Black out text and images in a PDF by drawing boxes or searching for words, with the hidden content removed for good, not just covered.
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Tell us what you think about Redact a PDF for free.
- True redaction — the text and images under each box are removed, not just covered up
- Draw boxes on any page or find every match of a word or phrase across the whole PDF
- Your file is deleted from the server as soon as it has been processed
- Free, no account required
How it works
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1
Upload the PDF that contains sensitive content.
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2
Draw boxes over what to hide, or switch to search and enter a word or phrase.
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3
Run the redaction on the server.
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4
Download the redacted PDF and check that everything you marked is blacked out.
About the Redact PDF
Drawing a black rectangle over a name in a normal PDF editor only hides it; the text underneath can still be selected, copied or searched. This redaction tool removes it. Each page you mark is rendered to an image on our server, the marked areas are painted black, and the page is rebuilt so the hidden words and images no longer exist in the file.
What you can do
- Draw boxes over anything on any page, moving between pages with Previous and Next, and remove a box if you drew it by mistake.
- Switch to search mode and type a word or phrase to black out every match on every page; matching ignores upper and lower case.
- Keep the remaining text on redacted pages searchable, because it is written back as an invisible text layer.
- Leave pages without redactions exactly as they were.
- Up to 500 boxes can be drawn in one run, across as many pages as the document has.
When it works best
- Removing names, addresses or account numbers before publishing or sharing a document.
- Preparing evidence or disclosure bundles where certain details must be withheld.
- Stripping an email address or phone number that appears dozens of times in a long report.
- Sharing a contract with a third party while keeping the price or personal details private.
Things to know
- Search finds text the PDF actually contains. Scanned pages have no text layer, so draw boxes on them, or run the file through PDF OCR first.
- Redacted pages become images at 150 dpi, so they can look slightly softer than the original and lose links and form fields.
- Redaction is permanent in the downloaded copy; keep the original somewhere safe if you may need it.
- The upload limit is 25 MB per PDF. Your upload is deleted as soon as it is processed, and the redacted copy is removed within about 30 minutes.
- Search compares whole words in reading order, so a word broken with a hyphen at the end of a line may need a box drawn by hand. Check every page of the result before sharing.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. Marked pages are rebuilt as images with black boxes, so the hidden words cannot be selected, copied or extracted.
Yes, search mode redacts every match on every page, ignoring upper and lower case.
Yes, the remaining text is written back as an invisible layer. The page itself becomes a 150 dpi image and loses links and form fields.
Scanned pages have no text, and words hyphenated across lines are not matched. Draw a box by hand in those cases.
The upload is deleted once processed, and the redacted copy within about 30 minutes. The limit is 25 MB.