Free PDF Protect & Unlock Tool Online
A free online tool for adding or removing password protection on PDF files — fully processed in your browser. Upload a password-protected PDF and enter the password to unlock it, or add a password to protect any PDF from unauthorized access. Your files never leave your device; all processing happens locally using WebAssembly, so nothing is uploaded to any server.

Add or Remove Password Protection on PDF Files
How to Protect or Unlock a PDF in 3 Steps
1. Choose Unlock or Protect
Select whether you want to remove password protection from an existing PDF or add a new password to protect one.
2. Upload Your PDF & Enter Password
Drop your PDF file into the tool. To unlock, enter the existing password. To protect, set a new password for your document.
3. Download Your PDF
Click unlock or protect and download your updated PDF file instantly.
Why Use Our Free PDF Protect & Unlock Tool?
The easiest way to add or remove password protection on PDF files online.
Lightning Fast
Unlock or protect your PDF in seconds. No waiting, no processing delays.
100% Free
No hidden fees, no subscription required. Protect or unlock as many PDFs as you need, completely free.
True Privacy — Nothing Leaves Your Browser
Unlike most online tools, your PDF is never uploaded to any server. All processing happens locally in your browser using WebAssembly, so your sensitive documents stay entirely on your device.
Unlock Password-Protected PDFs
Remove password protection from any PDF when you have the correct password. Download an unlocked version you can open, edit, and share freely.
Add Password Protection to Any PDF
Secure any PDF by adding password protection. Prevent unauthorized access to sensitive documents like contracts, reports, or personal files.
Works on Any Device
Fully browser-based, works on desktop, tablet, and mobile.
Build Document Automation That Scales With APITemplate
APITemplate is an API-first platform that generates professional PDFs and images at scale from reusable templates, raw HTML, or URLs. Integrate via REST API, SDKs, or no-code tools like Zapier, Make, and n8n.
Create Document Templates with Visual Editor
Create stunning PDFs using our WYSIWYG Template Editor. With its user-friendly interface, you can design templates visually — no coding required.
Combine your designs with JSON data to generate dynamic, fully-customized PDFs tailored to your needs. Perfect for invoices, reports, certificates, and more.

Convert HTML to PDF
Convert HTML to PDF using APITemplate.io’s powerful HTML Template Editor. Combine your HTML, CSS, and JavaScript skills with dynamic JSON data to create custom templates that deliver pixel-perfect PDFs.
Our PDF generation solution supports modern web technologies, enabling seamless integration for your automated workflows, reports, and more.

Customer Reviews
Trusted by businesses worldwide to generate millions of PDFs and images reliably.
See what our customers have to say
Jamie DearFounderWe are very grateful to Jacky and the team at APITemplate - their software has helped us to auto-generate high quality images for our student reports. It has been the perfect fit for us as we grow our Oxford summer school.
Alex DowdingVice SecretaryThe Wheelchair Football Association
We've successfully automated YouTube thumbnails and match event creation for our Powerchair Football league using your templates. It integrates with our Postgres database on retool.com, is expanding to include league table graphics and match results. Thanks to an AWS Inclusion and Diversity grant, we're enhancing our live-streaming workflow, further boosted by your product's automation capabilities. We're grateful for your excellent service and wanted to share our positive experience.
Nishitha DhanekulaCofounder /CTOAt askreferral.io, We are building referral networking platform for people to pitch and generate leads for different kinds of referrals, including, but not limited to job referrals, product referrals, funding referrals, realtor referrals etc. Having a vibrant social media community is crucial for our growth and APITemplate.io played crucial role in automating generation of digital posters for job postings, profile pitches, funding requests etc, to help us grow from 0 to 200K+ followers in LinkedIn in less than one year.
Danaé NicolasCTOWe've been using APITemplate.io to generate social images for our karting races and it's been a huge time-saver. The support team is super responsive and helpful - they quickly resolved an issue we encountered. We highly recommend this tool to anyone who needs a similar solution.
Ryan TurnbullIT ManagerAPITemplate.io is such an easy application to use. Simple, intuititive, and code free. At simplehuman, we render all our commercial invoices, dispatch notes, and multiple other templates. The ability to create multiple layouts, and group them into a logical container - makes our lives much simpler. This is a great tool to use, both affordable, and the support service turnaround time is second to none! Defintely worth the subscription!
Ron P.Product ManagerHad an issue with template implementation via Make and reached out for support. Within minutes, I got a response and was soon on a Zoom call resolving it. Despite the issue not being directly related to APITemplate.io, their team efficiently guided me to the right formatting. Many thanks!
Nicholas GertzProduct OwnerWe have been using the service daily in our application for a year and are very satisfied with the reliability. It meets all our requirements and requests for changes/improvements can be discussed directly with Jacky 1:1. Thanks and greetings from Germany
Lucas FridmanChief Product OfficerWe use APITemplate to generate key documentation we need to work with our industry partners. We are building a digital solution in an antiquated industry, which means we need to communicate data to our partners in the format that they are accustomed to (pdf forms). APITempate makes it easy for us to do this!
Jean-Paul HornPublisherWe love APITemplate.io for its simplicity and ease of use. Just setup once and "forget" about it due to its fabulous 3rd party integration. New features are regularly added, and reasonable custom requests are honoured within days.
Kevin FrickēAPITemplate.io is one of the best services I have worked with in a very, very long time. They are super responsive and a joy to work with. If you are struggling with PDF's, like I was, check 'em out!
Jacob MonashAutomation SpecialistWe run conferences with a number of speakers, each requiring an individual speaker profile. We used to create all of these profiles manually, but by incorporating APItemplate into our Zapier workflow, our team can generate a complete image with all of the speakers information in one click. Using the template editor is a bit of a learning curve, but the support team is very responsive and helpful.
George CooperAPITemplate.io is great. I love being able to quickly use HTML and CSS templates with dynamic variables to create documents. Support is also fast and responsive. Great vendor!
Frequently asked questions
What does this PDF protect and unlock tool do?
This tool lets you add password protection to any PDF or remove existing password protection from a PDF, all directly in your browser. It handles both directions: locking a PDF with a new password and unlocking a password-protected PDF.
Do I need to know the password to unlock a PDF?
Yes. This tool removes password protection when you provide the correct existing password. It does not bypass, crack, or recover forgotten passwords. If you’ve forgotten the password, you’ll need to recover it through the original source that created the PDF.
Is my PDF uploaded to a server?
No. This is the key difference from most online PDF tools. Your file never leaves your browser. All processing happens locally on your device using WebAssembly, which means your sensitive documents are never uploaded, stored, or transmitted anywhere.
Can I protect a PDF with a password using this tool?
Yes. Switch to the Protect PDF tab, upload your PDF, set a password, and download a password-protected version. Anyone who tries to open the PDF will need to enter the password you set.
Will unlocking a PDF affect its content or formatting?
No. Unlocking only removes the password requirement. The document’s content, formatting, layout, fonts, and images remain completely unchanged.
Can I merge or split my PDF before protecting it?
What PDF readers support the protected files?
Password-protected PDFs created by this tool are compatible with all major PDF readers and applications, including Adobe Acrobat Reader, Preview on macOS, browsers like Chrome, Firefox, and Edge, and mobile PDF readers on iOS and Android. Any standard PDF reader that supports password-protected files will open them without issues.
Can I compress my PDF after protecting it?
Yes. If your protected PDF is too large to share, use our free Compress PDF tool to reduce the file size. Just note that you’ll need to compress first and then protect, since the compress tool needs to access the PDF content.
What is APITemplate.io?
APITemplate.io is designed for generating PDF documents from reusable templates. It can be easily integrated with popular tools like Zapier, Airtable, Make.com, Bubble.io, n8n, UiPath, or directly via REST API, making it highly adaptable to various workflows.
There are three main ways to generate PDF documents using APITemplate.io:
- Template-based PDF generation: Create PDFs from predefined templates.
- HTML to PDF generation: Convert HTML content directly into PDF format.
- URL to PDF generation: Convert entire web pages to PDFs by simply providing their URLs.
The platform also supports custom CSS and JavaScript, allowing for advanced styling and customization. Its powerful template engine ensures that you can create complex documents efficiently, while the API Console enables you to preview and customize JSON data instantly.
In addition, APITemplate.io offers support for adding custom headers and footers, including page numbers and total page counts, making it an excellent choice for creating polished, professional PDF documents.
Related Free PDF Tools
Whatever comes next, compressing, merging, splitting, or converting APITempate has a free tool ready for it. Explore all free PDF tools and keep the work moving.
Still Managing PDFs Manually? It’s Time to Automate.
Use APITemplate to automate bulk invoices, reports, and certificates from reusable templates, raw HTML, or URLs. Integrate with Zapier, Make.com, n8n, or REST API.







