Guide
Encrypt a PDF with a password
Set a password so a viewer must know it before opening the file you are about to send.
How to protect a PDF
Password protection is a lock on the file, not a watermark and not redaction. Anyone with the password sees the full contents. Anyone without it should be blocked by a standards-compliant viewer.
Pick a password you have not reused on a website. If you forget it, Unlock PDF cannot guess it.
Encryption is applied in the browser. We do not store your password.
- Open Protect PDF and add the PDF.
- Choose a password you can share out of band (phone call, password manager), not in the same email as the file.
- Click Protect PDF and download the encrypted file.
- Open the download in a viewer and confirm it asks for the password before you send it.
Protection
Emailing the password in the same thread as the PDF defeats most of the point. Send the password separately.
- Encrypts the PDF with the password you set.
- Does not hide text from people who have the password.
- Does not replace redaction for secrets inside a file you still share unlocked.
- No account and no key escrow on our side.
- Local processing.
Privacy and encryption
We never see the password. Strength still depends on the password you choose and on the viewer the recipient uses.
See the Privacy Policy.
Frequently asked questions
This tool focuses on encrypting with a password you provide. Fine-grained permission bits vary by viewer anyway.
The encryption scheme is whatever the library writes for a standard password encrypt. If a regulator names a profile, validate with their tool.
They may have the wrong password or an old viewer. Confirm the password out of band. Do not post the password in a public ticket.