PDF Redaction Tool
Permanently remove confidential information, personal data, and sensitive content from your PDF documents. Secure browser-based redaction with no software installation required.
Why choose our Redact PDF tool?
Complete information removal
Completely eliminate sensitive text, images, and metadata with true redaction that removes data rather than just visually hiding it.
Regulatory compliance
Meet GDPR, HIPAA, and other privacy regulations by properly removing personal information and confidential data from documents.
Enterprise-level processing
Process multiple documents simultaneously with identical redaction patterns, ideal for large-scale document sanitization projects.
How it works — redact sensitive information in three simple steps
Upload your document
Select a PDF file from your device or simply drag and drop it into the secure upload area.
Identify sensitive content
Specify words, phrases, and patterns to be removed, or select specific areas containing confidential information.
Process and download
Review your selections, confirm the redaction process, and download your sanitized document with all sensitive information permanently removed.
Professional applications for PDF redaction
Legal document preparation
Remove privileged information, client identifiers, and sensitive case details from legal filings and discovery documents.
Research and publication
Anonymize research participant data and remove identifying details to meet ethics committee requirements and publication standards.
Financial records
Eliminate account numbers, financial details, and proprietary information from statements and reports before sharing.
Publishing & reports
Remove editorial comments, draft content, and proprietary information from documents before public distribution or publication.
Team collaboration
Create shareable versions of documents by removing proprietary information while maintaining essential content for team collaboration.
Records management
Sanitize historical records and archived documents to ensure compliance with data retention policies and privacy regulations.
Related PDF tools
Expert advice for effective document sanitization
Double-check your selections
Carefully verify all content marked for removal before processing, as redaction permanently deletes information from your document.
Redact metadata too
Don't forget to address document properties, comments, and revision history that may contain sensitive information not visible on the page.
Use batch mode wisely
Create standardized redaction patterns for your organization and apply them consistently across document sets for efficiency and thoroughness.
True removal, not just masking
Understand that professional redaction completely removes information rather than merely applying visual masking that could be reversed.
Keep an original backup
Maintain secure copies of original documents in protected storage for audit purposes and future reference when necessary.
Test your redacted file
After redaction, perform text searches and visual inspections of your document to verify all sensitive information has been completely removed.
Technical specifications
Supported redaction features, input/output behavior and limits.
File format support
Input formats
- • PDF (Portable Document Format)
- • Image-based and scanned PDFs with OCR processing
- • Password-protected PDFs must be unlocked first
- • Batch jobs: multiple files with shared redaction rules
Output
- • Redacted PDF(s) exported as new files (originals preserved)
- • Option to ZIP multiple outputs for batch jobs
- • Complete data removal with no possibility of recovery or extraction
- • Preserve bookmarks and layout where possible
Processing time
- • Typical: under 20 seconds for single documents
- • Large batches may take longer and be queued
- • Professional-grade redaction processing after secure upload
- • Preliminary document analysis performed locally to maximize data security
Security & Infrastructure
Data Security
- • TLS 1.3 encryption in transit
- • AES-256 encryption at rest
- • Zero-knowledge processing
- • GDPR & CCPA compliant
- • No file content logging
File Management
- • Automatic deletion after 1 hour
- • Secure server processing
- • No permanent storage
- • Memory-only processing
- • Multi-region redundancy
Infrastructure
- • Cloud-based processing
- • Auto-scaling servers
- • Global CDN delivery
- • 99.9% uptime guarantee
- • 24/7 monitoring
Frequently asked questions
Is redaction permanent?
Absolutely. Our professional redaction process completely removes the information from the document rather than just visually hiding it, making recovery impossible.
What’s the difference between hiding and redacting?
Hiding merely obscures content visually while leaving the underlying data intact. True redaction permanently removes the information from the document structure so it cannot be recovered.
Can I redact scanned PDFs?
Yes. Our tool incorporates optical character recognition (OCR) technology to identify and remove text content embedded within scanned documents and images.
Does redaction affect formatting?
Our redaction process maintains the overall document structure and formatting while replacing only the targeted sensitive content with redaction marks, ensuring document usability.
Can I batch redact multiple files?
Yes. Our enterprise-level processing allows you to apply identical redaction patterns across multiple documents simultaneously, saving time and ensuring consistency.
Is this tool secure for sensitive data?
Yes. We implement end-to-end encryption for all file transfers, and your documents are automatically deleted from our systems once processing is complete, leaving no trace of your sensitive information.
What happens if I redact the wrong content?
Once redaction is applied, the information is permanently deleted and cannot be restored. This is why we strongly recommend keeping a secure backup of your original document in a protected location.
Can metadata also be redacted?
Yes. Our comprehensive redaction process can address document properties, authorship information, revision history, and embedded comments that might contain sensitive information not visible on the page.