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How to Password-Protect a PDF (and Remove a Password Later)

Sending a payslip, contract, or medical record over email? A password won't stop a targeted attacker, but it's a meaningful barrier against the file ending up in the wrong hands after being forwarded, stored in a shared inbox, or synced to a cloud drive you don't control.

How PDF password protection actually works

PDF encryption uses a standard defined in the PDF specification itself, so a correctly encrypted file will prompt for a password in any PDF reader — Adobe Acrobat, Preview, browser viewers, all of them — not just the tool that created it.

Adding a password

1. Open Protect PDF.
2. Select your file and choose a password.
3. Download the encrypted copy. The original, unprotected file on your device is untouched — only the downloaded copy is encrypted.

Use a password you'll actually remember, or better, one from a password manager. There's no "forgot password" option for standard PDF encryption — if you lose it, the file is unreadable.

Removing a password

If you own the file and know the password but want to drop the protection — for example, before archiving a document internally — use Unlock PDF. Enter the current password once and download a copy with encryption removed.

Both tools run entirely in your browser, so the password you enter and the file itself are never sent to a server.