Unlock PDF
Remove the password from a PDF you can open: type it once, download a copy that opens without it. Also lifts printing and copying restrictions.
PDF Workspace
Add PDFs to start
Drop PDFs or images here, or choose them. Merge, split, reorder, rotate, edit, sign, convert or compress — as many steps as you like, with undo — and download one checked file.
PDFs up to 300 MB each, 5,000 pages in all; JPG, PNG and other images become pages. Password-protected PDFs ask for their password.
Your files are read and written in this browser. They are not uploaded to ToolsDev or anyone else.
Runs in your browser — nothing you enter leaves this device.
About this tool
What it does
Unlock PDF removes the password from a PDF you are allowed to open. Add the file, type its password once, and download a copy that opens without one — handy for a bank statement, a payslip or an e-ticket you have to open again and again, or upload somewhere that refuses protected files. A PDF that opens without a password but forbids printing or copying is opened at once, and the copy made here carries no such restrictions.
How to use it
- Choose a protected PDF, or drop it on the page.
- Type its password when asked and press Open. A wrong password asks again; Skip leaves the file out.
- Change anything else you like — merge it with other files, reorder or delete pages.
- Press Download without a password (in the Password tool) or Download PDF. The new file is checked and offered.
Limits and your data
- This needs the password. It does not guess, crack or bypass the open password of a PDF; nothing that respects the owner of a file should.
- Lifting printing and copying restrictions is for files you have the right to use that way: your own documents, or ones whose owner allows it. Respect the author's wishes and the law where you live.
- Every standard PDF encryption is supported: the 40- and 128-bit RC4 of older files, AES-128 and AES-256. Files protected with a certificate or a company rights-management system (Adobe LiveCycle, Microsoft Purview) are not standard password files and cannot be opened.
- Files up to 300 MB. Bookmarks and attachments of the original are not carried over, and a digital signature in the original is no longer valid.
- The file and its password stay in this browser tab. Decryption is done by qpdf, an open-source PDF program, running in the tab as WebAssembly; the password is used once to open the file and is not stored or sent anywhere, and the file is not uploaded. The page downloads its own code and qpdf from toolsdev.in, and no request carries your file. Closing the tab ends the session.
Questions
I forgot the password. Can you recover it?
No. Recovering a forgotten password means guessing it, and a good one cannot be guessed in any useful time. Ask whoever sent you the file; banks often use your date of birth, customer ID or part of your PAN.
Does the original file change?
No. The original stays as it is on your device; you download a new copy without the password.
Is my password sent anywhere?
No. It is passed to qpdf inside this tab and discarded with the page. Your browser's network panel shows nothing leaving while it works — only qpdf itself arriving, the first time.
Can I put a different password on it?
Yes: set one with the Password tool before downloading, and the new file is protected with it instead.