PDF unlock / password remove

PDFs can carry two passwords:

• User password (sometimes "open password") — required to open the document. Without it, no viewer can show the content. This is what most people mean when they say a PDF is "locked".
• Owner password (sometimes "permissions password") — the document opens without prompting, but operations like printing, copying, editing or commenting are blocked. Owner passwords protect the publisher's intent; user passwords protect the content itself.

This tool removes both. If the PDF needs a user password to open, type it in and click Unlock. If it only has owner restrictions, just click Unlock — no input needed.

The library we use understands every standard PDF encryption mode in current PDF readers:

• RC4-40 — original PDF encryption (Acrobat 3 to 5). Weak by modern standards but still readable.
• RC4-128 — Acrobat 6 and later.
• AES-128 — Acrobat 7 and later, revision 4.
• AES-256 — Acrobat X and later, revision 5 / 6 (with SHA-256 password hashing).

Whatever the original encryption, the unlocked output is plain — no /Encrypt entry, no permission flags. The visible content is byte-for-byte the same; only the encryption envelope is gone.

Removing a password you forgot on a document you authored, or stripping print restrictions from a manual you bought, is legitimate personal use. Removing protection from copyrighted content you don't own — DRM-protected ebooks, paywalled research papers, leaked internal docs — may be illegal in your country (e.g. the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act). The tool can't tell which case yours is, so make sure before you click.

The PDF is parsed in a Web Worker; the password you type is passed into the worker's PDFDocument.load(); the document re-saves without the /Encrypt entry. There's no network round-trip and no server-side copy at any step. The password isn't logged, isn't stored, and exists only in the worker's memory for the lifetime of the operation.

Use this tool when you need a fast, one-off PDF task and want the document to stay in your browser. Desktop editors or command-line tools are better for heavily encrypted files, regulated review workflows, or very large batch jobs that need repeatable automation.

• Password-protected, digitally signed, or archival PDFs may need a specialist workflow before editing.
• Large scans can use a lot of memory, especially on phones or older laptops.
• Check the downloaded file before replacing the original, because compression, OCR, or conversion can change visual details.