Encrypt your PDF with a password to keep sensitive data confidential.
or drop PDF here
PDF password protection encrypts a document so that it can only be opened by someone who knows the password. The encryption is applied to the file itself, so even if the PDF is copied, emailed, or shared, anyone without the password sees nothing but an unreadable, locked file.
This is the standard way to keep sensitive PDFs — contracts, financial statements, medical records, personal documents — confidential when they need to be stored or transmitted through channels that aren't fully trusted, such as email or shared drives.
This is a tool for adding password encryption to a PDF document. Upload a PDF, choose a password and confirm it, and the tool encrypts the file so it can only be opened with that password going forward.
The tool first checks that your uploaded file isn't already encrypted, then sends it to a secure backend service to apply industry-standard PDF encryption with your chosen password, and returns the protected file for download.
Click "Select PDF file" or drag and drop the document you want to protect. The tool checks that it isn't already encrypted.
Enter a password of at least 4 characters in the "Type password" field.
Re-enter the same password in "Repeat password" to make sure it matches exactly.
Click "Protect PDF." The document is encrypted with your chosen password.
Download the protected file, and make sure to remember or securely store the password — without it, the document can't be opened, including by you.
If the "Type password" and "Repeat password" fields differ, protection is blocked with an error — carefully re-type both fields if this happens.
A minimum of 4 characters is required; for real security, use a longer, harder-to-guess password than the bare minimum, especially for sensitive documents.
The tool detects and rejects PDFs that already have a password, since they'd need to be unlocked first. Use the Unlock PDF tool to remove the existing password, then protect it with a new one here.
There is no password recovery — if you forget the password you set, the document cannot be opened again. Store it in a password manager or somewhere safe immediately after protecting the file.
Since encryption is performed by a backend service, a network interruption or server issue can cause protection to fail; if this happens, simply try again.
A typical workflow adding password protection before sharing a sensitive document.
Input
signed-contract.pdf, password set and confirmed
Output
signed-contract_protected.pdf — requires the password to open in any PDF viewer
The PDF is sent to a secure backend service to apply industry-standard encryption with your chosen password, then the protected file is returned to you for download.
The document cannot be recovered or opened without the correct password — there is no backdoor or reset option, so store your password somewhere safe as soon as you set it.
Not directly — this tool detects existing encryption and asks you to unlock the file first. Use the Unlock PDF tool to remove the existing password, then protect it with a new one.
Yes, passwords must be at least 4 characters. For meaningful security on sensitive documents, use a longer password that mixes letters, numbers, and symbols.
No, encryption only restricts who can open the file — the pages, text, and formatting of the document itself remain unchanged.
No. A correctly encrypted PDF requires the password to open, and there's no legitimate way to bypass that without knowing it — this is the entire point of password protection.