How to Redact a PDF Without Adobe

You need to share a PDF but it contains Social Security Numbers, email addresses, phone numbers, or other sensitive data. Adobe Acrobat Pro can redact — for $20/month. Here's how to do it for free, without uploading your sensitive document to anyone's server.

Why redaction matters

Redaction isn't the same as covering text with a black box in a drawing tool. If you paste a black rectangle over a Social Security Number in Word or a basic PDF annotator, the text is still there — anyone can copy-paste it, or open the file in a text editor and read it.

BreezePDF performs real redaction — the underlying text and image data is permanently stripped from the file, not just covered up.

Redact a PDF with BreezePDF

BreezePDF processes your document entirely in your browser. The file never leaves your device — which is exactly what you want when handling documents with personal information.

1 Open your PDF

Go to breezepdf.com/redact-pdf and drop your file in. The document loads locally — nothing is sent to a server.

2 Mark areas to redact

You have two options:

• Manual redaction — click the redact tool and draw rectangles over the content you want to remove. Use this for specific paragraphs, images, or sections.
• Auto-detect PII — use the PII redaction tool to automatically find and redact:
  • Email addresses
  • Phone numbers
  • Social Security Numbers
  • Employer Identification Numbers
  • Credit card numbers
  • Dates
  • IP addresses

The auto-detect scans every page and highlights all matches. You can review and deselect any you want to keep before applying.

3 Download your redacted PDF

Click Download. The redacted content is permanently removed from the file. Open it and try selecting the redacted areas — there's nothing there.

Why this matters more than you think

Every year, organizations accidentally leak sensitive data by sharing PDFs with inadequate redaction. Drawing black boxes over text in Microsoft Word, using the highlight tool in Preview, or pasting images over content does not remove the underlying data.

Real redaction tools — like BreezePDF and Adobe Acrobat Pro — actually delete the content from the PDF's internal structure. The difference is that Adobe charges $240/year and BreezePDF is free.

Why not use other online tools?

Think about what you're redacting — Social Security Numbers, financial data, medical records, legal documents. Do you really want to upload that to someone else's server?

Most online PDF tools (Sejda, iLovePDF, DocFly) process your file on their servers. They say they delete it after processing, but you're trusting them with your most sensitive data.

BreezePDF processes everything locally in your browser. The document never leaves your device. For redaction specifically, this isn't just a nice feature — it's essential.

Common redaction use cases

• FOIA requests — government agencies redacting personal information before public release
• Legal discovery — redacting privileged or irrelevant information from documents
• HR documents — removing SSNs and personal data before sharing employee records
• Financial reports — redacting account numbers and sensitive financial data
• Medical records — HIPAA-compliant removal of patient identifiers

Works everywhere

BreezePDF runs in any browser — Windows, Mac, Linux, Chromebook. There's also a desktop app for offline redaction if you're working with highly sensitive documents and want to stay completely disconnected.