I do not know the password. Can you open it anyway?

No, and nothing honest can. The content is encrypted with a key derived from the password: without it there is ciphertext and nothing else. This tool asks for the password because it genuinely needs it, not as a formality.

The file opens without asking but I cannot print it. What do I type?

Nothing — leave the password box empty and run it. That file has no opening password; it carries permission flags, and those come off with the rest of the security dictionary.

Is it legal to remove a password?

That depends on the document and your relationship to it rather than on the tool. Taking the password off your own bank statement is unremarkable; doing it to somebody else’s confidential file is not, and our terms require you to have the right to the files you upload.

Will the restrictions come back on the copy?

No. The result is written with no security dictionary at all, so printing, copying, editing and commenting are allowed again. The notes list exactly what was lifted.

Where does my password go?

It is sent with the job, because the file cannot be decrypted without it, and it is used for that. The uploaded file and the result are deleted on the schedule set out on the retention page. If a document is sensitive enough that its password must never leave your machine, use a desktop reader instead.

Remove the password from a PDF you can already open

Type the password you already use to open the file and get back a copy with no password and no restrictions on it, so it opens anywhere and prints, copies and edits like any other PDF. This is for the document you have the password to and are tired of typing — a bank statement, a payslip, a report out of a portal. It is not a way in. Nothing here guesses a password or attacks the encryption, and if what you type does not decrypt the file the job stops and says so.

This is not password recovery. There is no guessing, no dictionary and no attack on the encryption, so a file whose password you do not know stays closed however many times you try.

Remove a PDF password

No account. Your upload is deleted after 2 hours, the result after 24 hours.

Choose file

Loading Unlock PDF…

How it works

Upload the locked file. It travels encrypted, exactly as it sits on your disk. Nothing can be read out of it until the password you type is applied to it on our side.
Type the password you open it with. The same one your reader asks for. If the file opens without asking but refuses to print or copy, leave the box empty — that file was never closed to you, only flagged.
Download the copy with no restrictions. The result carries no security at all. The notes list which restrictions were lifted, so you can see what was actually on it rather than guessing.

What the options do

The form above lists the options this tool is running today, straight from the server. This is what they are for.

The document’s password: The password a reader asks for when the file opens. It is used to decrypt the document and for nothing else. Leave it empty for the other kind of locked file — the one that opens straight away but will not let you print, copy or fill in a form. That file has permission flags and no opening password, and the flags come off with the rest of the security.

What this tool does not do

This is not password recovery. There is no guessing, no dictionary and no attack on the encryption, so a file whose password you do not know stays closed however many times you try.
It will not help with a document somebody else locked and did not give you the password to. If you are entitled to the contents, ask them for it; if you are not, no tool is the right answer.
It does not remove certificate-based protection or a digital signature. Those are a different mechanism, and the tool refuses rather than half-doing the job.
The unlocked copy is a new file, so a signature that verified on the original will not verify on it.
It does not remove a watermark, a stamp or anything printed onto the page. That is page content rather than security — remove annotations deals with the ones that are annotations.

What happens to your file

The file is uploaded because Unlock PDF runs on our server rather than in the browser tab. It is kept for at most 2 hours and the result you download for 24 hours, then a scheduled job deletes both — a job has to be able to read the file while it runs, and you have to be able to retry a failed conversion without re-uploading. Neither needs longer.

Nothing about the contents is logged, and no one reads your documents. The retention page lists the same numbers the code enforces, and the privacy policy says who can reach the storage they sit in.

Questions

I do not know the password. Can you open it anyway?: No, and nothing honest can. The content is encrypted with a key derived from the password: without it there is ciphertext and nothing else. This tool asks for the password because it genuinely needs it, not as a formality.
The file opens without asking but I cannot print it. What do I type?: Nothing — leave the password box empty and run it. That file has no opening password; it carries permission flags, and those come off with the rest of the security dictionary.
Is it legal to remove a password?: That depends on the document and your relationship to it rather than on the tool. Taking the password off your own bank statement is unremarkable; doing it to somebody else’s confidential file is not, and our terms require you to have the right to the files you upload.
Will the restrictions come back on the copy?: No. The result is written with no security dictionary at all, so printing, copying, editing and commenting are allowed again. The notes list exactly what was lifted.
Where does my password go?: It is sent with the job, because the file cannot be decrypted without it, and it is used for that. The uploaded file and the result are deleted on the schedule set out on the retention page. If a document is sensitive enough that its password must never leave your machine, use a desktop reader instead.

Guides that use this tool

Written for the problem rather than the tool: what is actually going wrong, and what to do about it whether or not you end up here.

How to edit a PDF someone emailed you — It opened in a preview pane that cannot save, and it may be a scan with no words in it, or permission-locked. Work through the four checks in order.
Can you compress a password-protected PDF? — Which of the two kinds you have decides it. An owner restriction lifts off and the file re-saves cleanly; a user one blocks every tool until it is typed.
Is it legal to remove a PDF password? — Knowing the owner code and lifting restrictions is a different act from circumventing one you were never given. Where the line usually sits, and why.
Why does my PDF ask for a password every time I open it? — There are two passwords in a PDF and they do opposite things. Which one you have decides whether this takes ten seconds or is impossible.

Password protect PDF — Add a password and choose what may still be done with the file — printing, copying, changing.
Flatten PDF — Turn form fields — and optionally annotations — into ordinary page content, so the values can be read but no longer edited.
Remove annotations from PDF — Strip comments, highlights, links or form fields.
Merge PDF — Combine several PDFs into one file, in the order you arrange them.
Compress PDF — Make a PDF smaller by re-encoding the images inside it, leaving text sharp.
To change the words on the page rather than the pages themselves, use the PDF editor.

Put documents together

Take documents apart

Make a file smaller or a scan straighter

Get the contents out of a PDF

Make a PDF out of something else

Fix how the pages sit on the paper

Put something on every page

Control what can be done with the file

Tidy up the document itself