Total Redact

Redact PDFs, Word documents, and Excel sheets on your Mac. Remove names, SSNs, phone numbers, emails, addresses, dates of birth, credit cards, and any other sensitive data of your choice. Fully offline.

  • Your files never leave your computer
  • 100% offline. Zero network calls
  • No signup
  • No ads
Download on the App Store

The privacy challenge

  • The terms of service are fifty pages. You clicked "I agree" hoping they'd do the right thing. T&Cs are meant to protect the company, not you.
  • Mistakes in an internal process can result in your data being misused.
  • The company processing your data or any affiliated third party can be breached.
  • Using a cloud tool to protect your data means uploading it first. Back to square one.

The only real privacy

The file that never leaves your computer can't leak.

Total Redact runs 100% on your device. No uploads. No signups. No annoying ads.

Our privacy policy says it all.

How it works

  1. Open a document

    Drag a PDF, Word, Excel, CSV, or plain text file into the app. You can also copy-paste content for redaction.

  2. Review detected sensitive information

    Total Redact lists detected names, SSNs, phones, emails, addresses, dates of birth, and credit cards. Approve, edit, or skip each item.

  3. Export the redacted file

    Save the redacted copy in the original format. Your original file stays untouched.

Features

  • Trusted Mac app

    Signed Mac app, available on the official Mac App Store. Requires zero permissions. Your watchlist is encrypted and stored in the macOS Keychain.

  • Watchlist and allowlist

    Add the sensitive values you want caught every time. Add the trusted values you want skipped. Both stored locally.

  • Many files supported

    Redacts PDF (text based and scanned via OCR), Microsoft Word (.docx), Excel (.xlsx), CSV, plain text, HTML, and email (.eml, .mbox). Saves in the original format.

  • Live text editor

    Quick paste mode for live redaction. Paste any text, get a clean copy back instantly. Useful for chats, tickets, and prompts.

  • Automatic PII detection

    Detects names, addresses, Social Security numbers, phones, emails, dates of birth, credit cards, and any custom values you add. Uses industry standard pattern matching and a powerful on-device ML model.

  • Review detections and act

    All detections are presented for your review. Quickly view occurrences, add items to the watchlist, decide what to replace them with.

See it in action

Redact without breaking the document

John Doe xxxxxxxx Hard to talk about.
John Doe Bill Smith Reads naturally. Still safe.
john.doe@email.com xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx The chat doesn’t need your email. Blank it out.

Many of us now pass personal information to AI. Replacing real names with x’s makes the document hard to discuss with the assistant. Replacing “John Doe” with “Bill Smith” gives it a usable name without giving up the real one. Each field is yours to choose. Keep a friendly stand-in for the ones the model needs to reference, blank out the ones it does not.

Q&A

How accurate is Total Redact?

Accuracy is not a single number that works for every document. Total Redact is built around the idea of a personalized redactor: your watchlist forces specific terms to be caught every time, and your allowlist suppresses recurring false positives. Every detection is shown for review before anything is written, so you accept or reject each one. Over time the app learns what is and is not sensitive in your own work. See Redaction accuracy for HIPAA, legal, and financial documents for more.

Is Total Redact suitable for HIPAA, legal, or financial documents?

Total Redact is built for sensitive workflows: files never leave your Mac, no internet is used, and your watchlist is encrypted in the macOS Keychain. Always review the redacted output before sharing. Detection can miss items or produce false positives.

What kinds of personally identifiable information (PII) can it detect?

Names, addresses, Social Security numbers, phone numbers, email addresses, dates of birth, credit cards, and any custom values you add to your watchlist. Detection combines an encrypted personal watchlist with fuzzy matching, regex patterns, and an on device ML model.

How do I redact a PDF and other document files on a Mac?

Open Total Redact, drag the file into the window, review the sensitive information it detects (names, SSNs, phone numbers, emails, dates of birth, credit cards, addresses), check the items you want removed, and export a redacted copy. Your original file stays untouched and nothing leaves your Mac.

Do I need Adobe Acrobat to redact a PDF on my Mac?

No. Total Redact is a standalone Mac app. It does not require Adobe Acrobat, Acrobat Pro, or any other software, and it does not require an internet connection.

Which file formats does Total Redact support?

PDF (text based and scanned via OCR), Word (.docx), Excel (.xlsx), CSV, plain text (.txt, .md, .json, .xml, .log), HTML, and email (.eml, .mbox). Total Redact can accept other text based file formats too. We recommend trying it out. Always validate the final output before sharing.

Does Total Redact send my file to the cloud?

No. Total Redact runs 100% offline. Your files never leave your Mac. There are no uploads.

Is Total Redact free?

Total Redact is a free application. No subscription, no ads.