How to Redact a PDF Online Free — Black Out Text Permanently
Redacting a PDF means permanently blacking out sensitive text — names, Social Security numbers, account details, salaries — so it can never be recovered. Here is how to do it free in your browser, with no signup and no upload.
No signup · No watermark · Your document never leaves your device
Redaction is not the same as covering text
This is the mistake that causes real data leaks: drawing a black rectangle over text in Word, Google Docs, or a basic PDF editor does not remove the words underneath. Anyone can select the "hidden" text, copy it, or simply delete the black box to reveal everything. There have been embarrassing public cases of lawyers and companies "redacting" documents this way, only for journalists to copy-paste the supposedly hidden text.
Real redaction burns the black box into the page itself, destroying the underlying content. That is what BGone's Redact PDF tool does: it flattens each page into an image with your boxes baked into the pixels, then rebuilds the PDF. There is no text layer left under the boxes to recover.
What you should redact
- ID numbers — Social Security numbers, passport numbers, driver's license numbers.
- Financial details — bank account numbers, routing numbers, balances, salaries.
- Contact info — personal phone numbers, home addresses, private email addresses.
- Business-sensitive text — contract terms, client lists, internal notes.
- Legal and medical details — case numbers, diagnoses, patient identifiers.
Step-by-step: redact a PDF free with BGone
- Open BGone's free Redact PDF tool — no account needed.
- Choose the PDF you want to redact.
- Click "Open redaction editor". Each page renders on a canvas.
- Drag a black box over every piece of sensitive text. Use Prev / Next to move between pages — boxes are stored per page.
- Misplaced a box? Use Undo, or Clear page to start a page over.
- Click "Apply redaction & Download". BGone flattens every page with the boxes burned in and builds a new PDF.
- Download the result and verify it: try selecting text under a black box — you can't, because it is now just pixels.
5 mistakes that leak "redacted" data
- Black highlighting in Word or Docs. The text stays fully selectable underneath.
- Covering with shapes in a PDF editor. The shapes sit on a separate layer and can be removed.
- Forgetting headers, footers and metadata. Sensitive names often hide in document properties or running headers — check them too.
- Redacting a copy but sharing the original. Always redact the exact file you send.
- Cropping instead of redacting. Cropped-out content can sometimes be recovered from the file's raw data.
Frequently asked questions
Is redaction with BGone permanent?
Yes. Every page is flattened into an image with your black boxes burned into the pixels, then the PDF is rebuilt from those images. There is no hidden text layer left under the boxes to recover.
Is it really free? Do I need an account?
Completely free — no signup, no watermark, no page limits. Open the tool, redact, download.
Is my document uploaded to a server?
No. The entire redaction runs in your browser with JavaScript. Your PDF never leaves your device, which is exactly what you want for sensitive documents.
Will the redacted PDF still look the same?
The layout is preserved page by page. The difference is that pages become images, so text is no longer selectable or searchable — that is what makes the redaction unrecoverable.
Can I redact only some pages?
Yes. Draw boxes only on the pages that need them; every page is still included in the output file.