remove a PDF password
Take the password off a file you have the password for, so you stop typing it every time. The password is checked here, on your machine, and goes no further.
There is no Google Drive or Dropbox button on purpose: those send the file through a server. Here is what happens instead.
in three steps
- Drop the PDF in, or choose it. The tool says which kind of password the file carries.
- Type the password that opens it today. It is tried here, in the page, against the file itself.
- Unlock, and the same document comes back with no password on it. The text is still text.
how it works
Your password is used to derive the key the document was encrypted with, the contents are decrypted, and the same document is written back out with no encryption on it. Pages, text, bookmarks, links and form fields are all the objects they were: nothing is flattened and nothing is turned into a picture.
That last part is worth checking wherever you do this. A common shortcut is to "unlock" a file by printing it to a new PDF, which does produce a file with no password — and no selectable text, no bookmarks, and a search that finds nothing.
The work is done by qpdf, a long-standing PDF implementation compiled to WebAssembly and run in a worker inside this tab. It is fetched from this site the first time you press the button, and the worker is thrown away as soon as the file is written.
what this cannot do
It cannot open a document you do not have the password for. That is not a policy anyone chose; it is what the encryption is. The password is not a gate standing in front of readable contents — it is the thing the key is made from, so without it the contents are not there to read. Any site that offers to remove a password you do not know is either guessing it or lying about what it does.
What this is for is the file you already open every month: the bank statement that wants your national insurance number, the payslip locked with your date of birth, the report somebody sent with a password in a separate email. Take it off once and stop typing it.
the other kind of password
Some PDFs open without asking for anything but refuse to let you print, copy or annotate. That is an owner password: the file is encrypted, but with an empty user password, and the restrictions are flags asking the reader to behave. The tool spots that case, says so on the row, and removes them without needing anything from you.
If you are on the other side of this and want to set a password, that is the tool next door — which explains why it will not sell you those restrictions as protection.
questions
Where does my PDF go, and where does the password go?
Neither goes anywhere. The document is decrypted in your browser and the password is only ever in this tab's memory. The job log counts the requests the page made while working and how many of them left this site; the second number is zero, which your browser's network panel will confirm.
Does this open a PDF I do not have the password for?
No, and nothing can. The password is not a gate in front of the document — it is what derives the key the contents were encrypted with, so without it there is nothing to read. This tool is for the file you open every month and would rather not keep typing at.
Will the document still be searchable afterwards?
Yes. The file is rewritten as the same document without its encryption, so the pages, the text layer, the bookmarks and the form fields all survive. Nothing is turned into a picture, which is what happens when a tool "unlocks" a file by printing it to a new one.
My PDF opens without a password but will not let me copy text. What is that?
That is the other kind of PDF password: an owner password, which leaves the file readable but asks readers to forbid printing, copying or editing. The tool recognises it, says so on the row, and removes it without asking you for anything.
Is this legal?
Removing a password from a document you are entitled to read — your own statement, your own payslip, a file whose password you were given — is an ordinary thing to do. Getting into a document you have no right to is not, and in any case is not something this or any tool can do for you.