What we found
Remove metadata from a PDF
A PDF can carry the author's name, the app and company it came from, comments, attached files and earlier versions of itself. See what's in yours, then download a clean copy.
Read and cleaned in your browser. Your PDF is never uploaded.- Add a Word, Excel, PowerPoint or PDF fileAn example is already loaded below
- See who made it and what's hidden
- Download a clean copy
Check a document
Word, Excel, PowerPoint or PDFor drop it here
How it works
Short answer
To remove metadata from a PDF, drop it above to see the author, title, creating app, comments, attachments and earlier saved versions, then click Clean this file. The cleaner rewrites the PDF with only the current pages, so the visible content stays the same while hidden properties and old versions are gone. Checking is free; cleaning your own PDFs is part of Pro, and you can try it on the example first.
What the PDF metadata remover removes
| Removed | Kept |
|---|---|
| Author, title, subject, keywords and creating app | Every page, exactly as it looks |
| XMP metadata, including inside embedded photos | Links and form fields |
| Comments, highlights and other markup | Content Credentials and AI labels |
| Attached files and document scripts | Unapplied redaction marks, with a warning |
| Earlier saved versions inside the file |
Why do earlier versions stay inside a PDF?
Many editors save changes by adding them to the end of the file instead of rewriting it. The old text, images and properties stay inside, readable by anyone with the right tool. The cleaner rewrites the PDF from the current version only, so everything from earlier saves is gone. The Word and PDF viewer shows how many saved versions a file contains before you clean it.
When should you remove PDF metadata?
Before sending a PDF outside your organisation: proposals, reports, CVs, contracts and anything exported from Word. Author names and company details travel with the file, and comments from colleagues are easy to forget. For Word files, clean them first with the same cleaner, or follow our guide to removing metadata from Word. To clean many PDFs at once, use the batch cleaner.
Questions
What metadata does a PDF contain?
Document properties such as author, title, subject, keywords and the app that created it, plus creation and edit dates. PDFs can also hold XMP metadata, comments and markup, attached files, scripts and earlier saved versions of the document.
Does removing PDF metadata change how it looks?
No. The pages, text, images and links stay exactly as they were. Comments and markup are removed, and form fields and links are kept. Open the cleaned copy to check before you send it.
Does it apply redactions?
No. If a PDF has redaction marks that were never applied, the text under them is still in the file. The cleaner warns you and keeps them, so you can apply them in your PDF editor first.
What about signed PDFs?
Cleaning changes the file, so a digital signature stops being valid. The cleaner warns you when a PDF was signed. Clean the document before it's signed, not after.
Can I remove PDF metadata without a tool?
Partly. Acrobat Pro can remove document properties and hidden information, and many PDF editors let you change the title and author. Our PDF metadata guide covers the free options and what each one misses.