Unlock a PDF, with or without the password

Two kinds of locked PDF

Not every "locked" PDF is locked the same way, and the difference decides whether a password is needed at all. Understanding which one you have makes this tool far less mysterious.

Restricted PDFs — no password needed

The most common case is a PDF that opens perfectly well but will not let you print, copy text, or edit it. This is an owner password, also called a permissions password. The document itself is not really secret — it is just carrying a flag that asks viewers to disable certain features. Because the content is not encrypted behind an open-password, these restrictions can be removed with no password whatsoever. Drop the file in, leave the password box blank, and the restrictions come straight off.

Password-to-open PDFs — the lost-password case

The other kind will not even open without a password. Here the document's contents are genuinely encrypted with a key derived from that user password. If you have simply lost the password to an important file you own, this tool tries to recover it automatically: first the password you type, then a built-in list of the most common passwords, then short numeric PINs and everyday dates.

Being honest about what can and cannot be recovered

We would rather tell you the truth than waste your time. Recovery works when the password is guessable — a common word, a short PIN, a birthday. It cannot work when the password is long and random and the file uses modern AES-256 encryption. That is not a limitation of this tool; it is the encryption doing exactly what it was designed to do. Nobody — no website, no app, no service — can open such a file without the password. If a site claims otherwise, be sceptical. What we can promise is that we will try every reasonable possibility on your own device, tell you the password if we find it, and give you a clear answer rather than a false one if we do not.

Why doing this on your device matters

A PDF you need to unlock is often exactly the kind of document you would least want to hand to a stranger — a bank statement, a contract, a medical record. Every part of this tool runs inside your own browser. The file is never uploaded, the password you type is never transmitted, and any password we recover is shown only to you. You can disconnect from the internet after the page loads and it will still work.

Using it

1. Add the locked PDF. If you know the password, type it — that is always fastest.
2. If you have lost the password, leave the box blank and keep recovery switched on.
3. Choose whether to also try numeric PINs. A four-digit sweep takes a few minutes; it stops the moment it succeeds.
4. Download your unlocked file. If the password was recovered, we show you what it was.

Only unlock PDFs you own or are authorised to access. Removing protection from someone else's document may be against the law where you live.