Redact a PDF offline with PDF Redact
This opens a small contact sheet with two invented people and the email and phone finders already switched on. Press Mark all, look at the preview, then export and read the check report. Replace the sample with your own PDF; it is processed in this tab and not uploaded.
- Open your PDF with Choose a PDF, or try the contact sheet that is already loaded.
- Press Find matches. Emails and phone numbers are listed with their page numbers.
- Tick the ones to remove, or press Mark all, and draw extra boxes by dragging on the page.
- Open Review to see the page as it will be written, then Export and check.
- Download the redacted PDF and read every page before you send it.
What to know
Pages are processed by your own browser: PDF.js draws each page onto a canvas, the black boxes are painted on the pixels of that canvas, and a new PDF is written from the pictures. There is no server step: the PDF engine is downloaded once when you open your first file, and after that the redaction itself needs no network. The requests that do exist are the page and the engine, anonymous button-usage counts (never the file), and for Pro the licence check.
Working locally matters most for the files people hesitate to upload: HR letters, case notes, contracts with a client name, a scan of an ID. The trade is that the work happens on your device, so a 150-page file needs memory. The free tool handles up to 10 pages; Pro handles about 200, and a phone may struggle well before that.
Because the output is made of images, searching and copying text no longer work in the result, even outside the boxes. If you need a searchable copy of the non-sensitive parts, keep the original private and share only the redacted file as it is.
Updated · Cosmovex
Questions
Is my PDF uploaded?
No. The PDF is opened and processed in your browser tab. Pages are drawn, redacted and written there, and the file is never sent to our servers. We only measure which buttons are used, never the content of a file.
Does it work without an internet connection?
After the page and the PDF engine (loaded when you first open a file) have been fetched, redaction itself needs no connection: it runs in your browser. A Pro licence is re-checked at most once a day and keeps working offline.
What do I lose when the output is made of images?
Text in the whole output can no longer be selected, searched or copied, links and form fields stop working, and the file is usually larger. That is the cost of making sure the covered content is really gone, and the tool says so before you export.
How do I know the black boxes really removed the text?
After export the tool re-opens the file it just wrote and checks it: it contains only page images, there is no text layer to extract, and the pixels inside every box are black. You should still open the result and read every page; the checks cannot tell whether you covered everything sensitive.
The free plan covers everything on this page. PDF Redact Pro ($29, paid once) is described on the PDF Redact page.
