A black box on top of text isn't redaction — the words still live in the file. We physically delete the underlying content, so it can't be copied, searched, or recovered. Free, in your browser, on digital and scanned documents.
Free tier: one page, one redaction option. Your file is never stored.
Files never stored
Processed in memory and discarded within seconds.
Encrypted in transit
Every upload and download is served over TLS.
True deletion
Content is removed from the file, not hidden behind a box.
Data minimisation
We don't log document contents or train on your files.
Digital text is stripped from the content stream. Scanned pages have the pixels burned out and the original image discarded.
Scanned and photographed documents are OCR-read to find names and PII before removal — even pages photographed at an angle.
Your file is processed in memory and deleted within seconds. No content is logged or retained.
The column that matters isn't price — it's whether the words are still in the file afterwards.
| Feature | FreePDFRedaction | Acrobat Pro | “Black box” tools | Word / Preview |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Removes the content from the file | ✓ | ✓ | ~ often visual only | ✗ text stays in file |
| Pattern-based PII detection | ✓ | ~ partial | ~ varies | ✗ |
| OCR for scans and photos | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Files never stored | ✓ in memory | ~ desktop/cloud | ~ varies | ✓ local |
| Nothing to install | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Free for everyday use | ✓ | ✗ | ~ limited | ✓ |
Comparison reflects typical behaviour of each category, not a test of every product. Manual methods and many general-purpose tools leave recoverable text under a black rectangle — always verify a redaction is permanent before sharing. Batch processing and an API are not currently offered here.
Scanned pages are sent to AWS Textract for OCR only, so we can find the text before deleting it. Nothing is retained by us or used for training.
Yes. The free tier redacts one page per document with one redaction option, and costs nothing. Paid plans exist for redacting whole documents and combining options.
Yes. On pages with a text layer we remove the text objects from the PDF's content stream. On scanned pages we paint the matching pixels black in the image data and discard the original image. Redacted content can't be selected, searched, copied, or recovered — unlike a black box drawn on top of text.
No. Your document is processed in memory and discarded within seconds. We don't retain it, log its contents, or train models on it.
You can type specific names or terms to remove, or select a PII type: Social Security numbers, email addresses, credit card numbers (checksum-validated), and phone numbers. Names are expanded to cover middle names on the same line.
Yes. Pages without a text layer are read with OCR to locate the text before removal, which works on scans and on photos taken at an angle. Embedded images on otherwise-digital pages are checked too.
Select the page, copy it, and paste it into a text editor. If the text is still there, it was never removed.