Free PDF password protection: add or remove a PDF password in your browser

Click to choose a PDF or drag one here

Password to open the file

Type it again

A longer password is what protects the file.

How much protection? Password to open it Encrypted with AES-256. Without the password the file does not open, so nothing can be read, copied or printed out of it. Password, plus limits for whoever you give it to Also asks their reader to refuse printing, copying or editing once they have it open. Password, and no text left in the file at all Each page becomes a picture, so even the person you gave the password to has no text to select.

	Opened by someone without the password	Text copied by someone you gave the password to	Printed by someone you gave the password to	Can still be searched	Readable by screen readers	File size
Password to open it	Impossible	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unchanged
Plus limits	Impossible	Asked to refuse ^*	Asked to refuse ^*	Yes	Yes	Unchanged
Plus no text at all	Impossible	Impossible	Asked to refuse ^*	No	No	Larger

^* Asked to refuse means the file carries a rule and ordinary PDF readers follow it. It is not part of the encryption, so treat it as preventing honest mistakes rather than stopping someone set on getting round it. More about what each choice protects you from

Who controls the document afterwards?

A separate question from the choices above. This is not extra strength on the lock, it is a statement of who owns the document.

Set a separate owner passwordThe owner password is the one that controls the document. With one set, the password you hand out lets people read the file but will be refused here if they try to take the protection off. Only the owner password does that.

What each of these choices really protects you from

The encryption engine (qpdf, compiled to WebAssembly) runs inside this page in a background thread. Nothing is sent anywhere.

🛠️ Questions about passwords? Click here

I forgot the password to a PDF

Then it stays shut. AES-256 has no back door and nobody has the key: not this site, not Adobe, not the company that made the file. Any site claiming it can open a PDF without the password is either guessing common passwords or lying.

How strong is this, really?

256-bit AES, written by qpdf, the same standard Acrobat uses. The strength then rests entirely on your password. A short or obvious one can be guessed no matter how good the encryption is.

What is the owner password for?

The opening password lets someone read the file. The owner password says who controls the document: the rules about printing, copying and editing, and whether the protection may be taken off at all. Set a separate one and you can hand out the reading password without handing over control. This tool refuses to remove protection for anyone holding only the reading password.

Are the restrictions actually enforced?

Printing, copying and editing limits are instructions that PDF readers agree to honour, and mainstream readers do. They are not the same as the encryption itself, which genuinely cannot be bypassed. If a document must not be read by the wrong person, the password is what protects it, not the tick boxes.

Lock a PDF on your own machine

One free PDF toolkit. Four tools, all running on your own device.