How to redact a PDF for free
To redact a PDF is to remove names, numbers and other sensitive details from it for good, so nobody can read, search or copy them back out. Here's how to do it for free, online, without Adobe Acrobat Pro and without uploading the document anywhere.
Open the free PDF redaction tool Free, no account. The file stays in your browser.How to redact a PDF in 4 steps
- Open maskyourdocs and choose your PDF (or drop it onto the page).
- Mark what should go: drag a box over it with Draw box, or choose Select text and sweep the words.
- To redact every copy of a name or number, type it into Find text and press Mask all.
- Press Export, then Generate. The redacted PDF is checked automatically before you download it.
What does it mean to redact a PDF?
Redaction is the permanent removal of information from a document before it's shared. In a redacted PDF, a black bar shows where a name, an account number or a paragraph used to be, and the original content is no longer anywhere in the file. That last part is what separates redacting from simply hiding something.
How to redact text in a PDF
PDFs made from Word, a bank portal or an e-signing service usually have a real text layer: you can select the words. That text is what search, copy-paste and AI tools read, so it's what has to go.
- Open the PDF and choose Select text.
- Sweep across the words to redact. Each selection becomes a black bar straight away.
- Hover or tap a bar to see what's under it, and remove it if you got it wrong.
How to redact information that repeats
Names, account numbers, phone numbers and customer IDs tend to appear more than once: in a header, a table, a footer on page 12. Missing one copy is the most common way a redacted PDF leaks.
- Type the value into Find text. The count shows how many times it appears in the whole PDF.
- Press Mask all to redact every occurrence at once.
- To leave part of a number visible, such as the last four digits, search for just the part to hide.
How to redact a PDF without Adobe Acrobat Pro
Adobe's Redact tool is part of the paid Acrobat Pro. The free Acrobat Reader can add comments and shapes, but it can't redact, and a shape drawn on top of text doesn't remove it. If you don't have Pro, a browser-based tool like maskyourdocs does the same job for free: no install, no subscription, no trial.
If you do have Acrobat Pro, open the Redact tool, mark the text or areas, then apply the redactions and save. Until they're applied, the marks are only proposals and the text is still in the file.
How to redact a PDF on a Mac, iPhone or Android
maskyourdocs runs in Safari, Chrome, Edge and Firefox, so it works the same on a Mac, a Windows PC, an iPhone, an iPad or an Android phone. On a touchscreen, drag with your finger to draw a box, and tap a bar to move, resize or remove it. The PDF never leaves the device.
How to redact a scanned PDF
A scan is a picture of a page, so there's no text to select. Use Draw box and drag over each area. The same works for screenshots and photos (PNG, JPEG, HEIC) and for Word documents.
Why a black box isn't redaction
Drawing a black rectangle or highlight in a PDF viewer adds a shape on top of the page. The text is still underneath: select and paste it, open the file in another app, or hand it to an AI model, and it comes straight back. Court filings and government reports have leaked this way for years.
maskyourdocs flattens every redacted page to an image with the bars burned in, then reopens the finished PDF and searches it for each value you redacted. If anything is still there, it tells you not to send the file.
Redact a PDF before you paste it into ChatGPT or Claude
Contracts, payslips, bank statements and medical letters get uploaded to AI chats every day, along with every name and number in them. Redact the PDF first: the AI still gets the context it needs, without the personal data.
Questions
How do I redact a PDF for free?
Open maskyourdocs, choose the PDF, mark what should go with Draw box or Select text, use Find text and Mask all for anything that repeats, then press Export. It's free, with no account, watermark or page limit, and the PDF is never uploaded.
How do I redact a PDF without Adobe Acrobat Pro?
Use a browser-based redaction tool such as maskyourdocs. Adobe's Redact tool is only in the paid Acrobat Pro, and the free Acrobat Reader can't redact. maskyourdocs runs in any modern browser with nothing to install.
What does it mean to redact a PDF?
Redacting a PDF means permanently removing sensitive content, such as names, account numbers or ID numbers, so it can't be read, searched or copied out of the file. A black bar usually marks where it was.
Can redacted text in a PDF be recovered?
Not if it was redacted properly. It can be recovered when someone only drew a black shape or highlight over the text, because the text is still in the file underneath. maskyourdocs flattens each redacted page to an image and re-checks the output, so the text is gone.
How do I redact a PDF on a Mac?
Open maskyourdocs in Safari or Chrome on your Mac, choose the PDF, mark the content and export. Nothing to install, and the file stays on your Mac.
Is redacting a PDF the same as masking it?
Yes, in practice. Masking, redacting and blacking out all mean removing sensitive content before a document is shared. What matters is that the content is removed from the file, not just covered. See how to mask data in a PDF.