Redact PDF Online

Upload your document, draw a redaction box over each piece of sensitive text, choose black or white blackout, then process and download. The covered content is deleted from the file itself, so it cannot be copied or recovered.

No, and this is the mistake that causes real data leaks. A black rectangle only hides text visually - the words remain in the file and can be revealed by copying the text, opening it in another editor, or deleting the shape. True redaction removes the underlying content entirely, which is what this tool does.

Yes. Redact PDF is 100% free with no sign-up and no watermark. Files are transferred over an encrypted connection and both your upload and the redacted result are permanently deleted within 30 minutes.

Unlike simple black markers that only overlay a shape, true redaction physically deletes the text characters, vector objects, and image pixels underneath the box, preventing anyone from extracting the text.

Upload your PDF, draw your blackout boxes over the text you wish to hide, click Redact PDF, and download. It is 100% free on OptaPDF.

No. Our backend engine uses PyMuPDF's advanced redaction features to erase underlying characters and paths completely. The data is gone.

The output file will follow our standard naming rule, e.g., x_redacted.pdf.

You can choose a professional Black blackout box or a clean White box depending on your preference.

Yes. Files are processed securely over HTTPS and permanently deleted from our servers after 30 minutes.

Yes, our touch-friendly visual cropper-overlay works perfectly on mobile phones.

Yes, you can draw as many redaction boxes as you want across multiple pages before processing.

We support PDF uploads up to 50MB.

You can delete individual drawn redaction boxes in the editor before hitting 'Redact PDF'.

The redaction boxes remove the visible text, images, and vector content you mark on the page. Hidden document metadata - such as the author name, the software that created the file, or timestamps - is stored separately in the file's properties. If your document may carry sensitive metadata, review the file properties before sharing, or save a clean copy first. For the page content you select, the underlying characters and pixels are permanently deleted.

Yes. A redaction box removes whatever sits beneath it - printed text, a scanned image, a photo, a face, a logo, or a handwritten signature. The pixels and vectors under the box are deleted rather than hidden, so that content cannot be recovered from the downloaded file.

Documents shared in legal discovery, healthcare records under HIPAA, financial statements, or files handled under privacy rules like GDPR often must have names, account numbers, and identifiers permanently removed. A black rectangle that only hides text on screen has caused real-world data leaks when recipients copied the text underneath. Because this tool deletes the underlying content, the redacted information is genuinely gone from the file you share.