Here's how to password protect a PDF: drop it in, pick a password, and download a copy that nobody opens without it.
Encrypted with AES-256 — the same standard banks use.
By ShinobiTools Team · Last updated: August 2026
Your file is deleted the moment it's done. The big PDF sites keep your bank statements and IDs on their servers. Here the original goes right after processing, the result after 45 minutes.
The file is encrypted with AES-256, not just flagged as read-only. Without the password there is nothing to read: not by us, not by a PDF reader, not by someone who copies the file off a shared drive. Printing, copying text and adding notes stay allowed once it is open, so the document still behaves like a normal PDF for whoever has the password.
We do not keep your password. That is the honest and the annoying part in one: lose it and the file is gone for good, because there is no copy anywhere to look it up in. Write it down somewhere before you send the file on.
A password only gates the content — the file's metadata (author name, software, edit history) is still readable by anyone who opens it. Want that gone too? Remove PDF metadata strips it first.
A password is the only protection this tool sets, and it is the real kind of PDF protection: a protected PDF stays locked until someone types the password. For a file you share privately that is also the simplest PDF copyright protection there is, though anyone you give the password to can read and copy the contents.
Some free readers ignore permission flags, which is why this page encrypts the whole file instead. How to add a password to a PDF document is exactly what this page does. What it does not do is protect a PDF from editing while leaving it freely readable, with no open password and only a block on changes; that permissions-only kind of protection is not something this page sets.
Need to go the other way on a file you protected yourself and remember the password? Unlock PDF removes it again. Neither page cracks a password you don't know, and that's not a feature we'll build.
A payslip or a bank statement you have to email. A contract that goes through three inboxes before it is signed. A scan of your passport for a landlord. In all three the file leaves your hands, and a password is the difference between one person reading it and anyone who ends up with a copy. The file may sit forwarded in several inboxes before anyone opens it, and so a password protects it at every one of those stops, not just the first. Need that signature added first? Sign PDF lets you draw, upload or type one before you lock the file.
Already have a locked PDF and you want it open again? That is the other side of this tool: remove a PDF password, if you know the password.
Locking a form you've already filled in? Flatten it first, so the answers are baked into the page instead of just sitting behind a password on editable fields. Haven't filled it in yet? Fill PDF Form handles the text boxes, checkboxes and dropdowns before you lock the file.
A password protects the whole file from people who never get a copy — but whoever you do send it to sees everything inside once they type it in. Need one part gone for good instead of the whole document locked? Redact PDF cuts that part out permanently, independent of any password.
Locking takes three steps: drop the file, type a password, download the locked copy. The encryption runs on our own server, so you lock the PDF online without leaving the browser tab. You can password protect PDF doc files, scans and exports the same way, and a whole folder of files goes through the same way, one at a time. How to protect PDF document with password protection, in short, is those three steps.
There is no account, no watermark and no daily cap. Everything runs on our own servers; the ads on the page keep them online. Your original upload is deleted the moment processing finishes, the cleaned result stays available for up to 45 minutes so you can download it and is then deleted automatically, and nothing is ever sold, shared or used to train AI.
Already password-protected and still too large to email? Compress PDF shrinks it without touching the password.
Drop the PDF on this page, type a password of at least four characters and press Lock the PDF. You get a copy back that asks for that password before it opens. That is how to put a password on a PDF, and how to add password to PDF files in general: one upload, one password, one download.
Lock it here first and send the locked copy. If you are wondering how to protect a PDF document with password protection that really holds, this is it: the whole file is encrypted, so anyone who only gets the attachment sees nothing. Send the password by a different route than the file, for example by text message, so one intercepted email isn't enough.
AES-256, the strongest the PDF standard supports. It is real encryption, not a permission flag, so every encrypted PDF from this page asks for the password in Acrobat, Preview, Chrome and every other reader. To encrypt PDF file contents this way you need no software, because the encryption runs on our server; that is also how to encrypt a PDF on a phone. The whole file is encrypted, not just the first page.
Yes, whatever made it: Word, a scanner app, an invoicing tool or a bank portal. How to protect a PDF file with password protection doesn't depend on the source, and neither does how to protect the PDF file with password protection on a document someone sent you. If that file is already locked, type its current password too and you get it back with your new one. On a phone, how to protect PDF file with password protection is the same three taps as on a computer.
No. It is used to encrypt the file and then thrown away with the rest of the job. That also means we cannot help you if you forget the PDF file password: there is no copy to look it up in.
Yes, once it is open. Copying text, adding notes and printing stay allowed, although some readers print a locked file at reduced quality. A password is meant to keep strangers out, not to make the file awkward for you.
It stops everyone who doesn't have the password, because they can't open the file at all. Once someone types the password, the PDF behaves like a normal one. A file that anyone can read but nobody can change needs a different, permissions-only kind of lock, and that is not offered here.
25 pages and 250 MB per document on the free side. A €5 ShinobiTools pass raises that to 100 pages and 500 MB and works on our other tools too. There is no daily cap on how many files you lock, one file per job.
Yes. It is a free password protect PDF tool with no watermark, no account, no card and no trial, and the AES-256 encryption is the same on the free tier as with a pass. You can password protect PDF free of charge as often as you like. Some PDF password protect apps only set a permission flag or put the lock behind a subscription; here the free PDF you get back is genuinely encrypted.
The same way everywhere: drop the file above, type a password and download. How do you password protect PDF files without installing an app? This page runs in Safari, Chrome or any other browser, on Windows, a Mac, an iPad, a phone or a Chromebook, and the locked copy is ready to attach to an email.
Lock it here, then give that person the password separately. That is how to lock a PDF for a landlord, an accountant or HR: whoever only ends up with the file can't open it. To lock PDF files in bulk, run them through one at a time; there is no batch mode.
Make a PDF first. This page only locks PDF files, so how to password protect a PDF file made in Word is: export it to PDF, then lock the result. A scanned PDF uploads like any other file, and if you still need to know how to make a PDF from photos, the scanner on our home page does that. To protect PDF document files such as payslips or contracts, lock them here; a password protected document made this way opens in any reader once the password is typed. To password protect file types like .docx directly, you would use Word's own Protect Document option instead.
When a PDF is password protected without your doing, whoever sent it may have locked it before sharing, or it came from a system, such as a bank or an HR portal, that encrypts documents by default. Either way you need that password to open it. This page only adds a password; it cannot tell you one you have forgotten.
Yes, if you know it. That is the reverse job, and Unlock PDF on this same site does it. If you were looking for a PDF remove password tool for a file whose password you don't know, neither page cracks passwords.
Yes. Sign it first, then lock the signed copy with a password.
Your upload is deleted the moment the locked copy is written; that copy is deleted automatically 45 minutes later, or immediately if you ask.
ShinobiTools · KvK 42147182 · info@shinobitools.com