How to redact a PDF

Draw black boxes over anything you need to redact, and the covered content is flattened out of the file for good — not a rectangle someone can drag away or copy under. No Adobe Acrobat Pro and nothing to install: it runs on your device, and nothing is uploaded.

  1. Your PDF

    Drop a PDF here — or click to choose

    PDF

    Your files are never uploaded — everything runs on your device.

  2. Mark what to redact

  3. Export

How to redact a PDF in three steps

  1. Open your PDF

    Drop in a PDF. It loads straight into your browser and every page renders locally — nothing is uploaded.

  2. Draw your redaction boxes

    Drag across any page to paint a black box over sensitive text or images. Add as many as you like, move between pages, and delete a box if you misplace it.

  3. Apply & download

    Applying flattens every marked page to an image with the boxes burned in, so the content underneath is gone. Your redacted PDF then downloads automatically.

What this redaction software does

It removes the text, it does not hide it

Any page you mark is rasterised — the original text and vector layer are dropped and only pixels remain. No copy-paste, text search or "remove object" can recover what was under the box.

No Adobe Pro, no install

Redaction in Acrobat is a paid-tier feature. This is a browser page: open it, redact, download. There is no account, no subscription and nothing to install.

Your files are never uploaded

Rendering and redaction both run 100% in your browser. There is no server round-trip, so the document you are trying to protect is never uploaded anywhere.

Free, unlimited, no account

Redact as many PDFs as you want, of any length, with no watermark and no sign-up. Because it all runs on your device, there is nothing for us to meter.

What it runs on

No AI model — pdf.js in your browser, plus a flattening step. That matters here more than anywhere: redaction that relies on a model deciding what is sensitive can miss things, so this tool removes exactly what you mark, permanently.

Frequently asked questions

How do I redact a PDF without Adobe Pro?
Open this page and drop your PDF in — that is the whole setup. Acrobat keeps redaction behind its paid tier, but the work itself is just painting over a region and dropping what was underneath, and a browser can do that on your own machine. No account, no subscription, no download.
Can I remove text from a PDF with this?
Yes, in the sense that matters for redaction: the text you cover is deleted from the file, not merely hidden. Bear in mind what it is not — this is not a text editor. The covered region becomes an image, so you remove text rather than retype or reflow it.
Is the redacted content really gone?
Yes. Each page you mark is flattened to an image with the black boxes painted in, and the original text and vector layer for that page is discarded. There is no hidden layer left to select, copy or extract — the classic redaction failure simply can't happen here.
Are my files uploaded?
No. The PDF is opened, rendered and redacted entirely in your browser on your own device. It is never uploaded, and nothing is kept once you close the tab.
Do pages I didn't touch stay selectable?
Yes. Only pages with a redaction box are turned into images. Pages you leave untouched are copied through unchanged, so their text stays selectable and the file stays small.
Is it really free? Are there limits?
Completely free — no account, no watermark and no per-file limit. Everything runs on your device, so there is nothing to meter.
Does it use an AI model?
No, and deliberately so. The tool does not try to guess what is sensitive; you mark it, and the marked content is destroyed by flattening the page rather than covered with a black box that can be removed again.