Protect PDF

Add a password to a PDF before you send it

Some documents just should not be readable by whoever gets hold of the file: a signed offer letter, a scanned ID, payroll figures headed to a shared drive. Protect PDF puts a password on your file so only someone who knows that password can open it.

You upload one PDF and set a user password, required just to open the file. There is also an optional owner password, which controls permissions such as printing or editing separately from the open password, useful when a colleague should view a file but not change it. Processing happens on our servers over an encrypted connection, and your file is deleted within 60 minutes whether or not you finish the download. The result is a new PDF with the same content and layout as the original, just locked behind the password you chose.

Pick a password you can share safely with the reader, since a lost password means the file cannot be recovered. Free use shows a short ad; a paid plan removes that and raises the size of file you can protect. If you already have a locked file and need the opposite job, taking a password off, Unlock PDF handles that instead. Protect PDF runs from any browser on desktop or mobile, with nothing to install.