PDF Metadata Editor
See exactly what a PDF says about itself, change the title, author, subject, keywords and dates, or strip every hidden property in one click.
Drop a PDF here to view its metadata
or click to browse. The file is read on your device and never uploaded.
What is PDF metadata?
PDF metadata is the set of hidden properties a PDF stores about itself. None of it appears on the page, but every reader can display it and every search engine and document system can read it. It typically includes a title, an author, a subject, keywords, the application the document was written in, the software that produced the PDF, and the dates it was created and last changed.
Most people never look at these fields, which is exactly why they cause problems. A PDF exported from a word processor usually inherits the author name from whoever installed the software, and the title from the original filename of a template. Send that file to a client and the properties may still credit a colleague who left years ago, name an internal draft, or reveal which template you started from.
This editor shows you every property in a PDF, lets you correct any of them, and can strip the lot in one click. Unlike tools that only clear the visible Info dictionary, the remove option also deletes the embedded XMP packet, which is where modern applications duplicate the author name and often record editing history. Everything runs in your browser, so the document never leaves your machine.
How to edit PDF metadata
- Upload your PDF: Drag a PDF into the drop area or click to browse. The tool immediately reads the document properties and shows you the page count, file size, PDF version and whether an XMP packet is present.
- Review what the file currently says: Every field is filled in with the value already stored in the document. Empty fields show a placeholder, which tells you that property was never set.
- Edit the fields you want to change: Update the title, author, subject, keywords, creator or producer. Keywords are entered as a comma separated list. The creation and modification dates use a normal date and time picker.
- Save your changes: Click Save and Download to write a new PDF with your updated properties. The original file on your disk is never touched, so you always keep a copy.
- Or strip everything instead: Click Remove All Metadata to clear every property and delete the embedded XMP packet in one pass, then download the clean copy. Use Reset changes at any point to go back to the values the file arrived with.
Why removing PDF metadata matters
Document properties leak more than people expect. A PDF you send outside your organisation can quietly disclose the real author's full name, the internal template a proposal was built from, the software and version your company runs, and precise timestamps showing when a document was written and last edited. In competitive bids, legal disclosure, journalism and anonymous submissions, any one of those can matter.
Timestamps deserve particular attention. A creation date can contradict what a covering email claims about when work was done, and a modification date can reveal that a supposedly final document was edited after a deadline. Because metadata is invisible on the page, none of this is caught by proofreading.
Stripping metadata before a PDF leaves your control removes that whole category of disclosure. It changes nothing about how the document looks or prints, and takes a single click.
The Info dictionary and the XMP packet
A PDF can hold its properties in two separate places, and this is where many metadata tools fall short. The older location is the Info dictionary, a simple list of key and value pairs holding the title, author, subject, keywords, creator, producer and dates. It is what most readers display in a properties panel.
The newer location is an XMP packet, an XML block embedded in the file. Modern applications write to both, and the XMP version frequently carries extra material including document identifiers, an editing history, and copyright and rights management information.
A tool that clears only the Info dictionary leaves the XMP packet intact, so the author name is still sitting in the file for anyone who opens it in a text editor or a forensic tool. When you use Remove All Metadata here, the XMP stream is deleted from the document catalog as well, so both copies go.
When editing metadata is worth doing
- Publishing to the web: the title field is what search engines show for an indexed PDF, and what appears in a browser tab. A descriptive title beats a filename like final-v3-draft.
- Sending documents to clients: correcting an author name inherited from a template or a former colleague.
- Anonymous or blind submissions: academic peer review and tenders often require documents with no identifying properties.
- Legal disclosure and privacy: stripping timestamps and author details before a document goes to another party.
- Document management: filling in consistent subjects and keywords so files can actually be found later in a shared library.
- Cleaning up conversions: replacing producer strings left behind by whichever converter generated the file.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Is this PDF metadata editor free?
Yes, entirely free with no account, no watermark and no limits on how many files you edit.
Is my PDF uploaded anywhere?
No. The file is read and rewritten entirely inside your browser, which matters here more than for most tools because metadata is precisely the kind of information you may be trying to keep private.
Does Remove All Metadata really remove everything?
It clears every field in the Info dictionary and deletes the embedded XMP packet, which together hold the document properties any reader or search tool can see. Content you can see on the page is untouched, and so are page-level structures such as annotations, which are part of the document rather than its properties.
Will editing metadata change how my PDF looks?
No. Metadata is stored separately from page content, so the pages, fonts, images and layout are all identical. Only the hidden properties change.
What is the difference between Creator and Producer?
Creator names the application the document was originally authored in, such as Microsoft Word or InDesign. Producer names the software that generated the actual PDF file, which is often a different library or a print driver. Seeing both is a useful clue about how a file was made.
Can I edit the metadata of a password protected PDF?
Not while it is encrypted. Remove the password first with our Unlock PDF tool, edit the properties, then protect the file again if you still need it encrypted.
Why does my PDF show an author I have never heard of?
Almost always because the document was built from a template, or exported from software registered to somebody else. The author field is inherited from the source application rather than typed by the person who wrote the document, which is exactly why it is worth checking before sending files out.
Does clearing metadata affect SEO for a PDF published on my site?
It can, so be deliberate. Search engines use the title property when they index a PDF, and clearing it means they fall back to guessing from the filename or the first heading. If the file is going on your website, set a good descriptive title rather than stripping everything.
Can I edit the metadata of several PDFs at once?
This editor works on one file at a time, because the whole point is reviewing and setting values specific to that document. For a batch of files, run them through one after another; each save downloads a new copy and leaves your original untouched.
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