Unlock PDF online — free password removal
Remove the password from any PDF you have the password for. Drop the file, type the password once, and download the unlocked copy. Everything runs in your browser — your password and document never leave your device.
The password is processed entirely in your browser by PDF.js. PDFluna does not transmit, log, or store it.
Your file already opens without a password. There’s no encryption to remove. If it has print or edit restrictions you’d like to drop, you can download a re-saved copy below — or use our Edit PDF tool to make changes directly.
How to unlock a PDF online
Removing a PDF password with PDFluna takes well under a minute. There is nothing to install, no account to create, and the password never leaves your browser. Step by step:
- Upload your password-protected PDF. Drag and drop your PDF onto the upload area, or click Choose PDF file. Files up to 100 MB are supported. Your document never leaves your device — every step happens in your browser.
- Enter the password. When PDFluna detects encryption, you’ll see a password field. Type the password the document was protected with and click Unlock. We never store, transmit, or log the password — it lives only in your browser tab’s memory until the unlock finishes.
- Wait while we rebuild the PDF. PDFluna decrypts every page locally and rebuilds the document without encryption. A progress bar shows page-by-page progress; long documents take a few seconds per page at the rebuild’s 200 DPI fidelity setting.
- Download the unlocked copy. When the rebuild finishes you get a download link. The unlocked file is named
yourname-unlocked.pdfso you can keep both versions side by side. Your original locked file is never modified.
Why your password and document stay on your device
Most online PDF unlockers upload your file to a server, decrypt it there, and send the unlocked copy back. That round trip raises an obvious privacy question: you are handing both a sensitive document and the password that protects it to a third party you don’t control. Their privacy policy might promise not to keep them, but you can’t verify that promise.
Our pipeline runs entirely in your browser. PDF.js (Mozilla’s open-source PDF reader, the same engine that powers Firefox’s built-in PDF viewer) decrypts the document with your password locally. pdf-lib rebuilds the unlocked copy. The output blob lives in your tab’s memory until you click Download. None of it ever crosses the network — you can verify that yourself in browser DevTools → Network.
The password specifically is used in exactly one place: passed into PDF.js’s getDocument({ password }) call. After the rebuild finishes, our code wipes the password variable explicitly so it doesn’t linger in browser memory beyond what’s strictly required.
What kinds of PDF locks does this remove?
- User passwords — the password the document prompts for when you try to open it. PDF.js handles every standard variant: RC4-40, RC4-128, AES-128, and AES-256 (Acrobat X and newer). You supply the password, we use it to decrypt and rebuild.
- Owner passwords / permissions restrictions — the kind that lets the document open without a password but blocks printing, editing, or copying text. PDFluna detects these and offers to rebuild the document without the restrictions in the same flow, no password needed.
- Custom security handlers (Adobe LiveCycle Rights Management, MIP enterprise protection) — these use proprietary decryption flows we can’t replicate client-side. The tool will tell you specifically when it sees one and recommend Adobe Acrobat with your enterprise credentials.
Honest fidelity disclosure
Because pdf-lib (the library we use to write the output) does not implement decryption itself, our pipeline takes a slightly indirect path: PDF.js decrypts every page, we render each page to a 200 DPI image, and pdf-lib stitches a fresh PDF from those images. We then add an invisible text layer over the images so Ctrl+F still finds words. The visual fidelity is virtually identical for reading, but the file is image-based — meaning:
- Preserved: visual layout, page count, page dimensions, text searchability (via the invisible overlay).
- Not preserved: interactive form fields (text inputs, checkboxes), embedded hyperlinks, document annotations and comments, digital signatures (visible signature images stay in the rasterised page; the cryptographic signature itself is invalidated by the rebuild — the same thing happens if you print the PDF and re-scan it), bookmarks and table-of-contents links.
- File size: usually larger than the original for text-heavy PDFs (vector text is extraordinarily compact); usually similar or smaller for scan-heavy or image-heavy PDFs (we re-encode to JPEG at q=0.92, which often tightens up loose original compression).
For everyday "I need to read or share this" use this is the right trade-off. For "I need to keep editing form fields, click hyperlinks, or verify a digital signature" — open the document directly in Adobe Acrobat with the password and use File → Properties → Security to remove protection there.
Frequently asked questions
Is my password sent to your server?
No. The password is typed into a regular HTML input and passed straight to PDF.js (Mozilla’s open-source PDF library) which runs entirely in your browser. We do not transmit it, log it, or store it anywhere — not even in localStorage. Once the unlock finishes the password is wiped from memory. You can verify yourself: open DevTools → Network before submitting and watch — there are zero outbound requests carrying your file or your password.
Why does my unlocked PDF look slightly different from the original?
Our pipeline rebuilds the PDF page by page: each page is rendered to a high-resolution image (200 DPI) and stamped into a fresh document, then we overlay an invisible text layer so Ctrl+F still finds words. The visual result is virtually identical for reading, and selectable text works as expected. What is not preserved: interactive form fields, embedded hyperlinks, digital signatures, comments and annotations, and the original vector text’s pin-sharp edges at extreme zoom. For everyday "I need to read this contract without the password" use this is the right trade-off; for "I need to keep editing forms in this document" use Adobe Acrobat with the password directly instead.
What encryption types do you support?
PDF.js handles every standard PDF encryption variant: RC4-40, RC4-128, AES-128, AES-256-r5 and AES-256-r6 (the modern Acrobat X+ encryption). If your document was protected with Adobe Acrobat or any common PDF library on the last 20 years, we should be able to unlock it given the right password. The rare exception is custom security handlers (typically Adobe LiveCycle Rights Management, or enterprise wrappers like Microsoft Information Protection) — those use their own decryption flow we can’t replicate client-side. The tool will tell you specifically when it hits one of those.
I forgot my password — can you help recover it?
No. We unlock PDFs with a password you supply; we don’t crack passwords. Cracking a modern AES-256 PDF password is computationally infeasible without a dictionary attack or a known weakness, and password-recovery services that claim otherwise mostly try common-password lists and small brute-force ranges. If you’ve genuinely lost the password, contact whoever sent you the document and ask for a new copy or for them to remove the protection on their end.
My PDF opens normally, why does PDFluna also offer to unlock it?
Some PDFs are not user-password-protected (they open without prompting) but still carry restrictions on printing, editing, or content extraction — so-called "owner-only" or "permissions" passwords. PDFluna detects these and offers to remove the restrictions by rebuilding the document. If your PDF is fully unprotected, the tool will say so and offer to download an unchanged copy named -unlocked.pdf for consistency.
Is this legal?
Removing a password from a PDF you have the password for, or that you legitimately own, is generally legal in most jurisdictions — including unlocking documents you authored, encrypted backups, and files you’ve been sent with permission to use. What is not legal: bypassing protection on documents you don’t own or weren’t authorised to access (most copyright laws cover this; the US DMCA section 1201 specifically). PDFluna doesn’t crack passwords — we just remove encryption when you supply the right password — but you remain responsible for the legal status of your use case.
Why is the unlocked file larger than the original?
The rebuild stage produces a JPEG image of each page and embeds it into the new PDF. JPEG at 200 DPI on letter-size paper averages 250-500 KB per page, which can be larger than the original if the source was vector-only text (text-based PDFs are extraordinarily compact). For most real-world documents — scans, image-heavy reports, mixed content — the size difference is small or even reversed (re-encoding tightens up loose original compression). If you need the smallest possible unlocked file, run our Compress PDF tool on the result.
Can I unlock a PDF on mobile?
Yes. The whole pipeline is JavaScript so it runs on iPhone, iPad, Android — the only constraints are file size (100 MB hard cap) and browser memory. On older phones, very long documents (50+ pages of dense images) may run out of memory mid-rebuild; if that happens, our Split PDF tool can help: split first, unlock each part on its own, then merge back together (since the parts are no longer encrypted, the second merge is straightforward).