PDF Metadata Remover —Strip Author & Title Data Free

A PDF file is two things at once: the pages you see, and a small Document Information dictionary saved alongside them. This tool reads that dictionary, shows it to you, and then writes a copy with none of it. Here is what it looks for.

• Title and Subject — the document name and description set when the file was created, often different from the visible filename.
• Author — the name typed into the word processor or PDF tool, which can be a real person's name even on an anonymous document.
• Keywords — free-text tags, sometimes carrying internal project names or client references.
• Creator & Producer — the application that made the file (e.g. Microsoft Word) and the engine that converted it to PDF.
• Creation & modification dates — exact timestamps for when the file was made and last saved.
• XMP metadata packet — a second, XML-based copy of similar fields that some tools (notably Adobe products) write into the file independently of the basic Document Info dictionary.

Author names are the field worth pausing on. A PDF exported "anonymously" from a word processor usually still carries the name on the computer's user account. Attach that file to a job application, a tender or a public filing, and the name travels with it — removing PDF metadata before you share is what keeps that out of documents you intended to be anonymous or simply tidy.

The whole process runs on your own device. Nothing is sent anywhere, so there is no upload wait and no queue.

1. Add your PDF. Drag a file onto the upload box above, or press Choose File to pick one from your device. You can also paste a PDF URL, or load a sample document to see the tool work. Files up to 20 MB are accepted.
2. Review what was found. The scanner immediately lists the Document Info fields embedded in your file — Title, Author, Creator, Producer, dates and whether an XMP packet is present. Choose View Full Details for the complete field-by-field report, so you can see precisely what you were about to share.
3. Download the clean file. Press Download Clean File. Your browser rewrites the PDF with those fields cleared and the XMP entry disconnected, saved as yourfile-clean.pdf. Your original stays untouched on your device.

The page content — text, images and layout — is written back exactly as it was. Only the hidden document-information fields change.

Most "online" PDF tools upload your document to a server, process it there, and send it back. That means handing the very file you are trying to protect to someone else's computer. This tool takes the opposite approach: your browser does all the work.

The File API reads the PDF straight from your disk, and the open-source pdf-lib library edits the Document Information dictionary entirely in memory before writing the clean copy. No request carrying your document ever leaves your device — which has four practical consequences:

• Nothing to intercept, because there is no upload in transit.
• Nothing to breach, because we hold no library of user documents.
• Nothing to take on trust, because we cannot delete what we never received.
• Nothing to wait for, because cleaning happens at local speed.

Closing or refreshing the tab discards everything. There is no account, no email field and no watermark, and advertising rather than subscriptions pays for the hosting. Our privacy policy sets out exactly what the website itself records, and the disclaimer covers the format limits honestly.

Standard and scanned PDFs

Any regular PDF — whether it was exported from a word processor, printed to PDF, or built from scanned pages — works the same way, because only the document metadata is touched, never the page content.

Password-protected PDFs

Not supported yet. A PDF that is encrypted or requires a password to open cannot be read by a browser-based tool without that password, so remove the password first in whichever application set it.

File size

Files up to 20 MB are accepted. Because the work happens on your own device, the real ceiling is your available memory rather than a server quota, so a very large PDF may take a moment longer on an older device.

What does not change. Rewriting the Document Information dictionary does not touch the pages themselves — text stays selectable, images stay intact and the layout is identical. The file size can shift slightly, since the PDF's internal structure is re-saved during cleaning.

• Job seekers. A CV or cover letter exported to PDF can carry a previous employer's name in the Author or Creator field.
• Freelancers and agencies. Share a proposal or contract template without exposing the original author or the software license it was built with.
• Legal and HR teams. Documents that are meant to be anonymised for a filing or a process should not quietly carry a real name in their metadata.
• Students and researchers. Submitting a paper or dissertation PDF without an earlier draft's author name or editing timestamps attached.
• Anyone redistributing a document. Forwarding a PDF someone else sent you is also forwarding whatever Author and Creator fields they left in it.

For the wider picture — document, web and communication metadata, what the law says, and a test showing which fields actually survive processing — see our guide to metadata privacy and how to protect yourself.