Free Online PDF Unlock
Remove a Known Password From a Protected PDF
Need to use PDF Unlock right now?
A password-protected PDF is inconvenient the moment you need to merge it with other files, extract pages from it, or run it through any other tool that doesn't support encrypted input — most PDF tools, including nearly every other tool in this category, require an unencrypted file to work with. This tool removes password protection from a PDF you already have legitimate access to, producing an unprotected copy you can then process freely.
Drop a PDF, or click to browse
Processed locally in your browser — never uploaded
You need to know the PDF's current password — this can't crack or guess an unknown password. Each page is rendered and rebuilt into a new, password-free PDF, which means the output's text is no longer selectable or searchable (it becomes an image), a necessary trade-off of removing the protection without a password-write library.
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Features
- Runs entirely in your browser
- Privacy-first — your data is never uploaded
- Real-time, instant results
- 100% free, no sign-up required
- Works on desktop, tablet, and mobile
- No installation needed
Who uses this tool?
About PDF Unlock
A password-protected PDF is inconvenient the moment you need to merge it with other files, extract pages from it, or run it through any other tool that doesn't support encrypted input — most PDF tools, including nearly every other tool in this category, require an unencrypted file to work with. This tool removes password protection from a PDF you already have legitimate access to, producing an unprotected copy you can then process freely.
You'll need to know the PDF's current password — this tool decrypts using the password you provide, it does not crack, guess, or brute-force an unknown password, which would be both technically impractical for a real password and not something a legitimate tool should attempt. Enter the password, and if it's correct, the document opens and gets rebuilt without protection.
The removal process works by opening the encrypted PDF with the password (using the same underlying engine that renders PDFs for viewing), rendering each page to an image, and assembling those images into a brand-new, unencrypted PDF. This render-and-rebuild approach exists because the PDF library used to build files in this project doesn't support writing PDF encryption or removing it directly at the object level — going through rendering instead is what allows password removal to work reliably without depending on lower-level encryption internals.
The direct consequence of this approach is that the unlocked output's text is no longer selectable or searchable — each page is now a full-page image, not vector text. That's a real trade-off worth knowing about upfront: you get a genuinely password-free file, but you're trading away the original document's live text layer to get it.
How it works
- Upload your protected PDF. Select the encrypted file you have the password for.
- Enter the current password. Type the password needed to open the document.
- Unlock and download. A new, password-free PDF is generated from the decrypted pages.
Examples
Removing a known password
Input
encrypted contract.pdf + correct password
Output
contract-unlocked.pdf, opens without a password