How to Redact a PDF Online for Free (Permanently Cover Text)
Black-out names, numbers and sensitive lines in a PDF so they can't be seen or copied — boxes are stamped into the page, not removable overlays. Runs 100% in your browser.
Redacting is stamped in, not drawn over
A real redaction blackens a region so thoroughly that the text can no longer be seen, selected, searched, or copy-pasted in a normal reader. The box is physically part of the page's content — an overlay drawn with a presentation tool, by contrast, can be selected and deleted to reveal the text underneath.
The Redact PDF tool burns each redaction rectangle into the page content stream. That's permanent for practical purposes: once downloaded, everyday viewers can't lift the box to recover what's under it. Be precise about what this means though — the covered text is not removed from the file; it still exists beneath the rectangle. Redaction here is visual erasure, not deletion of the glyph data, so this is not a certified, forensically guaranteed process, and anything outside the boxes you draw is left untouched.
Controlling the redaction areas
Open the PDF and each page renders as a preview. Drag a rectangle over the sensitive content on any page — you can draw several boxes on one page and across many pages. For exact placement, or if you're using a keyboard instead of a mouse, add a region by entering the page number and the X, Y, width, and height in points, measured from the page's top-left corner.
The tool lists every region on the current page with its coordinates, lets you remove individual boxes or clear the whole page, and shows the total count before you export. Files up to 100 MB are supported and region editing works on up to 200 pages. Everything runs locally — the file never leaves your device.
What redaction doesn't remove
Redaction only covers the rectangles you define. Text, images, annotations, form field values, and document metadata that sit outside those boxes are left exactly as they are — including invisible or watermarked text in other areas of the page.
The sensitive words are overwritten visually, not deleted: a sidecar text-layer for the covered area may still be readable by specialized tools, and PDF metadata such as author and title is untouched. Use the Auto-Redact PDF tool when the same term appears many times and you want every occurrence blackened in one pass, and always do a second check in a desktop reader that displays redaction areas before sharing the file.
Check before you share
After redacting, open the downloaded PDF in a desktop reader and confirm you can no longer select or search the covered text, and that every box sits exactly over its target. Shared documents should also be checked for metadata you don't want to expose.
Redacting a copy is the safe pattern: keep your original intact and share the redacted version only. For regulated disclosures where the standard is certified removal of the underlying data, use dedicated desktop redaction software and follow your organization's process.
Try it free — Redact PDF
Draw black redaction boxes over private content on any page, then export the redacted PDF — all locally.
Open Redact PDF