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Unlock PDF
Remove the password and the printing or copying restrictions from a PDF you have the password for, in your browser. RC4 and AES, free, nothing uploaded.
How to use Unlock PDF
- Drop the protected PDF.
- Enter the password you know, or leave it empty for restriction-only files.
- Download the unlocked copy.
How to remove a PDF password without uploading the file
Typing a password every time you open a bank statement or a payslip gets old, and some PDFs open freely but refuse to print or let you copy a line. PaperKit removes both kinds of protection in your browser. Drop the file, it reads which encryption the document uses, you enter the password you know, and the decrypted copy downloads as paperkit-unlocked.pdf. The password never leaves the tab. This is for files you are entitled to open: PaperKit does not crack or guess passwords.
Which protected PDFs it opens
The standard PDF security handler in all its revisions: RC4 with 40-bit and 128-bit keys (Acrobat 3 to 6 era), AES-128 (Acrobat 7 and later) and AES-256 (Acrobat X and later, revisions 5 and 6). Documents compressed with object streams, as modern writers produce, are handled too. PDFs encrypted with a certificate instead of a password, and files protected by rights-management servers, cannot be opened and the tool says so.
- RC4 40-bit and 128-bit, revisions 2 and 3
- AES-128, revision 4
- AES-256, revisions 5 and 6
- Not supported: certificate security and rights management
Open password or owner password, either works
A protected PDF has two passwords: the open password readers type, and the owner password that controls permissions. Enter whichever you know. PaperKit tries it as the open password first, then as the owner password, and the result card tells you which one matched. The unlocked copy has no encryption and no restrictions at all.
PDFs that open but will not print or copy
These files have an empty open password and an owner password you do not know. Leave the password field blank: the empty open password derives the file key, and the restrictions disappear with the encryption. This works because the permissions in such files are enforced by the reader, not by cryptography. The inspector panel shows which actions are blocked before you run the tool.
What stays and what changes
Pages, text, images, fonts, bookmarks, links, form fields and metadata are kept. The encryption dictionary is removed and the file is rewritten by pdf-lib, so the byte layout differs from the original. Digital signatures will show as invalid afterwards, because decrypting changes the signed bytes.
Wrong or forgotten passwords
If the password does not match, PaperKit says so and nothing is downloaded. There is no brute-force mode: the AES-256 hashing of revision 6 is deliberately slow, and guessing is neither practical in a browser nor what this tool is for. If you forgot the password to your own file, the application that created it or the person who protected it is the only way back.
Private by design
The key derivation (MD5 and RC4 for the old revisions, SHA-256 and AES for the new ones) runs in the tab, the objects are decrypted in memory, and the unlocked copy is assembled locally. No upload, no account, no copy of the password anywhere. Use Protect PDF to add a fresh password afterwards if you want one.
Next steps
- Add a new password instead
- Read a protected PDF without changing it
- Strip metadata from the unlocked copy
- Extract the text once unlocked
Related PDF tools
- Protect PDF — Add a password to a PDF with AES-256 encryption, and optionally block printing or copying, entirely in your browser.
- Remove PDF Metadata — Strip author, title, producer, and keyword metadata from a PDF to protect privacy.
- PDF to Text — Extract the text of a PDF in the browser, line by line, and download it as a .txt file. Scans need OCR first.
Frequently asked questions
How do I remove a password from a PDF?
Drop the PDF on PaperKit Unlock PDF, enter the password you know, and download paperkit-unlocked.pdf. Decryption runs in your browser and the file is never uploaded.
Can it unlock a PDF without the password?
Only when the open password is empty, which is the case for PDFs that open freely but block printing or copying: leave the field blank. A PDF that asks for a password when opened needs that password; PaperKit does not crack passwords.
Does it work with the owner password?
Yes. Either the open password or the owner password unlocks the file, and the result tells you which one matched.
Which encryption types are supported?
RC4 40-bit and 128-bit, AES-128 and AES-256, which covers every password-protected PDF written since Acrobat 3. Certificate-based and rights-managed PDFs are not supported.
Is my password sent anywhere?
No. The password is turned into the decryption key inside your tab and discarded when you leave the page.