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PDF · Censor

Redact PDFs. Text gone, not just hidden.

Type the words or phrases to censor, and every match gets covered with a permanent black bar. No data leaves your browser.

  • Type a word list — names, IDs, amounts, or any phrase — and all matches are blacked out.
  • Redaction is permanent: black bars replace text in the PDF structure, not just painted on top.
  • Supports case-insensitive matching and whole-word or partial matching modes.
Match mode →
Exact phraseCase-insensitiveWhole wordRegex
→ Permanent black bar

Trusted by 480K people · 900K PDFs redacted every month

Privacy-critical redaction · Text is permanently replaced in the PDF structure · No server, no logs, no risk.

480K
Monthly users
900K
PDFs redacted
0
Files uploaded
What people say

Reliable redaction, entirely in your browser.

★★★★★

I needed to share a contract but black out all client names and amounts. Typed the list, every match was covered. Exactly what I needed.

FM
Felipe M.
★★★★★

The fact that redaction is structural — not just a painted overlay — was the key selling point for our compliance team. This is real redaction.

SC
Sophie C.
★★★★★

Redacted SSNs and email addresses from 80 pages of HR records. Case-insensitive matching caught every variation. Saved hours of manual work.

LB
Lucas B.
★★★★★

Used it to anonymize a research paper before peer review. The whole-word matching option made sure partial matches were handled correctly.

MR
Maria R.
★★★★★

Our legal team uses this before discovery submissions. Running entirely in the browser means confidential documents never leave our network.

GT
George T.
★★★★★

Blacked out patient names from clinical reports in seconds. The preview shows exactly which matches will be redacted before you commit.

AP
Anna P.
★★★★★

Regex matching is the feature that sold me. I wrote a pattern to catch all phone number formats in one pass — no other free tool I found does this.

DV
David V.
★★★★★

I was skeptical a free browser tool could do real redaction. Then I checked the output PDF — the text was genuinely gone, not just hidden.

CL
Carol L.
★★★★★

I needed to share a contract but black out all client names and amounts. Typed the list, every match was covered. Exactly what I needed.

FM
Felipe M.
★★★★★

The fact that redaction is structural — not just a painted overlay — was the key selling point for our compliance team. This is real redaction.

SC
Sophie C.
★★★★★

Redacted SSNs and email addresses from 80 pages of HR records. Case-insensitive matching caught every variation. Saved hours of manual work.

LB
Lucas B.
★★★★★

Used it to anonymize a research paper before peer review. The whole-word matching option made sure partial matches were handled correctly.

MR
Maria R.
★★★★★

Our legal team uses this before discovery submissions. Running entirely in the browser means confidential documents never leave our network.

GT
George T.
★★★★★

Blacked out patient names from clinical reports in seconds. The preview shows exactly which matches will be redacted before you commit.

AP
Anna P.
★★★★★

Regex matching is the feature that sold me. I wrote a pattern to catch all phone number formats in one pass — no other free tool I found does this.

DV
David V.
★★★★★

I was skeptical a free browser tool could do real redaction. Then I checked the output PDF — the text was genuinely gone, not just hidden.

CL
Carol L.
How it works

Redact in three steps

Drop, enter words to censor, download. Done in seconds.

STEP 01

Drop your PDF

Drag a PDF onto the upload zone. The tool scans the text layer immediately.

STEP 02

Enter words to redact

Type a comma-separated list of words or phrases. Matches are highlighted before you apply.

John Smith€12,400
12 matches found · 5 pages
STEP 03

Download redacted PDF

All matches are permanently replaced by black bars in the PDF structure. Download instantly.

redacted.pdf12 pages · 12 bars
Structural redaction

Black bars that can't be removed

Unlike a simple overlay, this tool replaces the matched text in the PDF's content stream. There's nothing underneath the bar to copy, search, or recover.

  • 01
    True redactionText is removed from the PDF structure — not just covered. No hidden layer, no metadata, no recovery.
  • 02
    Preview before applyingHighlighted matches appear in the document preview so you can confirm every hit before committing.
  • 03
    Batch all matches at onceA single word list redacts all occurrences across every page simultaneously.
Privacy first

Your document never leaves your browser

All PDF parsing, text matching, and redaction runs in JavaScript in your browser tab. We have no server that could receive your file — by design.

  • 01
    Zero network transferThe PDF bytes never leave your device. No upload API, no cloud processing, no logs.
  • 02
    Safe for sensitive documentsContracts, medical records, legal filings — use this tool without worrying about data exposure.
FAQ

Common questions

Is the redaction truly permanent?
Yes. The text content is removed from the PDF's content stream and replaced with a filled black rectangle. There is no hidden text layer underneath — someone with the output PDF cannot recover the original words by copying text or removing the bar.
Can I redact scanned PDFs (image-only)?
Scanned PDFs with no text layer cannot be redacted by keyword matching — there is no text to search. For scanned documents, you would first need an OCR tool to add a text layer, then use this tool to redact specific words.
Can I redact by drawing a region instead of typing words?
The current tool redacts by keyword matching across all pages. Draw-to-redact (region-based) is a different mode we're working on — for now, use the word list to catch all text-based sensitive content.
Does case-insensitive matching work across languages?
Case folding is applied using the browser's built-in locale rules, which covers most Latin-script languages correctly. For languages with special casing rules (e.g. Turkish dotless-i), test a sample before relying on it for critical documents.
How do I redact a specific page range only?
The tool matches across all pages by default. To limit to specific pages, first split the PDF to extract the pages you want, run the redaction, then merge the results back — all using tools on this site.
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Ready to redact?

No account. No upload. No watermark. Type your word list and get a permanently redacted PDF in seconds.

100% localNo accountNo watermarkFree forever