Draw redaction boxes over any area or search for text to redact across all pages at once — free, unlimited, and entirely in your browser. No upload. No account. Undo before you save.
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The full upload-redact-download workflow takes most users under 60 seconds. The tool runs entirely in your browser — drop your file, mark what to remove, and download a permanently redacted PDF.
Click to browse or drag and drop your PDF onto the upload area. Your file loads locally in your browser and is not sent to any server. Files up to 50 MB are supported.
You have two redaction methods, and you can use both on the same document. Draw redaction boxes by clicking and dragging to draw a black rectangle over any area of any page — text, images, signatures, addresses, or any other content. Or use search & redact: type a word, phrase, or name and the tool finds every instance throughout the entire document and marks all of them for redaction simultaneously. Before saving, you can undo or redo any individual redaction action.
Click Download. Your PDF is rebuilt without the underlying text and image data in the redacted areas — the content is permanently gone from the file structure, not just visually covered. The downloaded file opens normally in any PDF viewer.
PDF redaction is the permanent removal of text or images from a PDF file at the file structure level — the content no longer exists in the document. This is fundamentally different from three things that look similar but are not redaction:
True redaction modifies the PDF at the file structure level. The text and image data in the redacted area is destroyed and replaced with a solid block. This is what regulators, legal teams, and compliance officers require for GDPR disclosures, FOIA responses, court filings, and medical records.
Use both methods on the same document. Draw boxes for visual content; search for repeated text. Every action is undoable before you save.
Click and drag to draw black rectangular boxes over any area of any PDF page. Works on text, images, signatures, photographs, handwritten annotations, tables, or any visual content. Draw overlapping boxes, cover partial lines, or black out an entire section. Each box is a discrete undoable action before saving.
Type any word, phrase, or name into the search field. The tool finds every match across every page simultaneously and marks all instances for redaction. Essential for multi-page documents where a name, NI number, or account number appears repeatedly — ensuring nothing is left behind by a manual box-drawing pass.
Every major competitor — SmallPDF, Sejda, iLovePDF — uploads your PDF to a remote server to process it. Your document leaves your device and sits on a third-party server. SmallPDF deletes files after one hour; iLovePDF processes on “secure servers”. These are policy-based guarantees.
OneClickPDF is architecturally different. Redaction runs entirely inside your browser using your device’s own processor. Your PDF never leaves your device. There is no upload, no server, no data transmission, and no retention policy to rely on — because there is nothing to retain. For documents subject to legal privilege, HIPAA, UK GDPR, or any data protection requirement, this architecture provides a stronger guarantee than any deletion policy can.
Capability-by-capability: OneClickPDF is the only fully-free tool that runs redaction entirely in your browser, supports both methods, and offers undo/redo.
| Feature | SmallPDF | Sejda | Adobe | Ours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free & unlimited | ✗ Paid | ✗ 3/hour | ✗ Paid | ✓ |
| No account needed | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Files stay in browser | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| No ads or interruptions | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Draw redaction boxes | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Search & redact text | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Permanently destroys text | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Undo / redo | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
Competitor information was accurate at time of publication and may have changed.
OneClickPDF’s redaction tool works in any modern browser — Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Edge — on Mac, Windows, and Linux. No application downloads or plugins are required. All processing stays on your device regardless of platform.
Drop your file, mark what to remove, download — under 60 seconds, no account, no upload.
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