Free PDF redaction — 100% in your browser. Your file never leaves your device.
or
Your file stays on your computer
All redacted areas have been permanently destroyed. The text cannot be recovered.
PDF redaction is the process of permanently removing sensitive information from a document. Unlike simply covering text with a black box, true redaction destroys the underlying data so it cannot be copied, searched, or recovered by anyone. This is essential when sharing documents that contain personal information like Social Security numbers, bank account details, medical records, or financial data.
Many PDF tools — including some well-known ones — only draw a black rectangle over sensitive text. The original text remains in the file and can be revealed by simply copying and pasting, or by using a PDF reader's text search. This flaw has caused major data breaches, including the widely reported 2025 Epstein document leak where "redacted" text was fully extractable. Safely Redact avoids this entirely by flattening each page into an image, physically destroying the underlying text data.
Using Safely Redact is simple:
Safely Redact is built entirely with client-side JavaScript. When you open a PDF, it's read into your browser's memory using the FileReader API — the same technology that powers offline web apps. The PDF is rendered using Mozilla's open-source pdf.js library, and the final export is assembled using pdf-lib. At no point does any data travel over the network.
You can verify this yourself: open your browser's Developer Tools, go to the Network tab, and watch as you load, edit, and export a document. You'll see zero network requests related to your file. You could literally unplug your internet cable and the tool would continue working.
This matters because the documents people typically need to redact — bank statements, tax returns, medical records, legal filings — contain the most sensitive personal information imaginable. Uploading these files to a third-party server, even temporarily, creates unnecessary risk.
Yes, completely free. No sign-up, no hidden fees, no watermarks. Use it as many times as you need.
Your document never leaves your device. All processing happens locally in your browser. Nothing is uploaded to any server. We never see, store, or have access to your files. You could disconnect from the internet and the tool would still work.
No. When you export, Safely Redact converts each page into a high-quality image, physically destroying the underlying text data. The original text is not hidden behind a black box — it is permanently erased from the file. This is true, secure redaction.
Two key differences: (1) Privacy — most free tools like Smallpdf and iLovePDF upload your file to their servers for processing. Safely Redact processes everything in your browser. (2) Security — many tools just draw black boxes over text, leaving the original text copy-pasteable underneath. Safely Redact flattens pages to images, making redaction permanent and unrecoverable.
Yes, the visual appearance is preserved at high quality. The only difference is that pages are converted to images during the flattening process, so text in non-redacted areas will no longer be selectable or searchable. This is the security tradeoff that guarantees the redacted content is truly destroyed.
Yes. Once this page has loaded, you can disconnect from the internet and continue using the tool. All PDF processing is done locally in your browser.
There is no hard limit, but we recommend documents under 30 pages for the best experience. Larger documents require more browser memory and may be slower to process. Each page is processed one at a time to manage memory efficiently.