Remove password protection from your PDF
Remove password protection from a PDF you can already open. Upload the file, enter its password, and download an unprotected version that opens instantly from then on. Free, quick, and the document itself is left completely unchanged.
Being clear about this saves disappointment. This tool removes protection from documents you have the password for. It does not break encryption, and it cannot recover a password you have forgotten.
That is not a shortcoming to be worked around. A properly encrypted PDF has its actual contents scrambled, and without the key there is nothing readable to work with. Any service promising to crack strong PDF passwords is either exploiting files that were barely protected in the first place, or is misleading you. If your document will not open for you today, no tool will change that.
An open password — sometimes called a user password — is required before the document will display at all. This is real encryption. The file's contents are unreadable until the correct password is supplied. Removing one requires knowing it.
A permissions password — sometimes called an owner password — leaves the document fully readable but sets flags asking readers to disallow printing, copying, or editing. These are requests rather than enforcement. The content is not encrypted, and software that ignores the flags simply does. This is why "protected" PDFs so often turn out to be copyable anyway.
Repetition. A document you open several times a day becomes genuinely tiresome when every opening requires a password. If the file already lives somewhere secure — an encrypted drive, a protected work account — the extra prompt adds friction without adding meaningful safety.
Searchability. Desktop search tools cannot index the contents of an encrypted PDF, so protected documents become invisible to the search you rely on to find things.
Processing. Most automated workflows, printing systems, and document tools cannot handle encrypted files. Removing the password is often a prerequisite for doing anything else with the document.
Archiving. A password known only to someone who has since left the organisation is a document that will eventually be lost. Storing archives unencrypted in a secure location is frequently the more durable choice.
Accountants unlock the password-protected statements banks issue so they can process them in bulk. Office administrators remove protection from documents being moved into a shared archive. Anyone receiving encrypted invoices or payslips that they need to file alongside everything else. Teams inheriting documents from a departing colleague who protected everything individually.
Upload your PDF by dragging it onto the box or clicking to browse. If the file is encrypted, a password prompt appears — enter the password you use to open it normally. Download the unprotected version, which opens without any prompt from that point on.
Only the encryption layer is stripped away. Every page stays exactly as it was, embedded fonts remain embedded, text stays selectable and searchable, images keep their original resolution, and file size barely moves. The unlocked file is identical to the protected one in every respect except that it no longer asks for a password.
The password was presumably added for a reason. Before removing it, consider where the unprotected file will live and who can reach that location. Removing protection from a document that then sits in a shared folder or a synced cloud drive may expose it more widely than intended. If the document contains personal or financial information, keeping the protection — or storing the unlocked version somewhere genuinely secure — is the better call.
The document is processed in memory and discarded the moment your download completes. The password you enter is used only for that single operation and is never stored or logged. Nothing is written to disk and no copy is retained.
Protect PDF adds password encryption to a document. Redact PDF permanently removes sensitive content, and PDF Metadata clears hidden author and revision details before sharing.