Stop using the digital Sharpie.

That black box you draw over sensitive text in most PDF tools? The text is still there, selectable and copyable, sitting in the file waiting for anyone with Ctrl+A. A black rectangle isn't redaction, it's a sticky note over a window. This tool actually removes the content, then checks its own work before handing back the file.

Text removed from the file, not covered
Hidden OCR text layers on scanned pages checked too
Metadata, annotations, and hidden layers stripped
No trace left in the file's revision history
Can't verify a page is clean? It refuses the file, doesn't guess
Processed and discarded — nothing retained
No account or sign-up required
No watermark on the output, ever
Doesn't flatten your whole page to an image just to be safe

Redact a PDF

Upload a PDF, mark the regions to remove, download the result. Nothing is kept.

This actually removes the underlying text and image data, not just a visual black box. After processing, this tool re-checks its own output and refuses to return a file it can't verify is clean. See the FAQ below for what's in scope for v1. Need the file to never touch the internet at all, not even briefly? Try the fully offline version (Beta) -- runs entirely in your browser, works with your network disconnected.
or drag and drop a PDF
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FAQ

Is this really free?

Yes, completely, no limit.

Is my data stored?

No. Your file is uploaded, processed, and discarded right after your download completes, nothing is retained.

How is this different from other free redaction tools?

Most "redaction" tools draw a black box over text but leave the underlying content extractable via copy-paste or search, a well-documented failure mode. This tool actually removes the text and image content in the marked region, then re-checks its own output and refuses to return a file it can't verify is clean, rather than risk shipping incomplete redaction.

Why not just convert the whole page to an image, like some redaction tools do?

Some tools sidestep the problem entirely by flattening every page into a raster image, so there's no text layer left anywhere on the page for anyone to extract. That's genuinely safe, but it means the whole page loses selectable, searchable, and copyable text, not just the redacted part, plus a real file-size and zoom-quality hit. This tool only removes the marked region's actual content, text, images, comments, and form fields elsewhere on the page stay exactly as they were, real and searchable, not an image pretending to be text.

What about tools that claim to "unredact" a PDF?

Those tools work by stripping the black box drawn on top of a redaction, which only recovers something if the underlying text was left in the file. We tested this tool's output against a public unredaction checker: it removed our visual box, same as it would for any tool, but found nothing underneath because the text was already gone, not just covered.

What's out of scope in v1?

Pages rotated 90 or 270 degrees aren't supported yet, rotate them to standard orientation first (see PDF Tools). PDF form field values aren't scrubbed. Redacting a tagged (accessible) PDF removes its accessibility structure tree entirely, since that structure can carry duplicate text outside the normal content stream. If a page can't be verified clean, it's rejected instead of guessed at.

Any limits?

25MB per file, up to 20 pages.

Do I need to create an account, and will it add a watermark?

No and no. No account, no email, no sign-up, and no watermark on your output.