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Lock a PDF with a password so it cannot be opened without one. Real AES encryption, not a viewer setting.
Drop your file here
or click to choose one
PDF only · up to 50MB
Enter a password
Write this password down somewhere safe. There is no recovery — if you lose it, the file cannot be opened by us or by anyone else.
Encrypting your PDF…
Processed on our server and deleted within the hour. No account, no watermark, no limits.
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What "protected" actually means here.
The password is applied as standard PDF encryption, written into the file itself. It is not a viewer setting that a different reader can ignore — without the password there is nothing to read.
A password on the document also blocks casual copying and printing in most readers, so a contract cannot be quietly altered or reprinted by whoever receives it.
Your file and your password are used for the encryption and then gone. Neither is stored, logged or shared — we could not open your file afterwards if we wanted to.
Three steps, no Acrobat, no account.
Drag it in or pick a file. Up to 50MB.
Type it twice. Longer beats more complicated.
Encrypted and ready to send, with no watermark.
The usual reasons.
One file or two hundred. No daily counter, no paid tier hiding behind it.
Fair question. Here's the honest version.
Upload your PDF, type a password twice, and click Protect PDF. The encrypted file downloads immediately and anyone opening it will be asked for that password. There is no account and no watermark.
The password applied here also restricts editing, copying and printing in most PDF readers. Be aware of the limit though: these restrictions are honoured by readers rather than enforced by mathematics, so a determined person with the right software can bypass them. The open password is the part that genuinely protects the file, because without it there is nothing to read in the first place.
Standard PDF encryption — AES, the same family of encryption used to protect files and connections generally. It is written into the PDF itself, so it applies in every reader on every device, not just the one you made it in.
Yes, the restrictions cover printing along with copying and editing. As above, printing restrictions depend on the reader respecting them. If it absolutely must not be printed, the open password is the stronger protection.
Then the file cannot be opened — by you, by us, or by anyone. That is the point of encryption, and it is why the warning above the button is there. Write it down somewhere safe before you send the file. We do not store passwords, so there is nothing for us to look up.
Length matters more than complexity. A short password full of symbols is weaker than a long one made of ordinary words — four unrelated words beat eight random characters, and are far easier to pass on to the person who needs it.
Yes, if you know it. The Unlock PDF tool removes a password from a document when you can supply it. It cannot crack an unknown one.
No. It is used to encrypt the file and then discarded along with the file itself, within the hour. Nothing is logged and nothing is shared.
Same rules on every one: free, no sign up, no watermark.
More reading: how PDF encryption works and AES.