Redact a PDF — black out text for good
Black out text for good — Aadhaar numbers, account numbers, names. Stays on your device.
Drop the PDF to redact here
PDF up to 100 MB · The file never leaves your device.
How it works
Drop the PDF. Draw black boxes over anything private, or let the tool find it: type a word or number and press Cover every match, or tap Cover Aadhaar numbers. Check each page in the strip, then press Redact. Every page with a box is redrawn with the boxes burned into it, and the copy is saved with "-redacted" added to the name. Nothing is uploaded, there is no account and there is no limit.
Why a black rectangle is not enough
Drawing a black shape over text — the way most editors and many online tools do it — only hides the words on screen. They are still in the file: anyone can select them, copy them, or delete the shape. Real documents have leaked this way. Here, each page you redact is turned into a picture of the page with the black boxes already part of it, and the original page is thrown away. The covered words no longer exist anywhere in the file, which is the whole point of redaction.
The trade-off, said plainly
Because redacted pages become pictures, their text can no longer be searched or copied, and the file may grow a little. Pages without a box are kept exactly as they were, text and links included. If you need the rest of a redacted page to be searchable again, run OCR PDF on the result.
Aadhaar numbers, the masked way
India's masked Aadhaar shows only the last four digits. Cover Aadhaar numbers does the same for every 12-digit Aadhaar number printed as text in your PDF: the first eight digits are blacked out, the last four stay readable so the copy can still be matched to you. It works on PDFs with real text, like downloaded statements and forms. On a scanned or photographed Aadhaar card there is no text to find — draw a box over the number instead.
What people redact
Aadhaar and PAN numbers on KYC copies, bank account and card numbers on statements shared with a landlord or a lender, salary figures on offer letters, phone numbers and addresses on documents posted online, and other people's names in shared records.
Good companions
Only trimming margins? Crop PDF. Want the purpose stamped on a copy as well? Watermark PDF. A locked PDF must be opened first with Unlock PDF.
Privacy
Redaction happens only on your device — the unredacted file is never sent to us or anyone else.
Questions people ask
How do I hide my Aadhaar number in a PDF?
Drop the PDF and tap Cover Aadhaar numbers. The first eight digits of every Aadhaar number in the text are blacked out, like a masked Aadhaar. Check the pages, press Redact and download.
Is the text really removed?
Yes. Each redacted page is rebuilt as an image with the black boxes burned in, so the covered words are not in the file at all. They cannot be selected, copied or uncovered.
Why can't I search the redacted pages any more?
Because they are images now — that is how the words are truly removed. Pages without boxes keep their text. Run OCR PDF on the result if you need those pages searchable again.
Does Find work on scanned documents?
No, a scan has no text to search. Draw black boxes by hand on scanned pages; the redaction itself works the same way on every page.
Is my document uploaded to redact it?
No. Everything happens in your browser on your own device, so the unredacted document never leaves it.