🔒 OCR + visual review + manual redaction

Find and redact sensitive data in your PDF

Automatic detection and OCR for scanned PDFs. Review detected results before permanent redaction.

✓ Automatic detection✓ Real PDF redaction✓ Scanned PDF OCR✓ Free to use✓ No account required

Review detected information

Uncheck an automatic result to keep it. Add rectangles for anything the detector missed.

Text PDF
Document preview
Black = automatic · Red = manual

One workflow for normal and scanned PDFs

Nerato first tries fast text extraction. If a page contains little or no readable text, OCR is used automatically so scanned documents can be analyzed too.

🔎 Automatic detection

Detects common personal and financial information such as names, addresses, email addresses, phones, IBANs, cards and tax identifiers, with stricter context-aware phone detection.

👁 Visual verification

Every automatic detection is highlighted directly on the PDF preview so you can see exactly what will be removed.

✍️ Manual redaction

If something is missed, activate manual mode and draw a rectangle over any area of the page before creating the final PDF.

Privacy by design

Your PDF is temporary. Your review stays yours.

Nerato keeps the uploaded PDF only in a temporary processing session while you review detected information and create the redacted document. Temporary sessions expire automatically after 15 minutes, and completing a redaction consumes the session.

No account requiredTemporary processingAutomatic session expiry
Automatic PDF redaction

Don't hunt for sensitive data manually.

Nerato searches your document for common personal and sensitive information first, then shows you what it found so you stay in control of the final redaction.

01

Find it automatically

Names, email addresses, phone numbers, IBANs, payment-card numbers and other supported sensitive fields can be detected automatically.

02

More than a black box

Nerato applies PDF redactions to selected content instead of simply placing a visual cover over it. Selected underlying text is removed from the generated PDF rather than left hidden behind an overlay.

03

Scans and rotated pages

When ordinary text extraction is not enough, Nerato can use OCR to detect information in scanned PDFs, including supported rotated page content.

Upload. Review. Redact.

You stay in control from upload to final download.

1

Upload and analyze

Nerato extracts text or uses OCR on pages that need it.

2

Review and edit

Inspect highlights, uncheck false positives and add manual redaction boxes.

3

Apply permanent redaction

Only selected automatic items and your manual rectangles are removed from the generated PDF.

Remove sensitive information from PDF files online

PDF files can contain names, addresses, email addresses, telephone numbers, bank details, tax identifiers, document numbers and other private information. Before sending a contract, invoice, application, bank document or administrative form, it can be useful to remove information that the recipient does not need.

Nerato combines automatic sensitive-data detection with visual document review. Instead of trusting a list of results blindly, you can see where each detected value appears on the PDF and decide what should remain.

Redact scanned PDF documents with OCR

Many PDFs are scans rather than true text documents. When a page does not contain enough extractable text, Nerato can use optical character recognition to identify words and their positions before applying the same privacy detection workflow.

Manual PDF redaction for information that automation misses

Nerato also handles selected multi-line fields, multiple labelled fields on one row, rotated scanned pages, and conservative unlabelled name/address heuristics. Automated detection can never identify every possible secret or private detail. Manual redaction lets you draw a rectangle directly over signatures, handwritten information, uncommon identifiers, photographs or any other area that should not appear in the final PDF.

Permanent redaction instead of a visual black box

Covering text with a shape is not equivalent to secure redaction. Nerato uses the PDF redaction engine on the selected regions when generating the final document, rather than merely adding a visual overlay to the preview.

Review before you share

No automatic detection or OCR system is perfect. Always inspect the detected items, add any necessary manual redactions and review the resulting document before sharing sensitive material.

Frequently asked questions

Does Nerato work with scanned PDFs?

Yes. Nerato automatically uses OCR when a page contains too little usable embedded text, allowing scanned PDFs to be analyzed too.

Can I redact something that was not detected automatically?

Yes. Activate manual redaction mode and draw a rectangle directly on the PDF preview.

Can I keep an automatically detected item?

Yes. Automatic detections are selected by default, but you can uncheck any item and its automatic highlight disappears from the preview.

Does the preview itself modify my PDF?

No. Preview highlights are only interface overlays. The PDF is changed only after you press the final redaction button.

How long is my uploaded PDF kept?

Your uploaded PDF is held temporarily for the active processing session so you can review detections and create the redacted document. Temporary sessions expire automatically after 15 minutes, and completing a redaction consumes that original session. To recover from a lost network response, the already-redacted output may remain temporarily available in memory for up to 5 minutes before it expires automatically.

Does Nerato just cover sensitive text with a black box?

No. For selected redactions, Nerato uses PDF redaction operations when creating the final document rather than simply adding a visual overlay. This removes the selected underlying text from the generated PDF instead of leaving it hidden behind a shape.

Can Nerato redact scanned or rotated PDFs?

Yes. When a page does not contain enough usable embedded text, Nerato can use OCR. It can also process supported rotated scanned content so sensitive information can still be detected and reviewed.

Is Nerato free?

Yes. Nerato's basic PDF redaction workflow is free to use and does not require an account.

PDF privacy tools

Explore focused Nerato tools for checking and redacting sensitive information in PDF documents.

Redact PII from a PDF

Find supported types of personally identifiable information, review the results and permanently redact what you choose.

Permanently redact a PDF

Remove selected sensitive content from the generated PDF instead of simply hiding it with a visual overlay.