Remove Annotations from PDF
Delete comments, highlights, drawings and stamps. Keep links and form fields if you want. Pages are not turned into images.
Select a PDF fileor drop it anywhere on this page, or paste
Opens in your browser. Nothing is uploaded.
Remove Annotations from PDF, free and private
Remove annotations from a PDF in one step: comments, sticky notes, highlights, drawings, stamps and links. These marks are separate objects that sit on top of each page, so the tool can delete them all at once and leave the page underneath as it was. No need to delete each comment by hand after a review round.
Nothing is turned into an image, so text stays selectable and images keep their quality. Fillable form fields are kept by default, and you choose whether links go too. The file is processed in your browser and never uploaded.
How to remove annotations from a PDF
- 1
Add your PDF
Press Select a PDF or drop the document onto the page. The tool cleans every page of one file at a time.
- 2
Choose what happens to links
The panel lists each kind of annotation the file holds, with counts, and every kind is on. Links is on by default and deletes clickable links with the comments. Turn it off to keep every link working, including links inside the document such as a table of contents.
- 3
Choose what happens to form fields
Form fields is off by default, so fillable fields keep working. Turn it on to delete every field and the answers typed into it.
- 4
Remove and download
Press Remove annotations. The result says how many annotations were deleted. Check it with Preview, then press Download clean PDF. The file name ends in -no-annotations, and your original stays as it was.
Why use PDFToolz for this
Every markup type
Sticky notes, text comments, highlights, underlines, strikeouts, drawings, shapes, stamps and file attachments are all stored the same way in a PDF, and all are removed together.
Pages are not re-rendered
Only the annotation layer goes. The page content is saved exactly as it was, so text stays searchable and there is no quality loss.
Links and forms are your choice
Turn off Links for a copy people read on screen. Leave Form fields off if the form still needs filling in. Each kind of comment has its own switch too.
Free and private
Reviewed contracts, marked-up drafts and graded papers are cleaned on your device. Nothing is sent to a server, and there is no account or watermark.
What gets removed and what stays
Every comment and markup annotation on every page is removed. That covers marks added in Adobe Acrobat, macOS Preview, a browser PDF viewer or a tablet app: comments and their pop-up notes, typed text boxes, highlights, freehand drawings, rectangles, arrows, stamps and file attachments. Links go too unless you turn Links off.
Form fields are also annotations in a PDF, but they stay by default. Turn on Form fields to delete them with their answers. The result then says how many form field boxes were removed. To keep the answers as plain text instead, use Flatten PDF.
- Page text, images and graphics stay as they were.
- Bookmarks in the sidebar are not annotations, so they stay.
- Marks that are part of the page itself stay. That includes comments printed into a PDF, pen marks on a scan, and edits added with Edit / Annotate PDF.
How to remove annotations that won't go away
If the tool says no annotations were found, or a highlight is still there, that mark is not an annotation. It was merged into the page, usually because the file was printed to PDF, came from a scanner, or was flattened by another program. Such marks are page content and can't be lifted off the text under them. Redact PDF can black out an area that has to go, but it can't remove a highlight and keep the words. For that, go back to an unmarked copy if you have one.
Removing annotations saves a changed file, so any existing digital signature stops being valid, as with any edit. Remove annotations before signing, not after.
Remove Annotations, Flatten PDF or Redact PDF?
Flatten PDF bakes filled form fields into the page so the answers stay visible but can't be edited. It can draw comments and highlights into the page too, so they stay visible but fixed. Use it when the recipient should see the markup but not change it.
Remove Annotations takes markup away and gives you back the unmarked document. Redact PDF is for the page content itself. It blacks out areas and rebuilds those pages as images, so the hidden content is gone. If a comment is the problem, remove annotations. If text in the document must not be seen, redact it.
Frequently asked questions
Add the PDF, choose whether to keep links and form fields, and press Remove annotations. Every comment, highlight, drawing and stamp is deleted from all pages, and you download the clean copy.
Yes. Turn off Links. Links stay clickable, and comments, highlights, drawings and other markup are removed.
Not by default. Form fields is off, so fillable fields and their answers stay. Turn it on to delete them, or use Flatten PDF to keep the answers as plain text.
Yes, with Extract PDF Comments. It saves every comment, highlight and reply with its page, author and date as CSV, Markdown or JSON. Export first, then remove the annotations here.
Yes. They are detached from every page, and the file is then rewritten with only the parts still in use, so the comment text is not left behind in the file data.
That highlight is part of the page, not an annotation, usually because the document was printed to PDF or flattened earlier. It can't be separated from the text, so start from an unmarked copy if you have one.
No. The file is opened, cleaned and saved in your browser and never leaves your device. The tool is free, with no sign-up or watermark.
Last reviewed . See how we build and test our tools, or report an error.
