Redact PDF
Drag rectangles over anything you need to hide. On save, every affected page is rasterized so the underlying text is truly gone — not just visually covered.
Secure removal
Affected pages rasterized — text removed
Instant preview
See redactions live on the canvas
Privacy-first
Files never leave your device
Drop PDF to redact
or click to browse
Most online "redact PDF" tools don't actually redact — they overlay a colored rectangle that any PDF editor can remove, leaving the original text recoverable underneath. FormatFuse takes a different approach: when you save a redacted PDF, every affected page is rasterized into a flat image before being placed back into the document. The text objects, vector data, and any layered annotations are destroyed beyond recovery — no extraction, OCR, or PDF unstructuring tool can bring them back.
The new AI Scan feature uses an on-device language model (running locally in your browser via WebGPU or WebAssembly) to automatically detect personal information across your document. It identifies names, email addresses, phone numbers, postal addresses, dates, account numbers, and other patterns common to PII. Your PDF never leaves your device — the AI inference happens entirely client-side, so privacy and confidentiality are preserved end-to-end.
Suggestions appear as cyan dashed rectangles, color-coded by entity type. Review them in the right-hand panel, accept the ones you want to redact (one at a time, by category, or all at once), and reject false positives. Accepted suggestions become solid black redaction rectangles that participate in the same destructive save flow as manual ones. You can also combine AI auto-detection with manually drawn rectangles for anything the model missed — handwritten signatures, embedded images, or specific values you want removed.
FormatFuse's redaction tool is free, requires no sign-up, and works entirely in your browser. The first AI scan downloads the privacy-detection model (one-time, cached for subsequent visits). Every page of your PDF — and every byte of the AI inference — stays on your device.
Redact PDF — Frequently Asked Questions
How does the AI auto-detect work?
FormatFuse loads a small token-classification language model into your browser the first time you click AI Scan. The model runs entirely on your device using WebGPU when available (or WebAssembly as a fallback) and identifies common categories of personal information: names, emails, phone numbers, addresses, dates, account numbers, and secrets. Your PDF text never leaves the page.
Does AI redaction send my PDF anywhere?
No. The AI inference runs locally in your browser. The model itself is downloaded from a public CDN once and then cached, but your PDF content is never uploaded to FormatFuse, OpenAI, Google, or any other server.
What types of information does the AI detect?
Names of people, email addresses, phone numbers, postal/street addresses, dates, account numbers, identification numbers (passport, SSN-style), URLs, and secret-like patterns (passwords, keys). It supports many languages, not just English. The model errs on the side of recall — you can review and reject any suggestion before it's committed.
Can I trust the AI to find everything?
No machine learning model is perfect. The AI gives you a strong head start on long documents, but you should always review the suggestions and add manual rectangles for anything missed — particularly handwritten signatures, redacted images, or context-specific identifiers the model isn't trained on. AI Scan is a productivity boost, not a replacement for human review.
Is this really secure redaction?
Yes. When you save, every page you drew a redaction on (whether manually or by accepting AI suggestions) is rasterized into a flat image before being placed back into the PDF. The underlying text objects are gone — no text extraction or PDF unstructuring can recover them.
What happens to pages I didn't redact?
They're copied from the original. Text selection and search continue to work on those pages. Only redacted pages lose searchability.
Can I redact after saving?
Yes. Re-upload the saved PDF and draw more redactions. Each save rasterizes affected pages, so security compounds safely.
What's the output quality like?
Rasterized pages render at 2× the original size for crisp output on screen and print.
How does the AI auto-detect work?
FormatFuse loads a small token-classification language model into your browser the first time you click AI Scan. The model runs entirely on your device using WebGPU when available (or WebAssembly as a fallback) and identifies common categories of personal information: names, emails, phone numbers, addresses, dates, account numbers, and secrets. Your PDF text never leaves the page.
Does AI redaction send my PDF anywhere?
No. The AI inference runs locally in your browser. The model itself is downloaded from a public CDN once and then cached, but your PDF content is never uploaded to FormatFuse, OpenAI, Google, or any other server.
What types of information does the AI detect?
Names of people, email addresses, phone numbers, postal/street addresses, dates, account numbers, identification numbers (passport, SSN-style), URLs, and secret-like patterns (passwords, keys). It supports many languages, not just English. The model errs on the side of recall — you can review and reject any suggestion before it's committed.
Can I trust the AI to find everything?
No machine learning model is perfect. The AI gives you a strong head start on long documents, but you should always review the suggestions and add manual rectangles for anything missed — particularly handwritten signatures, redacted images, or context-specific identifiers the model isn't trained on. AI Scan is a productivity boost, not a replacement for human review.
Is this really secure redaction?
Yes. When you save, every page you drew a redaction on (whether manually or by accepting AI suggestions) is rasterized into a flat image before being placed back into the PDF. The underlying text objects are gone — no text extraction or PDF unstructuring can recover them.
What happens to pages I didn't redact?
They're copied from the original. Text selection and search continue to work on those pages. Only redacted pages lose searchability.
Can I redact after saving?
Yes. Re-upload the saved PDF and draw more redactions. Each save rasterizes affected pages, so security compounds safely.
What's the output quality like?
Rasterized pages render at 2× the original size for crisp output on screen and print.