PDF Metadata Remover Online: Remove PDF Metadata Free, No Upload

How to remove metadata from a PDF online in four steps

1

Add your PDF

Drag and drop the file onto the box at the top of the page, or click the box and select the file from a folder. Scanned PDFs work too, as long as the file fits the size limit.

2

Let it read and clean the file

The status line shows Removing metadata... in the same tab. On a big file, Reading your PDF... comes first. There are no options to set; it automatically removes every property it supports.

3

Compare Before and After

Check the Field, Before and After table. Before shows what your file was carrying; After should read Cleared, (empty) or None on every row.

4

Download the clean PDF

Click Download clean PDF. The copy gets the old name plus -clean, for example quarterly-report-clean.pdf. The original on your disk is not changed. Start over clears the page for the next file.

What is PDF metadata, and which part this tool removes

PDF metadata, also called document metadata, is information a file keeps about itself, apart from the pages. It tells who made the document, in which app and when. It sits mainly in two places, the Info dictionary and the document's XMP packet. The online remover clears both.

Removed3
Left as is3

Document properties

Title, Author, Subject, Keywords, Creator (the authoring app), Producer (the PDF engine), Creation date and Modification date.

Custom and extra keys

Keys outside those eight, such as Trapped or a Company field from an office suite, go as well.

The XMP packet

XMP is an XML record that repeats much of the same information. Its object is deleted outright, not only unlinked.

Page content

Text on the pages, visible or hidden, stays as it was. Images and layers too, and the page count does not change.

Attachments and comments

Attached files and comments with their authors are not touched. Form fields and bookmarks keep working, JavaScript stays in place.

Object-level data

XMP that belongs to a single page or image stays, as do PieceInfo and the document ID. Objects left from earlier saves are not searched for or removed either.

Can it remove EXIF data from a PDF?

EXIF is the record a camera writes into a photo, often with the GPS coordinates of where it was taken. For a photo file, use the tool to remove metadata from a photo. A PDF itself has no EXIF. This page clears the PDF properties covered in the tabs above.

A photo placed into a PDF can still carry its own EXIF block inside the image data. The online tool copies images byte for byte, so that EXIF stays where it is. To strip it from pictures inside PDFs, use the desktop PDF Metadata Remover with the EXIF and GPS in images option. It cuts those blocks out without re-encoding the picture.

Clearing Document Properties by hand vs a tool to strip metadata from a PDF

Every PDF reader has a Properties dialog. It works for the one field you can see; the rest is harder to reach.

The built-in way

Empty each box by hand

Clear the name box, and a second record out of sight can still carry it.
Free readers usually show these boxes read-only.
The editor that saves your edit stamps a fresh time and its own name on the way out.

VS

PDF Metadata Remover Online

Write the file again without them

One pass rebuilds the document with both records gone. No editor touches the result afterwards to restamp it, and Acrobat is not needed at any step.

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How the online remover handles your file

Stays in this tab

PDF Metadata Remover Online reads the PDF into the browser's memory and hands it to a Web Worker running the open-source pdf-lib library. The clean copy comes back as a local download link. You never upload the PDF, so no part of the file goes to our server. The page does not freeze while a big scan is processed.

A row for every field

Nine rows cover the standard entries plus XMP. Anything non-standard is counted in one line under the table, for example Other properties: 2 removed.

Stops on locked files

Password-protected PDFs, including ones that only lock printing or copying, are rejected with a clear message, so you never download a broken copy. If a file carries a digital signature, a warning appears above the table: cleaning rewrites the file, and the signature will not validate afterwards.

Deleted, not blanked

When you delete PDF metadata here, entries are completely removed from the file instead of turning into empty strings. The result line adds it all up, so a PDF with 8 standard entries, 2 others and an XMP block reports 11 metadata items removed.

Online tool or desktop app?

The browser version cleans one PDF at a time, at document level. The Windows app takes whole folders and reads every object inside each file.

What you need	Online toolFree, at the top of this page	Desktop appPDF Metadata Remover for Windows
Document properties and custom keys	✓	✓
XMP metadata	Document packet	Every object in the file
Files per run	One PDF	Folders with subfolders
File size	Up to 30 MB	No 30 MB browser cap
EXIF and GPS in embedded photos	✗	✓
Password-protected PDFs	✗	✓
Comment authors and attachments	✗	✓
Your own values instead of blanks	✗	✓
The Download button installs the desktop app trial, not the online tool, which is already at the top of this page. The trial scans your PDFs and saves one cleaned file free, the rest needs a license.	Download	Buy now From $ 29.99

Buy now

From $ 29.99

Download

The Download button installs the desktop app trial, not the online tool, which is already at the top of this page. The trial scans your PDFs and saves one cleaned file free, the rest needs a license.

PDF Metadata Remover

Price

from $ 29.99

Version

3.5

File Size

9 Mb

Last updated on

18/09/26

Trial version: scanning and preview are open, one cleaned PDF is saved free.

System Requirements

Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7 (32/64 bit)
Intel i3, AMD Ryzen 5 or above
4 GB of RAM or above
NVIDIA® GeForce® series 8 and 8M, Intel® HD Graphics 2000, Quadro FX 4800, Quadro FX 5600, AMD Radeon™ R600, Mobility Radeon™ HD 4330, Mobility FirePro™ series, Radeon™ R5 M230 or higher graphics card with up-to-date drivers
1280 × 768 screen resolution, 32-bit color
1 GB of free hard disk space or above

Frequently Asked Questions

Is it safe to remove metadata from a PDF online?

Short answer: yes. On this page the PDF is not sent anywhere, so the main risk of online tools does not apply. Long answer: many online services upload your file to their server and delete it after an hour or a day. You have to take their word for it. Here you can check it yourself. Press F12 and open the Network tab before you drop a PDF into the box. No request carries the content of the file.

How do I see the metadata of a PDF without a separate PDF metadata viewer?

In PDF readers, it is under File > Properties. In Adobe Acrobat and Reader, it is on the Description tab. On a Mac, Preview shows it in the Inspector, opened with the Info button in the toolbar. The table on this page also works as a quick PDF metadata viewer: the Before column lists the eight standard properties the file had and whether an XMP packet was there, and a line under the table counts other keys.

Does printing a PDF remove metadata?

Partly. Print to PDF makes a new file, and the old Author, Title and XMP are usually not carried over. The print driver then puts in its own Producer and dates. The catch is the document itself: links, bookmarks and fillable fields get flattened or lost. Removing the metadata directly leaves the document working as before.

How do I remove the author name from a PDF?

Drop the file into the box at the top. Author is cleared together with the other properties, and so is the second copy of the name that XMP keeps. The online tool only removes, it cannot put another name in. If you want your company name instead of a blank, the desktop app has a Set to option for each field.

What happens to a PDF when its metadata is deleted?

It opens and prints the same, and pages and links are not touched. What changes is the information around it. A reader shows the file name where the Title used to be, and a document system that sorts by author or creation date will see blanks. The cleaned copy often comes out a bit smaller because the file is written again more compactly (in our test, 5,150 bytes became 4,360), but do not count on it.

Can removed metadata be recovered from earlier versions of the file?

Sometimes. It depends on how the PDF was saved. Many editors append changes to the end of the file instead of rewriting it, so an older Info block can stay in the bytes behind the current one. This tool writes the file again from the current version and deletes the XMP packet outright, but it does not promise that every object left from earlier saves is gone. The desktop app drops earlier versions and, except in some encrypted files, gives the file a new document ID.

Is removing metadata the same as redaction?

No. Redaction takes content off the pages, like a name in a paragraph or a signature block. This tool leaves every page as it was, hidden text and comments included. If a confidential name sits on the page itself, redact it first, then clean the metadata.

What if my PDF is password-protected or signed?

A password-protected PDF is not processed in the browser, even one that only restricts printing or copying. If you know the password, open the file in your PDF app and save it without protection, or use the desktop version, which asks for the password and keeps the encryption. If the password is lost, PDF Password Recovery can try to get it back. A signed PDF is still cleaned, but a warning appears above the results: the signature stops validating, so keep the signed original if you need it.

Can I check that the metadata is really gone?

The After column is filled from the cleaned file. The tool opens its output again and reads what is left; it does not just repeat what it meant to delete. For a second opinion, open the -clean.pdf in your usual reader and check File > Properties. The desktop app goes further: it searches every string in the saved file for the old values.