Password-Protect a PDF (and Unlock One) in Your Browser (Free)
A statement with your account number deserves a lock before it travels through email and chat apps. Equally often, you inherit a locked file from your own scanner and need the lock off.
Both directions are pure local operations: apply encryption, or decrypt a file whose password you know, without a single upload.
Two kinds of locks
An open password gates viewing itself: no password, no pages. A permissions password (owner password) allows viewing but restricts printing, copying or changes. Choose by threat: public channels want an open password.
Remember which you set: the tool cannot recover a forgotten open password, and neither can anyone else, which is the point.
Step by step: protect
- Add the PDF and type the password (and optionally a separate owner password).
Save; the encrypted PDF downloads from your browser.
Reopen the result once and confirm the prompt appears.
Share the password through a different channel than the file.
Step by step: unlock
- Open the unlock tool and add the protected file.
Enter the password you own the rights to.
Save the decrypted copy for your own workflow.
Keep the protected original as the version you share.
Habits that keep locks useful
- Password via a different channel than the file, always.
Stronger is longer: four words beat eight random characters for humans.
Do not encrypt then forget: there is no recovery by design.
Permissions-only encryption still opens everywhere with no prompt, so do not mistake it for privacy.
Try it free: Protect PDF | runs entirely in your browser, no uploads and no signup.