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Redact PDF

Black out sensitive info — names, account numbers, signatures. Apply to one page, all pages, or a custom range. Choose color and add an optional label.

Drag & drop your PDF here

— or —
Files never leave your device Up to 100 MB Multi-page redaction
100% Secure
Runs in browser
Lightning fast
100% Free

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Redact PDF

Redact sensitive info from a PDF for free. Draw boxes over names, account numbers and signatures in any color, apply to one page or all, optional label. 100% in-browser.

Redact PDF Online — Hide Sensitive Info Permanently, Free

You’re sharing a bank statement with your accountant but the account number shouldn’t leave your hands. A contract draft has the signature page from a previous version that needs to vanish before it goes back to the client. A KYC bundle includes a photocopy of an ID where the address line has to be hidden across every page it appears. Every one of these is a job for a real PDF redactor — a tool that puts solid, irreversible blocks over the bits you don’t want anyone to see.

Our free Redact PDF tool does it the way it should be done: draw a box, pick where it applies — this page only, every page, or a custom range — choose a color, add a label if you want, and download a clean PDF with the boxes burned in. No watermark, and no signup for your first 2 tasks a day. No upload to any server — the whole thing runs inside your browser using pdf-lib, so your file never leaves your device.

How to Redact a PDF in 5 Steps

Under a minute on most documents. No installs, no “pro” tier, no learning curve.

1. Drop Your PDF

Drag and drop your PDF (up to 100 MB) or click Select PDF File. Password-protected files are supported — you’ll get a clean prompt with a show/hide eye toggle.

2. Choose Where It Applies

Toggle This page, All pages, or Range. Boxes drawn next will land on exactly the pages you picked — perfect for repeating headers, footers and watermarks.

3. Pick a Color & Label

Solid black is the default. Pick white to blend with the page, red for “hot” redactions, or open the custom color picker. Add an optional label like REDACTED or CONFIDENTIAL.

4. Draw the Boxes

Click and drag over the area you want hidden. Click any existing box to remove it. Flip pages and keep going — the counter shows how many boxes are on the current page and across the whole document.

5. Apply & Download

One click burns every box into the PDF and downloads the redacted file. Each page that has a box is rebuilt as an image, so the text and images under the boxes are gone from the file for good — they can’t be selected, searched or copied. Pages without boxes are left exactly as they were.

Why This Is the Best Free Online PDF Redactor

Most free redactors give you a black brush and that’s it. Ours treats redaction like the structured, repeatable task it actually is. Here’s what makes our tool different from iLovePDF, Smallpdf, Sejda and the rest.

Multi-Page Apply Modes

Switch between This page, All pages and Range with one click. Draw a single header redaction in “All pages” mode and watch it appear on every page automatically — no more dragging the same box 50 times.

Custom Colors

Black, white, red, blue, yellow and a full color picker. White is great for matching paper-look documents; red shouts “CONFIDENTIAL”; blue is the default in some legal teams.

Optional Labels

Drop a label inside the box — REDACTED, CONFIDENTIAL, NDA, your matter number. Text color auto-picks black or white based on the box color for readability.

Burned-In, Not Just Hidden

Boxes are drawn into the page content as part of the final save. The output PDF contains the rectangles — the original text or images underneath aren’t stored in the new file.

Password-Protected PDFs Supported

Upload an encrypted PDF and a clean password prompt appears with a show/hide toggle. The redacted output downloads without any password — encryption is properly removed, no “something went wrong” loops.

100% Browser-Only Privacy

No upload, no server processing, no log files. Open DevTools’ Network tab while redacting — you’ll see zero outbound requests carrying your file.

Forgiving Workflow

Click a box to remove it. Use Clear page or Clear all to start over. Switch pages while keeping boxes you’ve already drawn — nothing is committed until you hit Apply.

Free to Use

No signup, no email capture and no watermark on the output. Each run uses one of your free daily tasks (2 a day, or 3 with a free account), and every feature works the same on one page or two hundred.

Why Redact, Not Just Cover?

Selecting black text in your PDF reader and changing its color to black looks the same on screen — but anyone who copies the text out (Ctrl+A → Ctrl+C) gets the original words back. Adding a black box on top in an annotation layer leaves the text underneath untouched too. Real redaction means the boxes are written into the page content stream when the file is saved, and any text or images under them are gone for good in the saved version.

Our tool does exactly that. pdf-lib stamps each box as a filled rectangle in the page’s content stream and writes a fresh PDF. The redacted output is just pages with rectangles drawn on top — opening it and selecting all text returns only the visible characters, not the hidden ones.

Real Reasons People Redact PDFs

  • Bank statements: hide the account number and IFSC code in the header before sharing transactions with an accountant or for a loan application.
  • Contracts & NDAs: redact party names, commercial terms or signature blocks before sharing a precedent template with a colleague.
  • KYC documents: hide Aadhaar numbers, address lines, photo, or signature on an ID before submitting to a portal that only needs to see the name and DOB.
  • Medical reports: remove patient identifiers (UHID, mobile, address) before sharing a scan or lab report with a second-opinion doctor.
  • HR & payroll: redact CTC, bonus and bank details on offer letters or payslips before forwarding to insurance, telecom KYC or a landlord.
  • Legal filings: remove personal identifiers on a brief or annexure as required by court rules before filing or publishing.
  • Sharing internal documents externally: drop the cost lines, internal email addresses or customer names from an internal report before sending to a vendor.
  • Screenshots in PDF form: blur API keys, tokens, names from a sales pipeline screenshot turned into a PDF for a case study.

Pro Tips for Cleaner Redactions

Use “All pages” for headers & footers

If a logo, account number or page footer appears in the same spot on every page, switch to All pages mode and draw the box once. The orange-outlined preview confirms it stamps across the whole document.

Match the page color with white

For a paper-look output, pick the white swatch. The redaction blends with the page background — the reader can’t tell there was anything there to begin with.

Label the box for audit trails

Internal compliance reviews love it when redactions carry context. Drop NDA §4.2 or PII in the Label field and reviewers can see why something was hidden.

For ultra-sensitive docs: also flatten

After redacting, run the output through our Flatten PDF tool. This collapses any remaining form fields or annotations and produces a truly final, read-only artifact.

Redact PDF — FAQs

Upload your PDF here, click and drag over the area you want hidden, pick a color and an optional label, then click Apply Redactions & Download. The boxes are burned into the output permanently: pages with boxes are rebuilt as images, so nothing under them survives. No signup and no watermark; each run counts as one of your free daily tasks (2 a day, or 3 with a free account).

Yes. Switch Apply Redaction To to All pages, then draw the box on the current page — it’s stamped on every page at the same position. Perfect for repeating headers, footers, watermarks, or a logo that appears document-wide. Boxes drawn in this mode are shown with an orange outline so you can spot them at a glance.

Yes. Switch Apply Redaction To to Range and type the pages you want (e.g. 1-3, 5). Boxes drawn while Range mode is active are applied only to those pages. Range boxes are shown with a blue dashed outline in the preview.

Yes. The color row includes Black, White, Red, Blue and Yellow swatches plus a custom color picker. Pick a color before drawing — new boxes use the active color. Existing boxes keep the color they were drawn with.

Yes — type up to 32 characters in the Label field before drawing. The label is centered in the box and auto-sized to fit. Label text color picks black or white automatically based on the box color so it always reads cleanly.

No. Every page with a box is rebuilt as an image with the box burned in, so the text and images underneath are not in the output file at all and can’t be recovered, copied or searched. The trade-off: text on those pages is no longer selectable, while pages without boxes keep their text. Keep your original if you may need it again.

Yes. Upload an encrypted PDF and a password prompt appears with a show/hide eye toggle. Enter the password once — the file is decrypted in your browser and the redacted output downloads without any password. The encryption is properly stripped, so you won’t get the “something went wrong” loop you see on tools that only ignore encryption.

No. The entire redactor runs inside your browser using pdf-lib — your PDF never leaves your device. Open DevTools’ Network tab while redacting and you’ll see zero outbound requests with the file. Safe for KYC, salary slips, contracts and anything confidential.