How to Redact PDF Online Free

Redaction is the process of permanently removing sensitive information from a document. Unlike simply covering text with a black box in an image editor, proper PDF redaction removes the underlying content so it cannot be recovered. Our free PDF redaction tool applies permanent redactions directly in your browser.

Why Redaction Matters

Simply drawing a black rectangle over text does not make it unreadable — the hidden text can still be selected, copied, or extracted from the PDF. Proper redaction removes the underlying text and images entirely, replacing them with blacked-out areas that cannot be reversed. This is essential for legal documents, FOIA requests, medical records, and any document containing personally identifiable information (PII).

How to Redact a PDF

1. Open the redaction tool — Go to our PDF Redact tool.
2. Upload your PDF — Select the document containing sensitive information.
3. Mark content to redact — Select text or draw over areas you want to permanently remove.
4. Apply and download — The redacted PDF is saved with sensitive content permanently removed.

What Should You Redact?

• Social security numbers, tax IDs, and passport numbers
• Bank account and credit card details
• Personal addresses and phone numbers
• Medical history and protected health information
• Attorney-client privileged information
• Trade secrets and confidential business data

When to Use Search & Redact Instead

If the same word or phrase appears many times — a client name, case number, or account ID — finding every instance by hand is slow and easy to get wrong. The Search & Redact tool finds every match across the document and applies permanent redaction in one pass, with whole-word matching and a match counter so you can verify nothing was missed.

• Legal filings — redact client names and case numbers before public filing
• Medical records — remove patient names and dates of birth before sharing
• FOIA responses — redact exempt information across large documents
• HR and finance reports — remove employee names, salaries, or account numbers

Redaction vs. Black Highlighting

Drawing a black shape or using a black highlight over text is not secure — the text underneath can often be selected, copied, or extracted. True redaction permanently deletes the underlying text data so it cannot be recovered. Always use a real redaction step (and check the result by trying to select the blacked-out area) for sensitive documents.