# PDF Redactor > Permanently Redact Sensitive Information from PDFs Free PDF redactor. Search-and-redact text, draw boxes, auto-detect emails, phones, credit cards, SSN. 100% client-side. AI cannot redact binary PDFs. URL: https://tools.scoreroute.com/tools/pdf-redactor/ Markdown: https://tools.scoreroute.com/tools/pdf-redactor/.md ## Redact Sensitive Text from Any PDF Max 50 MB · 100% client-side · No upload ## Redaction Method Page 1 / 1 ## Options ## Preview & Apply ## ✓ Redaction Complete ## How It Works Permanently redacting a PDF means destroying the original text underneath the redaction area, not just covering it with a black rectangle. Our tool gives you both options depending on what you need. **Visual redaction** opens the PDF with pdf-lib and draws black rectangles (plus your optional overlay text) on top of the existing page content. The file stays small, fonts and form fields are preserved, but a technically skilled user could still copy the text from underneath the black rectangle because the underlying text stream is untouched. This is fine for everyday sharing and internal documents. **Permanent redaction** runs each page through pdfjs-dist to rasterize it at 150 DPI into a flattened image, draws the rectangles and overlay text onto that image, then rebuilds the PDF with pdf-lib using only images and no text layer. The original text is gone. Even if someone opens it in a text editor or runs it through a recovery tool, nothing comes back. This is the mode lawyers, doctors, and HR professionals need for true privacy. **Search-and-redact** extracts the text layer of every page, finds every match for your search term, and proposes exact rectangle coordinates covering each match. You can wipe out a name, account number, or internal code from a 200-page contract without scrolling through anything. **Auto-detect** uses four regex patterns - email, phone, credit card, US SSN - to catch sensitive data you may not even realize is in the document. Click a pattern, scan every page, and redacted output comes out the other end. ## Why AI Chatbots Cannot Redact Your PDF Ask ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini to "redact this PDF" and you will get back one of two things: a description of how redaction works, or Python code that depends on a server-side PDF library you do not have running. Neither actually redacts your file. To truly redact a PDF you need to: read the binary structure, extract the text layer and its coordinates (or render each page to an image), compute rectangle positions in PDF user-space coordinates (which use the bottom-left corner as origin, opposite of screen coordinates), draw opaque rectangles plus optional overlay text, and write a valid PDF back out. Our tool runs that entire pipeline directly in your browser using pdf-lib and pdfjs-dist. Nothing is uploaded, nothing is sent to any LLM, no one sees your document. You drag, you click, you get a redacted file on your machine. ## Frequently Asked Questions **Is this PDF redactor really free with no limits?** Yes. Smallpdf caps free redactions at 2 tasks per day and pushes Pro for unlimited use, iLovePDF caps free usage and shows upgrade prompts, Adobe Acrobat Pro costs $24.99 per month, and most other free redaction tools add watermarks. This tool is unlimited, free forever, with no signup and no watermark. **Does my PDF get uploaded to a server?** No. All redaction happens in your browser using pdf-lib and pdfjs-dist. Your PDF never touches a server, an API, or any third party. Open DevTools (F12) and watch the Network tab - the only requests are to load the JavaScript libraries from the CDN. Your file content never travels. **What is the difference between permanent and visual redaction?** Permanent redaction rasterizes each page into an image, draws the black rectangles, and rebuilds the PDF without any text layer. The original text is destroyed and cannot be extracted, copied, or recovered. Visual redaction uses pdf-lib to draw rectangles on top of the existing text. It looks the same on screen but a determined user could still extract the text from the PDF stream. For legal, medical, and HR documents where true privacy matters, choose permanent. **Can I search for a word and redact every instance automatically?** Yes. Type any word or phrase into the search box and the tool extracts the text layer of every page via pdfjs, finds all matches with their exact coordinates, and offers to redact them all in one pass. You can review the match count before applying and skip individual matches if you want. **Can I redact emails, phone numbers, and credit cards automatically?** Yes. Toggle the auto-detect buttons for email, phone, US Social Security Number, or credit card patterns. The tool scans the text layer of every page with regex patterns and redacts every match. Common formats are covered including international phone numbers, hyphenated SSNs, and 16-digit card numbers. **What happens if my PDF is a scanned image without a text layer?** Scanned PDFs do not contain selectable text, so search-based and auto-detect redaction cannot find anything to redact. For those, use the manual draw mode to paint rectangles over the visible content. For text-based PDFs (created from Word, Google Docs, web pages, email exports, or any text source), all redaction modes work fully. **Will the redacted PDF preserve the rest of my content?** Visual mode preserves text, fonts, form fields, and images exactly as they were - only black rectangles are added. Permanent mode rasterizes each page at 150 DPI which means text becomes non-selectable but the layout, images, and colors stay faithful to the original. Choose visual when you need searchable text and permanent when you need certainty. **Is this suitable for legal, medical, and HR documents?** For non-regulated sharing the permanent mode produces a fully redacted PDF where the covered content is unrecoverable. For HIPAA, GDPR, FOIA, or court-ordered redactions that require audit trails or certified redaction, please use a regulated e-signature or certified redaction service that can provide a signed audit log. This tool is for fast, private, everyday redaction where you control the input and output and can verify the result visually. ## Related Tools - [PDF Watermark](/tools/pdf-watermark/) - overlay text like CONFIDENTIAL or DRAFT - [PDF Editor](/tools/pdf-editor/) - rotate, delete, reorder pages, add annotations - [PDF Unlocker](/tools/pdf-unlocker/) - remove password protection - [PDF Compressor](/tools/pdf-compressor/) - reduce file size - [Signature Maker](/tools/signature-maker/) - sign any PDF ## References - [PDF Association — PDF 2.0 (ISO 32000-2)](https://pdf-association.org/pdf2-overview) - [Adobe — PDF SDK Documentation](https://opensource.adobe.com/dc-acrobat-sdk-docs/)