Remove Password from PDF
Remove a password you know from a PDF so it opens without prompting. Your file is deleted right after processing.
Decryption runs on our server, so the file and password are uploaded over an encrypted connection. Both are deleted as soon as your download finishes, and the password is never stored.
Your processed file downloads automatically when it is ready.
How to remove a password from PDF
A locked PDF cannot be merged, compressed or converted until the encryption comes off. This removes it, provided you know the password. If you have been searching how to delete password in PDF or how to take password off PDF, the process is the same three steps.
- 1
Choose the locked PDF
Drag the file in or click to browse. It is the encrypted document you want to open freely from now on.
- 2
Enter the password
Type the password you normally use to open it. Without the correct one nothing can be done, because this does not break encryption.
- 3
Download the open copy
Press Unlock and the unprotected version downloads, identical in content but no longer asking for a password.
When the password gets in the way
Encryption is useful right up until it stops you working.
Before merging or compressing
Other tools cannot open a locked file, so remove password protection from PDF documents first.
Bank and card statements
Stop retyping a long reference every time you open your own statement.
Archiving documents
Store files you will still be able to open years from now without hunting for a password.
Printing in bulk
Avoid a password prompt on every document in a long print run.
Sharing internally
Pass a document to colleagues who are already inside a protected system.
Searching your files
Let desktop search index a document it cannot read while it is encrypted.
Reading on a phone
Remove PDF file password prompts from documents you open constantly on a device where typing is slow.
Automated workflows
Feed a document into a process that has no way to supply a password.
What removing a PDF password really means
Decryption is not cracking. This tool uses the password you supply to unlock the file properly, then writes out a copy with no encryption at all. What it cannot do is guess.
How to remove a password from a PDF
Upload the document, enter the password you already use, and download the open copy. It is a free PDF password remover with no sign-up and no watermark on the result.
The work happens on our server, because decryption needs software a browser cannot run. The file and the password are both deleted the moment your download finishes.
You need the password
This is worth being blunt about. Searching unlock PDF without password will turn up services promising to open anything, and against a strong password they cannot. AES-256 has no shortcut, so the only approach left is guessing, which works on weak passwords and never on good ones.
What this tool does is legitimate decryption. You supply the key, the document opens the way it was designed to, and a copy is written without the lock.
The many ways people ask
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Fourteen phrasings, one operation. The volume behind them says something about how often a password outlives its usefulness.
Owner passwords are a different thing
Some PDFs open with no prompt at all yet refuse to let you print or copy text. That is an owner password, a set of permission flags most readers agree to honour.
It is a much weaker form of protection than an open password, since the document is not really encrypted against you. If a file opens fine but blocks printing, that is what you are looking at, and it behaves differently from the case this tool is built for.
Keep the locked copy
The unlocked file has no protection whatsoever. Anyone who gets hold of it can read it, which was the entire point of the password in the first place.
If the document is genuinely sensitive, keep the encrypted original and treat the unlocked version as a working copy that you delete when you are finished. Lock PDF puts protection back on whenever you need it.
Before you unlock
A couple of things worth thinking about first.
- Only unlock documents you are entitled to open. You need the correct password either way, since this does not crack encryption.
- Keep the locked original if the document is sensitive. The unlocked copy has no protection at all.
- Check capitals and trailing spaces if the password is rejected. They are the most common cause.
- If the password opens the file but the tool still fails, it may use an owner password restricting printing instead of opening, which works differently.
- Unlock once and do your other edits afterwards. Merging, compressing and converting all need an unencrypted file.
- Put protection back on with the Lock PDF tool once you are finished, if the document still needs it.
Questions, answered
What this can and cannot do, and where your file goes.
Upload the PDF, enter the password you already use to open it, and download an unlocked copy. The new file opens with no prompt. The original stays as it is.
Related tools
Other things you can do here without signing up.