Protect PDF

PDFs often travel by email, cloud links and messaging apps, and once a file is sent you lose control of where it is forwarded or stored. Adding an opening password means that anyone who gets hold of the file — a wrong recipient, a compromised inbox or a shared drive — cannot read it without the password. It is a simple, widely supported way to protect bank statements, tax returns, medical reports, payslips, HR documents, legal drafts and client deliverables.

Many organisations also require password protection for personal data under privacy rules such as GDPR. Encrypting the file before sending it is an easy way to show that you took reasonable steps to keep it safe.

When you click Protect PDF, the document's content is encrypted using the standard password security built into the PDF format, which is supported by Adobe Acrobat and Reader, Chrome, Edge, Firefox, macOS Preview, iOS and Android. When someone opens the file, their viewer asks for the password before showing any page.

You can also choose to block printing. Copying text and editing the document are always restricted in the protected copy. Keep in mind that these permission settings are honoured by mainstream viewers but are not as strong as the opening password itself — the password is what truly keeps the content private.

A short password like "1234" can be guessed in seconds by software. Use at least 12 characters; a phrase of three or four unrelated words, such as "lamp-orbit-cactus-river", is both strong and easy to type. Avoid names, birthdays and words that appear in the document.

Never send the password in the same email as the file — if that email is intercepted, both arrive together. Share it through a different channel: a text message, a phone call or a messaging app. Store it in a password manager, because the password cannot be recovered: all in tool never sees it, and there is no reset link.

A file that is already password-protected must be unlocked before you can protect it again with a new password. Digital signatures inside the document will no longer validate after encryption, because the file's bytes change. Very old PDF viewers from before 2008 may not support modern encryption. If you need to share protected files regularly with a team, consider keeping an unprotected master copy in a secure location so that you can always create new versions.

Encryption happens on your device. Your PDF and the password you type stay in this browser tab and are never sent over the internet. The password isn't saved or logged anywhere, which means we can't recover it for you if you forget it. To keep the password out of browser autofill, the fields ask your browser not to suggest previous entries.

Because nothing is uploaded, there is nothing to delete on a server. Your file only exists in this browser tab's memory while you work. It is cleared as soon as you press the × next to the file, reload the page or close the tab. We do not use cookies, local storage or any other browser storage to keep your files. The only lasting copy is the one you download, which is saved to your own device.

Most online converters upload your file to a server, process it there and send it back. all in tool works differently: the processing code is downloaded to your browser and runs on your own device. Your file is read from your disk into memory, transformed, and handed back to you as a download. It is never sent over the network, so there is nothing for us — or anyone else — to store, read or leak.

You can confirm this yourself: once the page has loaded, you can disconnect from the internet and the tool keeps working. This also means speed depends on your device rather than your connection, which is usually much faster for large files.