Unlock PDF
Process your PDF files online quickly and securely.
Drag & drop your PDF here
or click to select file
User Guide
Have the password ready
This removes protection from a document you can already open. It does not break encryption and cannot recover a forgotten password — see below.
Upload the PDF
Up to 10 MB over HTTPS. Removing encryption has to happen where the decryption library runs, which is on the server.
Enter the password
The password you would normally type to open the document. It is used to decrypt and is not stored.
Unlock
The document is decrypted and rewritten without protection. Content, layout and pages are unchanged — only the encryption is removed.
Download and confirm
Open the result and check it no longer prompts. Then use it with anything that could not handle the protected version.
Add protection back if you need to
Secure PDF re-encrypts with a new password and lets you set what readers may do — useful when the goal was changing the password rather than removing it.
About the Unlock PDF Tool
This tool removes password protection from a PDF when you supply the password. The result opens without prompting and works with software that refuses protected files.
What it does not do
It does not break encryption, and it cannot recover a password you have lost. If you cannot open the document now, this tool cannot open it either.
That is not a missing feature. A password-protected PDF is genuinely encrypted, and the password is what derives the key. A tool that could open it without one would mean the protection did not work — which would make the format useless for everyone relying on it. Any service claiming to recover arbitrary PDF passwords is either guessing common ones or misdescribing what it does.
If it is your own document and the password is lost, the realistic routes are the software that created it, a password manager, or whoever set it.
Why remove protection at all
| Situation | Why it helps |
|---|---|
| Bank or utility statements | Sent encrypted by default; tedious to retype the password every time you open one |
| Archiving | Protected files are hard to index and search in a document system |
| Other tools refuse it | Merging, splitting and converting all need readable pages |
| Sharing with someone entitled to it | Saves sending a password separately |
| Changing the password | Remove, then re-protect with a new one |
The third row is the most common reason people arrive here. Nearly every other PDF tool needs to read the page content, and an encrypted document is unreadable until it is decrypted — so unlocking is the necessary first step before merging, splitting or converting.
Only unlock what is yours
Worth saying plainly: use this on documents you own or are authorised to access. Removing protection from someone else’s file to circumvent a restriction is a different act from removing a nuisance password from your own bank statement, whatever the tool does technically.
What happens to the document
Content, layout, pages, fonts and images are unchanged. Only the encryption layer and the permission flags attached to it are removed. Nothing is re-rendered or re-compressed, so quality is identical.
Privacy
This conversion runs on a server rather than in your browser, because it needs software a browser does not have. Your file is sent over an encrypted HTTPS connection, converted, and deleted automatically after processing. The limit is 10 MB per file. The password is used for decryption and is not stored.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can it open a PDF whose password I do not know?
No. It removes protection from a document you can already open. A protected PDF is genuinely encrypted and the password derives the key — a tool that bypassed it would mean the protection never worked.
I have lost the password to my own file
This tool cannot help. Try the software that created the document, your password manager, or whoever applied the protection. There is no legitimate bypass.
Why do other PDF tools reject my protected file?
Because they have to read the page content, and an encrypted document is unreadable until decrypted. Unlocking first is the necessary step before merging, splitting or converting.
Does unlocking change the document?
No. Content, layout, pages, fonts and images are untouched — only the encryption layer and its permission flags are removed. Nothing is re-rendered, so quality is identical.
Can I set a new password afterwards?
Yes. Use the Secure PDF tool to re-encrypt with a new password, and to choose what readers are permitted to do.
Is my password stored?
No. It is used to decrypt the file during processing and nothing more. The document itself is deleted automatically afterwards.
Is it legal to do this?
On your own documents, or ones you are authorised to access, yes. Removing protection to circumvent someone else’s restriction is a different matter regardless of what the tool can do.
How large a PDF can I unlock?
10 MB per file, because decryption runs on a server rather than in your browser.
