Unlock a PDF
Remove the password and permission restrictions from a PDF you own, so printing, copying and form filling work again — in your browser, with nothing uploaded. Unlocking needs a free account; the file and the password still never leave this device.
How to remove a PDF password without uploading the file
- Pick a PDF — drag it in or browse from your device. It is opened directly in your browser, not uploaded.
- Click unlock — we try an empty password first, which is all that is needed for the common case of a document that opens fine but blocks printing or copying.
- Type the password if asked — if the file genuinely needs one to open, the tool asks for it. It cannot proceed without it.
- Download the unlocked copy — a WebAssembly build of qpdf decrypts the file locally. Your original is never modified.
Owner password or open password — which one is on your PDF?
Permission restrictions (owner password). The document opens for anyone, but the reader refuses to print it, or greys out copy and select. This is by far the most common kind, and removing it needs no password at all — the file is readable, so the restriction is a flag rather than a lock.
Open password (user password). The document is genuinely encrypted and unreadable without the password. Bank and card statements protected with your date of birth or card number are the everyday example. Nothing — this tool included — can open one of these without the password.
Remove an owner password to enable printing and copying
You can usually tell you are dealing with an owner password without knowing the term. The PDF opens straight away, but Print is greyed out, text refuses to select or paste out, form fields will not accept typing, or a reader reports that the document is “secured” and asks for a permissions password you were never given.
That is a flag inside the file, not a lock on it — the content is already readable, which is why removing it takes no password at all. Drop the PDF in and press unlock: the tool tries an empty password first, and for this kind of document that is the whole job. The copy you download opens without any prompt and carries no permission flags, so printing, text selection, copying, form filling and editing all work again. The pages themselves are untouched — nothing is re-rendered or re-compressed, so the file looks exactly as it did.
If instead you are prompted for a password before the document will even display, that is an open password and no tool can bypass it — see the difference between the two.
Use it on documents you own
Removing protection you were never meant to lift can breach copyright, contract or computer-misuse law, and a PDF password often exists because someone else asked for it. Unlock your own files, or files whose owner has given you the password and the go-ahead — see our terms of use. We have no way to see what you unlock, which is precisely why the responsibility sits with you.
Private by design
Every other PDF unlocker asks you to upload a document you have just told it is confidential, along with its password. This one runs the whole decryption engine inside your browser, so the file stays on your machine and the password never travels. The tool keeps working if you go offline after the page loads. Read more in our privacy policy.
Once a file is unlocked you can edit, split or merge it normally, and protect it again with a new password when you are done.
Frequently asked questions
Can this crack a PDF password I don't know?
No, and it is not designed to. The tool decrypts a document you can already open — either because it carries only permission restrictions, or because you have the password and type it in. It does not guess, brute-force or recover unknown passwords, and a PDF encrypted with AES-256 cannot be opened without its password.
Why did my PDF unlock without asking for a password?
Because it never had an open password. Many PDFs — bank statements, reports, papers exported from design tools — carry only an owner password, which restricts printing or copying but lets anyone read the file. Those decrypt without a password, and that is exactly what you clicked. Anything requiring a password to open will prompt you for it.
How do I enable printing on a PDF that won't print?
If the PDF opens normally but Print is greyed out, it carries an owner password — a permission flag rather than real protection. Unlock it here and the downloaded copy prints normally. No password is needed for this case, because the document was already readable.
How do I copy text from a PDF that blocks selection?
The same owner password that blocks printing usually blocks copying and form filling too. Removing it re-enables text selection, copy and paste, and typing into form fields. If the text still cannot be selected afterwards, the page is a scan — an image with no text in it — and no unlocker can change that.
Is my PDF or my password uploaded anywhere?
No. Decryption runs entirely in your browser using a WebAssembly build of qpdf. The document and any password you type live in your browser's memory for the few seconds the job takes; the worker holding them is destroyed after every run. Our pages ship a Content-Security-Policy that blocks the page from contacting any other server, so this is enforced by the browser, not just promised.
Why do I need an account for this tool?
Because it removes access controls from a document. That is entirely legitimate on your own files and entirely not on someone else's, and we cannot tell the two apart — your PDF never reaches us. So the tool is offered to signed-in members who have accepted our Acceptable Use Policy: the undertaking that you will only unlock documents you own or are authorised to unlock. It makes the undertaking traceable to an account instead of to an anonymous visitor. A free account is enough, and it changes nothing about your file — the decryption still happens entirely in your browser, and neither the document nor the password is ever uploaded.
Is it legal to remove a PDF password?
It depends entirely on the document and your relationship to it. Removing protection from your own statements, your own scans or a file whose owner has given you the password is ordinary use. Stripping restrictions from someone else's document — to redistribute it, to defeat a licence, or to get around a restriction you were not meant to lift — may breach copyright, contract or computer-misuse law where you live. You are responsible for that judgement; see our terms of use.
What exactly is removed?
All encryption. The downloaded copy opens without a password and carries no permission flags, so printing, copying text, editing and form filling all work again. The page content itself is untouched — nothing is re-rendered or re-compressed.
Is there a file size limit?
About 50 MB. The decryption engine runs inside the browser's WebAssembly memory, which is capped (more tightly on phones), so we refuse larger files up front rather than fail unpredictably. Compress the PDF first if yours is bigger.
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