Redact PDF
Work with your PDF directly in the browser—fast, private, and without uploading the document.
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Privacy & limitations
Your files stay on this device
Redaction permanently destroys the covered content — save an unredacted copy of the original before applying, because the operation cannot be reversed. Search-based redaction matches text inside extracted spans and can miss content split across spans, rendered from scanned images, or rotated in unusual ways; always inspect the search matches in the preview before applying. Metadata stripping clears the PDF's Info dictionary only — embedded attachments, XMP streams, and document JavaScript are out of scope for this tool (the Privacy Scanner covers those).
How to use this tool
- Add the PDF you want to clean up using the file picker or drag-and-drop.
- Drag a redaction rectangle over every area you want permanently removed, or type one or more search terms to cover every matching occurrence across the document automatically.
- Review the marked regions in the preview — redaction is one-way and cannot be undone. Pick a fill color and, if you want, turn on metadata stripping to clear the document's Info dictionary.
- Apply the redaction and download the output. this app deletes the covered text from the file itself, so it can no longer be selected, searched, or extracted.
Frequently asked questions
How do I permanently redact a PDF, not just hide the text?
Select the text or regions to redact and apply — the covered content is actually removed from the underlying PDF data, not just painted over, so it can't be recovered by copy-pasting or deleting the black box in another program.