Redact a PDF
This free tool blacks out personal details in a PDF and deletes the text inside each area from the file data. The PDF is processed in your browser and never uploaded. Before you add a redaction, it shows the characters that will be deleted and other places where the same text remains. Scanned PDFs can also be redacted by painting that area of the image black.
You can open one PDF at a time (up to 200 MB on this device). The PDF is processed in your browser and never uploaded.
How to use
- 1
Open a PDF
Choose a PDF file or drop it. Your PDF is never uploaded.
- 2
Mark the areas to redact
Drag to draw a box around the area you want to delete, or select a line. Check the characters that will be deleted and the other places where the same text remains, then press “Add redaction”.
- 3
Save the PDF
Press “Save PDF” to delete the text in the areas from the file data. The PDF is created after checking that nothing remains, and if the check does not pass, no PDF is created.
About PDF redaction
Text, images and drawings inside a redacted area are deleted from the PDF data when you save. Before the file is created, the tool checks that no text or image remains in the areas, and if the check does not pass, no PDF is created. If an area overlaps form fields, the form fields on every page are fixed into the page content (flattened) before painting.
Unlike “White-out + overwrite”, redacted text cannot be selected or copied. However, with the default method, the shapes of the deleted characters and the table used to read them remain inside the fonts. To delete names, addresses and similar more reliably, choose “Remove more thoroughly (turn the page into an image)”. Also, the width of a black box shows the rough length of the deleted text, so draw the area wider if the length must stay hidden too.
Frequently asked questions
Is it free?
Yes. It is free, with no sign-up and no usage limit.
Is my PDF uploaded to a server?
No. Opening, redacting and saving the PDF all happen in the browser on your device. Processing statistics used to fix problems (page count range, number of redactions, error types and so on) are sent to this site's server. They do not include the PDF's content, the redacted text, passwords or file names. You can stop sending them with the “Send processing statistics” switch at the bottom of the page.
Is redacted text deleted from the file data?
Yes. Text touching an area is deleted from the PDF data and checked before saving. The same text outside the areas (on other pages, in bookmarks, attachments and so on) remains, so those places are listed before you add the redaction. With the default method, the shapes of the deleted characters remain inside the fonts, so to delete them reliably, choose “Remove more thoroughly (turn the page into an image)”.
Are there PDFs that cannot be redacted?
Yes. A PDF whose editing is restricted can only be viewed until you enter its permissions password. This tool does not guess passwords, so if you do not know the permissions password, ask the person who created the PDF. PDFs made with XFA forms (one type of form-field format) and PDFs encrypted with an unsupported method cannot be opened.
Help us improve the service
If a conversion fails, sending us the circumstances helps us track down the cause. Knowing which devices and formats fail most often, and how long processing takes, lets us revise the supported formats and fix the bugs behind them. If you don't mind, leaving this on is a real help.
What is sent
- The tool you used and the settings you chose (output format, quality, etc.)
- Your device specs (GPU, memory, core count)
- The input format with a rough size
- How many files succeeded or failed and how long it took
- The error type and details when something fails
What is never sent
- The files themselves and file names
- Text, subtitles or prompts you add to a video
- The text to be read aloud, voice descriptions, the pronunciation dictionary and saved voices
- The text in PDFs, the text you rewrote or redacted, passwords, font names and the page ranges you enter
- IP addresses
The data goes only to this site's own server, never to a third-party service.
Details sent by specific tools (counts, times, kinds and yes/no only)
In addition to “What is sent”, text to speech and the PDF tools send the following details.
- PDF tools (all)This tool
- The page count range, whether editing is restricted, whether a permissions password was entered, and whether the PDF is signed or encrypted.
- PDF text editing and redactionThis tool
- The numbers of rewrites, deletions, white-outs and redactions, the number of rewritten characters by source (original font or fallback font, the latter as a range) and the fallback typeface, the kinds of reasons why lines cannot be edited, and the number of pages turned into images by redaction and the reasons.
- Text to speech
- The approximate number of characters and sentences, how many parts the text was generated in, and how long the AI model took to load.
- PDF page operations and conversion between images and PDF
- The numbers of inputs and outputs, of pages rotated, deleted, duplicated or moved, of images inserted as they are, converted, in HEIC format or with corrected orientation, and of pages rendered at a lower resolution (all as ranges), whether the original was updated in place or a new document was created, and whether the original protection was reapplied, form fields were written into the page and bookmarks were added back.
- PDF compression
- The numbers of inputs and outputs, of images downsized, not downsized and black-and-white, of downsized images whose transparency was also downsized, that stayed lossless or that were converted from CMYK to RGB, and how many times the file was compressed (all as ranges), the kinds of reasons images were not downsized, whether the target size was met and the kind of reason it was not met, the range of how much smaller the file got, whether the original protection was reapplied, and whether the original PDF was returned unchanged.
- PDF cropping and page numbers
- The numbers of inputs and outputs and of pages cropped, numbered or with their margins reduced (all as ranges), how the margins were set, how the pages to crop or number were chosen, the number format and position, the range of the starting number, that the original was updated in place, and whether the original protection was reapplied.