How to redact a PDF on Android (in Chrome, no app)

The short answer

Open Redact PDF in Chrome, choose the PDF from your phone's storage, review what was found, add boxes for anything missed, and download the new file. Nothing is installed and nothing is uploaded; the work happens in the browser tab on your phone.

Step by step on Android

1. In Chrome, go to Redact PDF and tap to choose a file. The file picker lets you browse Downloads, Drive or other storage on your phone.
2. Enter the password if the PDF is protected, for example a bank statement or an e-Aadhaar.
3. Check the highlights. Emails, phone numbers, card and bank account numbers, IFSC codes, UPI IDs, PAN and Aadhaar numbers are picked up automatically.
4. Draw a box over anything else, such as a photo, a signature or a QR code that wasn't detected.
5. Use Solid boxes for numbers. Blur is better suited to photos.
6. Export. The redacted PDF usually goes to your Downloads folder, ready to attach in email or chat.

Why not just draw on the PDF?

Many phone PDF viewers let you draw, highlight or add shapes. Those marks are usually saved as annotations on top of the page, and the original text stays in the file. Anyone who opens it on a computer may be able to move the shape away or copy the text out.

A screenshot of the page avoids that, but it's an image with no way to check what you missed, and long documents mean many screenshots. Rebuilding each page from pixels, as Blur Document does on export, gets the same safety for every page in one file, and the result is read again with OCR before you download it.

Sending a statement or ID over chat? Read how to send documents securely for what to do after you've sent it.

Tips for a small screen

• Zoom in before drawing boxes on small print, then zoom back out to check the whole page.
• Hold the phone sideways for a wider page.
• Close other tabs if a large PDF loads slowly. The limit is 50 pages and 25 MB per file.
• Need to redact several files? See how to redact multiple PDFs at once.