drag across a covered line and your clipboard gets the original characters. Search does the same thing.
What actually has to happen
The characters themselves have to leave the file. Either the content stream is rewritten without them, or the page is rebuilt from scratch. Anything short of that is a cover, not a redaction.
How to Redact a PDF in 4 Steps
You can redact a PDF here in about a minute, and every step runs on your own machine. Nothing is uploaded, and the original file on your device is never modified.
- 1
Open the PDF
Drop the file onto the box above. It loads straight into this browser tab — there is no upload step, and no copy is kept anywhere.
- 2
Mark what has to go
Drag across anything you want gone. The tool also scans the text layer and suggests emails, phone numbers, card numbers and ID numbers it recognizes.
- 3
Check the redaction proof
After processing you get a side-by-side view of the text the original gives up versus the text the new file gives up. Confirm your words are missing from the right-hand side.
- 4
Download the redacted file
Save the result. The marked content is not in it — not hidden, not recoverable, simply absent from the file you send.
Pro tip — Automatic detection only sees a text layer. If your PDF is a scan, it will find nothing at all — that is not the same as there being nothing to find. Mark scans by hand, or run OCR first.
Note — Draw a little wider than the text. Letters have overhangs and italic slants, and a box that stops exactly at the last character can leave a sliver of the next one visible.
Verify It Yourself Before You Send It
Every tool that can redact a PDF tells you the content is permanently gone. Almost none of them give you a way to check.
That is a strange thing to take on faith, given what happens when redaction fails. So this tool shows the evidence instead of asking for trust.
What the redaction proof shows
Two panels: every piece of text that can be pulled out of your original file, and every piece that can be pulled out of the redacted one. Below them, each string you removed is listed with a pass or fail.
A correctly redacted file gives up no text at all, because the page has been rebuilt as an image. The right-hand panel should be empty.
What to do if a word is still there
It means a box did not fully cover it. Go back, widen the mark, and run it again. Nothing was sent anywhere, so a second pass costs you nothing but a few seconds.
What Gets Removed — and What It Costs You
There are two ways to redact a PDF: surgically delete the words from the content stream, or throw the page away and rebuild it. This tool does the second one, because only it can be verified.
Everything on the page is rebuilt
Each page is rendered, the marked areas are filled in as solid pixels, and the result is assembled into a brand new document. The original page objects are discarded, not carried over.
A useful side effect: annotations, form fields, and anything hidden behind other objects go with them. There is no leftover layer to dig into.
The trade-off: your PDF becomes images
Because the page is rebuilt as a picture, the text layer is gone. The file is no longer searchable or selectable, and it usually gets larger.
That is the honest cost of certainty. A tool that keeps your text layer intact is a tool that kept some of your text.
Getting searchable text back
If you need the document to stay searchable, run OCR on it after redacting. That builds a fresh text layer from what is actually visible — which no longer includes the parts you removed. OCR PDF
Redacting vs Sanitizing a PDF
These two get mixed up constantly, and they solve different problems. When you redact a PDF you deal with one of them; the other needs a separate pass. Most sensitive documents need both.
Redaction removes content you can see
Names, account numbers, addresses, signatures — the things printed on the page. That is what this tool does.
Sanitizing removes what you cannot see
Author names, editing history, the software that made the file, GPS coordinates on embedded photos. None of that is on the page, and all of it travels with the document.
Rebuilding the pages drops most hidden page-level data along with it, but document metadata is worth clearing separately — it takes a few seconds. PDF Metadata
When You Need to Redact a PDF
People redact a PDF for almost always the same reason: a document has to be shared, but a few lines in it must not be. These four cover most of it.
Contracts and legal filings
Share the terms without the counterparty’s personal details, pricing from other deals, or signatures.
Bank statements and invoices
Proof of address and proof of income are requested constantly. Account and card numbers rarely need to come along.
Medical records
Send the results without the identifiers. Patient names, record numbers and dates of birth usually add nothing to the recipient.
ID documents and applications
Passports, licences and job applications carry far more identifying data than whoever asked for them actually needs.
These are the files you least want uploaded
There is a real tension in this category. The documents people redact are contracts, bank statements, medical letters and scans of ID — and the usual way to redact them online is to upload them, un-redacted, to a stranger’s server.
This tool loads into your browser and works there. The un-redacted file never goes anywhere, which means there is no copy of it to leak, subpoena or misconfigure. You can disconnect from the network after the page loads and still finish the job.
Browser-Based Redaction vs Upload-Based Tools
Choosing where to redact a PDF matters more than for any other tool on this site, because the file is still un-redacted while you work on it. Local processing is the right default. It still has trade-offs, and here they are.
| Aspect | This tool (in browser) | Upload-based redaction tools |
|---|---|---|
| Where your file goes | Never leaves your device | Uploaded to a remote server |
| Who could see the un-redacted file | Only you | You and the service |
| Works offline | Yes, after the first load | No |
| Account required | No | Often |
| Speed on very large PDFs | Slower — it uses your CPU | Faster — it uses their servers |
| Output stays searchable | No — pages become images | Some keep the text layer |
The last row cuts both ways. Keeping a text layer is convenient, but it means the tool edited around your text rather than replacing the page — and that is exactly where redaction failures come from. We chose certainty and told you the cost.
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Redact PDF
Permanently remove sensitive text from a PDF, in your browser
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Frequently Asked Questions
What people ask before trusting a tool with a document like this.
How do I redact a PDF?
To redact a PDF here: open the file above, drag over what has to go, then press Redact. You get a proof panel showing what text the new file gives up, and then a download. It happens entirely in this browser tab, with no account and no page limit.
Is the text really removed, or just hidden?
Really removed. The page is rebuilt without it. Each page is rendered, the marked areas are filled with solid pixels, and a new document is assembled from those images. The original page objects are discarded rather than covered, so there is nothing underneath to recover.
Can a redaction be undone or recovered?
No. There is nothing left to undo. Recovery is possible when content is merely hidden — behind a shape, in an invisible layer, in a previous revision. None of those apply here, because the content never makes it into the output file. Keep your own copy of the original if you still need it.
Is it free to redact a PDF? Is there a page limit?
You can redact a PDF here for free, with no page cap and no watermark. We do not set a quota because the work happens on your device, not ours. The practical ceiling is memory — a very large scan on an older phone can run out of it.
Do my files get uploaded to a server?
No. Your PDF never leaves the browser. That matters more here than anywhere else on this site, because the file you are redacting is un-redacted while you work on it. You can confirm it by disconnecting from the network after the page loads — redaction still works.
Why is my redacted PDF no longer searchable?
Because the pages were rebuilt as images, which is what makes it safe. Any approach that preserves your text layer is an approach that kept your text. If you need search back afterwards, run OCR on the redacted file — it will build a new text layer from what is still visible.
Does this remove metadata and hidden data too?
Page content, yes. Document metadata is worth a separate pass. Rebuilding pages drops annotations, form fields and objects hidden behind others. Document-level metadata such as author and creation software is a different layer, so clear the PDF metadata afterwards if that matters.
Is this good enough for court filings or compliance work?
Technically the content is removed from the file. The judgement call stays yours. We can tell you what the tool does and let you verify it, and the proof panel exists for exactly that. We cannot tell you whether it satisfies a particular obligation you are under — check the result yourself, and follow whatever review process your situation requires.
Related Tools
What people usually do before or after redacting.
- OCR PDF — make the redacted file searchable again, or add a text layer to a scan before redacting it.
- PDF Metadata — clear author, software and timestamps — the data that is not on the page.
- Compress PDF — bring the size back down after the pages are rebuilt as images.
- Merge PDF — combine the pages into one document before you start marking.
- Flatten PDF — flatten form fields and annotations into the page.
Redact it without handing it over
Redact a PDF right here in your browser, and check the result yourself before you send it anywhere.
Open the redaction tool