Remove PDF Metadata - Free & Deep Clean

Strip the author name, title, creation software and timestamps from your PDF files - including the metadata hidden inside embedded figures, which most tools leave behind. Everything runs in your browser, so your documents are never uploaded. After cleaning, the page count, bookmark structure and internal references are verified automatically; if anything is off, your original file is returned untouched.

PDF Metadata Remover Features

See What Your PDF Reveals

Before cleaning, the tool lists exactly what your document carries: author name, title, the software that created it, and precise timestamps. Know what you are sending before you send it.

Cleans What Others Miss

Most PDF metadata removers only clear the document properties panel. Figures placed into a PDF from design software carry their own metadata - often including the original filename of the artwork, the software version, and the exact minute it was made. We find and remove those too.

Files Never Leave Your Device

Uploading a resume to a website in order to remove your name from it is self-defeating. This tool runs entirely in your browser - no upload, no server, no logging. PDFs are far more sensitive than photos: resumes, contracts, reports, internal documents.

Verified Not to Break Your Document

After cleaning, the file is re-parsed and checked: page count, bookmark structure and every internal reference must match. If any check fails, you get your original file back unchanged. We would rather leave metadata in than hand you a broken PDF.

Often Smaller Too

Design software private data blocks can take up a surprising share of a PDF. Removing them typically shrinks the file - in our testing on a real academic paper, by 31 percent - without touching a single visible element.

Batch Processing

Clean up to 20 PDFs at once and download them as a single ZIP. Each file is processed independently, so one encrypted or damaged document never stops the rest.

How to Remove Metadata from a PDF

Add Your PDFs

Drag and drop your files onto the page, or click to select them. Up to 20 files, 50MB each. Nothing is uploaded - files are read directly from your device and processed in memory.

Review What Was Found

Each PDF is scanned and the findings are grouped: document properties first, then metadata embedded inside figures, then any design-software private data blocks. The page and bookmark counts are shown so you know what will be preserved.

Clean and Download

Click clean to strip everything found. A single file downloads directly; multiple files are packaged into a ZIP. Each cleaned file is verified before it reaches you.

Verify the Result

Drop the cleaned file back in. It should report no metadata found. Open it in your usual PDF reader to confirm the pages and bookmarks are intact.

When to Remove PDF Metadata

Before Sending a Resume

PDFs exported from Word carry the author name from your Office account - which may be your full legal name, or the name of whoever's template you borrowed. The creation software and timestamps are there too, revealing when you actually wrote it.

Sharing Contracts and Proposals

A proposal built from an internal template can carry the template's original filename and your company's document management traces. Clean it before it goes to a client or counterparty.

Publishing Public Documents

Organisations publishing reports often leak the name of the individual who compiled them, along with draft timestamps. Removing metadata is standard practice before public release.

Journalism and Source Protection

A leaked document's metadata can identify the machine, the account, and the software used to produce it. Stripping it is a basic step before publishing or forwarding sensitive material.

Academic Blind Review

Papers submitted for double-blind review must not identify their authors. The PDF properties - and the metadata inside embedded figures - routinely give the game away.

Reducing File Size

Private data blocks written by design software can account for a meaningful share of a PDF. Removing them shrinks the file without changing anything visible.

Tips for Cleaning PDFs

Always Verify Afterwards

Drop the cleaned file back into the tool. It should report no metadata. This takes five seconds and confirms the job was done.

Figures Are the Weak Point

Charts and diagrams placed from design software carry their own metadata, including the artwork's original filename. This is the part most tools miss - and often the most revealing.

Check Your Office Account Name

Word and Pages stamp the author field from your account settings. If that field holds your full legal name, every PDF you export carries it. Fix it at the source as well as cleaning the output.

Keep the Original

Metadata removal is irreversible, and creation dates can be genuinely useful in your own archive. Clean copies for sending, originals for keeping.

Encrypted PDFs Must Be Decrypted First

A password-protected PDF cannot be modified without the password. Remove the protection first, then clean, then re-protect if needed.

Redaction Is Not Deletion

Drawing a black box over text in most PDF editors does not remove the text - it only covers it, and the words remain selectable underneath. Metadata removal does not fix that. Use a proper redaction tool for that job.

Why Use This PDF Metadata Remover

Deeper Than the Properties Panel

Clearing the document properties is the easy part and where most tools stop. Metadata also sits inside embedded figures and in private data blocks written by design software. We walk the whole document structure and clean those too.

Genuinely Private

Every competing tool we checked processes PDFs on their servers, which means uploading your contract or resume to a stranger's machine to protect its privacy. This one never sends your file anywhere.

Safe by Construction

Bookmark titles, form field labels and annotation captions all use the same PDF key as document titles. A naive tool that deletes every title key will quietly destroy your document navigation. We identify metadata dictionaries by their signature, so document structure is never touched.

Free with No Limits

No account, no watermark, no daily cap, no premium tier. Everything runs in your browser, so there are no server costs to recover - which is why this can stay free permanently.

Honest About the Limits

If part of the metadata cannot be removed without altering your figures, we tell you so instead of quietly claiming a perfect result. See the FAQ for exactly where the boundary lies.

Works Offline

Once the page has loaded, the tool keeps working with no internet connection. Useful for handling sensitive documents on an air-gapped machine.

PDF Metadata FAQ

At minimum: title, author, subject, keywords, the software that created it, the software that produced the PDF, and creation and modification timestamps. Beyond that, figures placed from design software carry their own copy of all of this - frequently including the original filename of the artwork - and some tools write private data blocks holding editable versions of the graphics.

We remove the document properties, the XMP metadata stream, metadata dictionaries embedded anywhere in the document, design-software private data blocks, and annotation author names. What we cannot remove is text written inside the compressed image data of a figure itself - some design software stamps its name there. Removing it would require re-encoding the graphic, which would change how your figure looks. When we detect this, we tell you rather than pretend the file is perfectly clean. If a document is extremely sensitive, re-export the figures as flat images before placing them.

It should not, and we check. After cleaning, the file is re-parsed and three things are verified: the page count, the number of bookmarks, and that no internal reference points at a deleted object. If any check fails, you receive your original file back untouched. We would rather leave metadata in place than hand you a broken document.

No. Everything runs in your browser using JavaScript. Files are read from your device, processed in memory, and downloaded back to you. Nothing is transmitted, stored or logged. You can disconnect from the internet after the page loads and the tool will still work.

Design software often embeds private data blocks that hold an editable version of each graphic. These can be a substantial share of the file. Removing them shrinks the PDF without changing anything you can see - in our testing on a real academic paper, the file dropped by about 31 percent.

Figures that relied on embedded private data will no longer round-trip back into the design software for lossless editing. The PDF displays and prints exactly as before. If you need to keep editing the artwork, work from your original design files rather than from the PDF.

No. An encrypted PDF cannot be modified without the password, and this tool will tell you the file is encrypted rather than failing silently. Remove the protection first, clean the file, then re-apply protection if you need it.

No, and this is an important distinction. If someone drew a black rectangle over text in a PDF editor, the text is usually still there underneath and still selectable. That is a redaction problem, not a metadata problem, and it needs a dedicated redaction tool. This tool cleans metadata only.

Yes. This matters more than it sounds: bookmark titles, form field labels and annotation captions use the same underlying PDF key as the document title. A tool that deletes every title key will silently wipe out your navigation. We identify metadata dictionaries by their signature - a dictionary is only treated as metadata if it carries several metadata fields together - so document structure is left alone, and the bookmark count is verified afterwards.

Drop the cleaned file back into this tool - it should report nothing found. For independent confirmation, run exiftool on the file from a terminal, or open the document properties panel in your PDF reader.

You can process up to 20 files at a time, each up to 50MB. These limits exist only to keep your browser responsive, not to push you towards a paid plan - there is no paid plan.

No. Pages, text, images and layout are untouched. Only metadata and software private data are removed, and the page and bookmark counts are verified to be identical afterwards.

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