100% Free · No Upload · On-Device Processing

PDF Metadata
Viewer & Remover

Instantly inspect every hidden field in your PDF — author, creation date, software, XMP packets & more. Then strip it all with a single click, right in your browser.

No file uploads — ever
100% private & free
XMP & Info Dict removal
Works on any device
Drop your PDF here

Drag & drop or click to select from your device

Supports PDF files · No size limit · 100% local processing


Understand

What is PDF Metadata?

Every PDF file carries invisible data you might not know exists — and it can reveal far more than you intend when shared.

Author & Identity

The name of the person or organisation that created the document — often pulled directly from your OS account name.

Creation & Modification Dates

Exact timestamps showing when the document was first created and last edited, including timezone info and revision history.

Software Fingerprint

Which application generated the PDF — Adobe Acrobat, Microsoft Word, LibreOffice, macOS Preview, or others — exposing your tech stack.

XMP Metadata Packets

Advanced XML-based embedded data that can hold company names, document IDs, copyright claims, camera settings, and custom enterprise fields.

Keywords & Subject

Tags and category descriptors embedded by document management systems that can expose internal filing structures and classification schemes.

Security & Permissions

Encryption status, access restrictions, digital signature presence, AcroForm state, and PDF/X conformance markers.


Capabilities

Everything You Need to Inspect & Clean

A complete metadata toolkit packed into a single, private, browser-based tool — no installation required.

Deep Metadata Scan

Reads all standard and non-standard PDF metadata — Info Dictionary, XMP packet, document properties, permissions, and custom application fields.

Privacy Risk Scoring

Automatically evaluates your PDF's metadata exposure and assigns a High / Med / Low risk rating with detailed per-field explanations.

Selective & Complete Removal

Choose exactly which categories to strip — author, dates, title, software, XMP packets, custom fields — or wipe the entire metadata dictionary at once.

Deep Deletion Engine

Directly deletes keys from the raw PDF Info Dictionary rather than just setting empty strings — ensuring metadata is truly gone, not merely blanked.

XMP & PieceInfo Removal

Removes the full XMP XML stream and Adobe's PieceInfo private metadata block from the document catalog — fields other tools often miss.

Export Metadata Reports

Download all detected metadata as a structured JSON file or formatted plain-text report for compliance documentation and auditing.

Live Search & Filter

Instantly search and filter through hundreds of metadata fields using the real-time search bar — find any field in under a second.

100% Private — No Uploads

All processing runs entirely in your browser via JavaScript. Your PDF never touches a server. No tracking, no storage, no data collection.


Guide

How to Remove PDF Metadata

Three simple steps to inspect and permanently clean your PDF's hidden information.

1

Upload Your PDF

Drag & drop your PDF onto the upload zone above, or click "Browse PDF" to select it from your device. No size limit beyond your browser's available memory. Your file never leaves your device.

2

Inspect All Metadata

Use the tabs to explore every embedded field: the View Metadata tab shows all fields organized by category with live search; Security Analysis scores your privacy risk; and Raw JSON gives you the complete machine-readable output.

3

Remove & Download Clean PDF

Open the Remove Metadata tab, tick the categories you want erased, then click "Remove & Download Clean PDF." You receive a completely cleaned PDF instantly — straight to your downloads folder.

4

Export a Metadata Report (Optional)

Before or after removal, download the full metadata as a .json or .txt report from the View tab. Useful for compliance records, legal discovery, or digital forensics documentation.


Privacy

Why Remove PDF Metadata?

Hidden metadata can expose sensitive information about you, your organisation, and your workflow. Here's what's at stake.

Protect Your Identity

Your full name and username can be embedded in every PDF you create. Remove it before sharing externally to prevent unintended identity disclosure.

Guard Company Information

Internal software names, network paths, company details, and document management IDs can leak through PDF metadata and reveal your infrastructure.

Hide Activity Timelines

Exact creation and edit timestamps expose your working hours, timezones, and revision cadence — sensitive in negotiations and legal proceedings.

Legal & GDPR Compliance

Data protection regulations including GDPR require minimising personal data in shared documents. Metadata-clean PDFs keep you compliant.

Journalist & Source Protection

Journalists, whistleblowers, and researchers use metadata removal to prevent digital fingerprinting and protect sources from identification.

Professional Publishing

Publishers, designers, and agencies strip metadata from client deliverables to prevent proprietary workflow details from reaching competitors.


FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Everything you need to know about PDF metadata, privacy, and how this tool works.

No. Everything happens entirely in your browser using JavaScript and the Web APIs. Your PDF file never leaves your device — no data is transmitted to any server. This makes PDFMaster completely private and safe for sensitive or confidential documents.
Not at all. Metadata is stored completely separately from the PDF's actual content. Removing it only strips the hidden information fields — your text, images, fonts, formatting, links, and page layout remain 100% intact.
This tool removes all standard PDF Info Dictionary fields (Title, Author, Subject, Keywords, Creator, Producer, CreationDate, ModDate, Trapped, GTS_PDFXVersion, GTS_PDFXConformance), the full XMP metadata XML stream, Adobe's PieceInfo private metadata block, and optionally all non-standard custom fields added by applications.
Many tools simply set metadata fields to empty strings, which means the keys still exist in the file and can be detected by metadata readers. PDFMaster directly deletes the keys from the raw PDF Info Dictionary using the pdf-lib library's low-level API, and also removes the full XMP stream and PieceInfo block — ensuring metadata is completely absent, not just blanked.
XMP (Extensible Metadata Platform) is an XML-based standard embedded within PDFs that can hold rich information including company names, document IDs, revision history, copyright claims, camera settings for images, and custom enterprise data. It is often far more detailed than the basic Info Dictionary, and many tools miss it entirely. PDFMaster removes the full XMP stream from the document catalog.
There is no hard server-side limit since all processing runs locally in your browser. The practical limit depends on your device's available RAM. Most modern browsers handle PDFs up to 100 MB or larger without any issues.
For PDFs with an open (user) password, you will need to unlock them first. For PDFs with only an owner/permissions password — which restricts editing but not opening — metadata removal typically still works successfully, since those restrictions apply to content modifications, not metadata dictionary access.
Yes — completely and permanently free. No registration required, no subscription, no usage limits. PDFMaster is built to provide professional-grade PDF privacy tools to everyone, for free.

Your Privacy Comes First — Always

Unlike most online PDF tools, PDFMaster processes everything in your browser. No uploads, no cloud, no tracking. Just powerful tools that respect you.

Remove PDF Metadata Instantly (No Upload Required)

Get in Touch

Questions or Feedback?

We'd love to hear from you — bug reports, feature requests, or just a hello.