Redact PDF
Black out sensitive text in your PDF by typing the words or patterns to hide — we paint solid black over every match.
- Encrypted in transit (TLS 1.3)
- Files auto-deleted in 60 minutes
- Requires pro monthly plan
Run Redact PDF
About Redact PDF
Sharing a redacted PDF used to mean opening it in expensive desktop software, manually clicking over every name and number. Redact PDF does it in seconds: type the text you want hidden, we find every occurrence and paint a solid black box over it.
Important: this is visual redaction — the underlying text is still in the PDF stream. For high-stakes legal redaction (where the redacted content must be unrecoverable), use a specialist tool that destructively rewrites the page content stream.
How Redact PDF works
Three steps. Done in seconds.
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1
Upload your PDF
Any text-bearing PDF. Scanned PDFs need OCR PDF first.
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2
Type the pattern to redact
Plain text works. Power users can use a regex; case is ignored. Examples: "[email protected]" or "\d{3}-\d{2}-\d{4}" for US SSNs.
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3
Download the redacted PDF
Every match is covered by a solid black box. The rest of the page is unchanged.
Why Redact PDF on Pixenith
Built for serious work. Free for everyday use.
Privacy first
Encrypted in transit, processed in isolated workers, deleted within 60 minutes.
Lightning fast
Most jobs finish in under 5 seconds. Heavy ones run on dedicated worker pools.
Production engine
Powered by pikepdf, Ghostscript, Tesseract OCR, ONNX models — the same tech the pros use.
Free, no signup
Generous daily limits on the free plan. Upgrade only if you need bigger files.
Related PDF tools
Often used alongside Redact PDF.
- Protect PDF Encrypt a PDF with a password (AES-256).
- Sign PDF Digitally sign a PDF with a PKCS#12 certificate.
- Add watermark Stamp a text watermark across every page.
- OCR PDF Add a searchable text layer to scanned PDFs (Tesseract).
- Compress PDF Reduce PDF file size. Pick a preset (low / medium / high) or specify a target size (e.g. 200 KB or 2 MB) and we'll binary-search the quality ladder for the best-quality output that fits.
- Edit PDF Overlay text or images onto pages (front-end editor sends a list of operations).
Redact PDF — frequently asked questions
Everything you need to know.
Is the redacted text truly unrecoverable?
Visually yes — nobody can SEE the redacted text. For regulatory compliance where the text must also be removed from the PDF data stream, use a specialist desktop redactor after our visual pass.
Can I use regex patterns?
Yes. "\d{3}-\d{2}-\d{4}" catches SSNs. "[A-Z][a-z]+ [A-Z][a-z]+" catches first-last name pairs. Case is ignored automatically.
What about scanned PDFs?
Run OCR PDF first to add a text layer, then redact. Without OCR there's no text for us to match.
Why does this require the Pro plan?
Redaction is a high-stakes operation — we want users with a billing relationship and an audit trail, not anonymous guests.
Can I preview matches before redacting?
Not in the current endpoint. We're working on a preview-first mode — contact us if you need it.