Password-protect a PDF in your browser

Email is not a vault. Putting a password on a PDF adds a basic gate for tax returns, offer letters, and ID scans before they sit in someone else’s inbox. You can encrypt locally so the unprotected original never touches a random “protect PDF” website.

What password protection does (and does not) do

• Requires a password to open the encrypted file in standard readers
• Helps against casual forwarding and shoulder-surfing on shared folders
• Is not a substitute for full-disk encryption or enterprise DLP
• Weak passwords are guessable — use a long passphrase you can share out-of-band

1. Open Encrypt PDF and add your file.
2. Set a strong password and confirm it.
3. Download the protected PDF and store the password in a manager or tell the recipient through another channel.

Opening a file you locked

If you own the password and need a clean copy again, Remove Password unlocks it on-device. There is no backdoor: forgotten passwords cannot be recovered by StackPDF, which is the point of real encryption.

Pair encryption with redaction

Passwords stop casual opens; they do not remove secrets from a file you later unlock and forward. For permanent removal of account numbers or faces, use Redact PDF, then encrypt the shareable export.