Redact PDF
Share documents safely: the text under each black box is deleted from the file, not just hidden from view.
- Files never leave your device
- 100% free
- No sign-up
- No watermark
- Works offline after first load
or drag & drop a PDF here
How to redact a PDF
- Select or drop your PDF. It opens with the Redact area tool ready — drag a box over anything you want to hide, or use Redact text to drag across words.
- Use Find & redact to search names or phrases, or tick Email addresses, Phone numbers, Card numbers, ID numbers, dates, amounts or links. Untick any match you want to keep and click Mark ticked matches. You can also black out whole pages.
- Pick black, white or gray boxes, optionally with a label such as REDACTED, and click Redact & download.
About Redact PDF
Redact a PDF properly. A black box drawn over text in most editors only hides it — the words are still in the file and can be copied out. Here every page with a redaction is rebuilt with the boxes burnt in, so what you hid is really gone, while the text you didn’t redact stays searchable.
Find what to remove quickly: search names and phrases on every page, or find all email addresses, phone numbers, card numbers, ID numbers (SSN, PAN, Aadhaar, IBAN), dates, amounts and links. Drag boxes over pictures and signatures, black out whole pages, choose black, white or gray with a REDACTED label, and strip metadata, comments and attachments. Nothing is uploaded.
Good for
- Sharing contracts, invoices and bank statements without personal details
- Court filings, HR files and freedom-of-information releases
- Removing names, account numbers and signatures before sending
Tip: Turn on “Preview the result” to see exactly how the boxes will look before you download.
Frequently asked questions
Is the redacted text really gone?
Yes. Every page that has a redaction is rebuilt from a picture of the page with the boxes burnt in, so the text, images and drawings under the boxes no longer exist in the file. Copying, searching or removing the boxes won’t bring them back. Pages without redactions are kept exactly as they were.
Can the rest of the page still be searched?
Yes. With “Keep the other text searchable” ticked, the text on a redacted page that isn’t under a box is laid back as invisible text, so you can still search and copy it — but nothing that was redacted.
How do I find every email address or phone number?
Tick the kinds of information to look for — email addresses, phone numbers, card numbers (checked with the Luhn test), ID numbers such as SSN, PAN, Aadhaar and IBAN, dates, amounts of money and web links — and click Find. Each match is listed with its page; untick any you want to keep, then mark the rest.
Can I redact the same name everywhere?
Yes. Type it under Find and redact — several names or phrases can be separated by commas — with Match case and Whole words if needed. Every occurrence on every page is found and can be marked in one click.
My PDF is a scan. Can I redact it?
Yes — drag boxes over what to hide. Search can’t find words in a scanned image; to search a scan, run it through OCR PDF first and then redact it here.
What does Remove hidden information do?
It removes the author, title and other metadata, the text of comments and notes, attached files and scripts, which can contain information you don’t see on the page. Form fields are always flattened so their answers can’t leak.
Is my PDF uploaded?
No. Redaction happens entirely in your browser — your document never leaves your device, which is what you want for confidential files.