Redaction API

Permanently redact PII and remove sensitive information from PDFs by integrating a secure redaction API. Redact documents by identifying preset text patterns, regex matches, keywords, or specific search criteria for compliance, privacy, and regulated workflows.

Try for free

Permanently remove PII and sensitive data

Redact names, account numbers, addresses, PII, and other confidential information from PDFs with precision, irreversibly and securely.

Automate with Zapier

Automatically redact sensitive text in PDFs using our Zapier integration, a no-code solution to ensure compliance and archival readiness automatically.

CONNECT WITH ZAPIER

Pattern-based compliance workflows

Automatically find and redact content using regex, keywords, or custom search criteria for privacy, legal, financial, and regulated document workflows.

Try it out

This example redacts text in your document, effectively and permanently removing the matching content.

Try it out in three steps

Add document.pdf to your project folder.
Run the code from the same folder.
Open result.pdf to see the output.

Advanced API

curl -X POST https://api.nutrient.io/processor/redact \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer your_api_key_here" \
  -o result.pdf \
  --fail \
  -F file=@document.pdf \
  -F data='{
      "strategy": "text",
      "strategyOptions": {
        "text": "macaque",
        "caseSensitive": false
      },
      "redactionState": "apply"
    }'

curl -X POST https://api.nutrient.io/processor/redact ^
  -H "Authorization: Bearer your_api_key_here" ^
  -o result.pdf ^
  --fail ^
  -F file=@document.pdf ^
  -F data="{\"strategy\": \"text\", \"strategyOptions\": {\"text\": \"macaque\", \"caseSensitive\": false}, \"redactionState\": \"apply\"}"

package com.example.pspdfkit;

import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.nio.file.FileSystems;
import java.nio.file.Files;
import java.nio.file.StandardCopyOption;

import org.json.JSONArray;
import org.json.JSONObject;

import okhttp3.MediaType;
import okhttp3.MultipartBody;
import okhttp3.OkHttpClient;
import okhttp3.Request;
import okhttp3.RequestBody;
import okhttp3.Response;

public final class PspdfkitApiExample {
  public static void main(final String[] args) throws IOException {
    final RequestBody body = new MultipartBody.Builder()
      .setType(MultipartBody.FORM)
      .addFormDataPart(
        "file",
        "document.pdf",
        RequestBody.create(
          MediaType.parse("application/pdf"),
          new File("document.pdf")
        )
      )
      .addFormDataPart(
        "data",
        new JSONObject()
          .put("strategy", "text")
          .put("strategyOptions", new JSONObject()
            .put("text", "macaque")
            .put("caseSensitive", false))
          .put("redactionState", "apply").toString()
      )
      .build();

    final Request request = new Request.Builder()
      .url("https://api.nutrient.io/processor/redact")
      .method("POST", body)
      .addHeader("Authorization", "Bearer your_api_key_here")
      .build();

    final OkHttpClient client = new OkHttpClient()
      .newBuilder()
      .build();

    final Response response = client.newCall(request).execute();

    if (response.isSuccessful()) {
      Files.copy(
        response.body().byteStream(),
        FileSystems.getDefault().getPath("result.pdf"),
        StandardCopyOption.REPLACE_EXISTING
      );
    } else {
      // Handle the error
      throw new IOException(response.body().string());
    }
  }
}

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Net;
using RestSharp;

namespace PspdfkitApiDemo
{
  class Program
  {
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
      var client = new RestClient("https://api.nutrient.io/processor/redact");

      var request = new RestRequest(Method.POST)
        .AddHeader("Authorization", "Bearer your_api_key_here")
        .AddFile("file", "document.pdf")
        .AddParameter("data", new JsonObject
        {
          ["strategy"] = "text",
          ["strategyOptions"] = new JsonObject
          {
            ["text"] = "macaque",
            ["caseSensitive"] = false
          },
          ["redactionState"] = "apply"
        }.ToString());

      request.AdvancedResponseWriter = (responseStream, response) =>
      {
        if (response.StatusCode == HttpStatusCode.OK)
        {
          using (responseStream)
          {
            using var outputFileWriter = File.OpenWrite("result.pdf");
            responseStream.CopyTo(outputFileWriter);
          }
        }
        else
        {
          var responseStreamReader = new StreamReader(responseStream);
          Console.Write(responseStreamReader.ReadToEnd());
        }
      };

      client.Execute(request);
    }
  }
}

// This code requires Node.js. Do not run this code directly in a web browser.

const axios = require('axios')
const FormData = require('form-data')
const fs = require('fs')

const formData = new FormData()
formData.append('data', JSON.stringify({
  strategy: "text",
  strategyOptions: {
    text: "macaque",
    caseSensitive: false
  },
  redactionState: "apply"
}))
formData.append('file', fs.createReadStream('document.pdf'))

;(async () => {
  try {
    const response = await axios.post('https://api.nutrient.io/processor/redact', formData, {
      headers: formData.getHeaders({
        'Authorization': 'Bearer your_api_key_here'
      }),
      responseType: "stream"
    })

    response.data.pipe(fs.createWriteStream("result.pdf"))
  } catch (e) {
    const errorString = await streamToString(e.response.data)
    console.log(errorString)
  }
})()

function streamToString(stream) {
  const chunks = []
  return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
    stream.on("data", (chunk) => chunks.push(Buffer.from(chunk)))
    stream.on("error", (err) => reject(err))
    stream.on("end", () => resolve(Buffer.concat(chunks).toString("utf8")))
  })
}

import requests
import json

response = requests.request(
  'POST',
  'https://api.nutrient.io/processor/redact',
  headers = {
    'Authorization': 'Bearer your_api_key_here'
  },
  files = {
    'file': open('document.pdf', 'rb')
  },
  data = {
    'data': json.dumps({
      'strategy': 'text',
      'strategyOptions': {
        'text': 'macaque',
        'caseSensitive': False
      },
      'redactionState': 'apply'
    })
  },
  stream = True
)

if response.ok:
  with open('result.pdf', 'wb') as fd:
    for chunk in response.iter_content(chunk_size=8096):
      fd.write(chunk)
else:
  print(response.text)
  exit()

<?php

$FileHandle = fopen('result.pdf', 'w+');

$curl = curl_init();

curl_setopt_array($curl, array(
  CURLOPT_URL => 'https://api.nutrient.io/processor/redact',
  CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST => 'POST',
  CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
  CURLOPT_ENCODING => '',
  CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => array(
    'data' => '{
      "strategy": "text",
      "strategyOptions": {
        "text": "macaque",
        "caseSensitive": false
      },
      "redactionState": "apply"
    }',
    'file' => new CURLFILE('document.pdf')
  ),
  CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => array(
    'Authorization: Bearer your_api_key_here'
  ),
  CURLOPT_FILE => $FileHandle,
));

$response = curl_exec($curl);

curl_close($curl);

fclose($FileHandle);

POST https://api.nutrient.io/processor/redact HTTP/1.1
Content-Type: multipart/form-data; boundary=--customboundary
Authorization: Bearer your_api_key_here

--customboundary
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="data"
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "strategy": "text",
  "strategyOptions": {
    "text": "macaque",
    "caseSensitive": false
  },
  "redactionState": "apply"
}
--customboundary
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="file"; filename="document.pdf"
Content-Type: application/pdf

(file data)
--customboundary--

curl -X POST https://api.nutrient.io/build \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer your_api_key_here" \
  -o result.pdf \
  --fail \
  -F document=@document.pdf \
  -F instructions='{
      "parts": [
        {
          "file": "document"
        }
      ],
      "actions": [
        {
          "type": "createRedactions",
          "strategy": "text",
          "strategyOptions": {
            "text": "macaque",
            "includeAnnotations": true,
            "caseSensitive": false
          }
        },
        {
          "type": "applyRedactions"
        }
      ]
    }'

curl -X POST https://api.nutrient.io/build ^
  -H "Authorization: Bearer your_api_key_here" ^
  -o result.pdf ^
  --fail ^
  -F document=@document.pdf ^
  -F instructions="{\"parts\": [{\"file\": \"document\"}], \"actions\": [{\"type\": \"createRedactions\", \"strategy\": \"text\", \"strategyOptions\": {\"text\": \"macaque\", \"includeAnnotations\": true, \"caseSensitive\": false}}, {\"type\": \"applyRedactions\"}]}"

package com.example.pspdfkit;

import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.nio.file.FileSystems;
import java.nio.file.Files;
import java.nio.file.StandardCopyOption;

import org.json.JSONArray;
import org.json.JSONObject;

import okhttp3.MediaType;
import okhttp3.MultipartBody;
import okhttp3.OkHttpClient;
import okhttp3.Request;
import okhttp3.RequestBody;
import okhttp3.Response;

public final class PspdfkitApiExample {
  public static void main(final String[] args) throws IOException {
    final RequestBody body = new MultipartBody.Builder()
      .setType(MultipartBody.FORM)
      .addFormDataPart(
        "document",
        "document.pdf",
        RequestBody.create(
          MediaType.parse("application/pdf"),
          new File("document.pdf")
        )
      )
      .addFormDataPart(
        "instructions",
        new JSONObject()
          .put("parts", new JSONArray()
            .put(new JSONObject()
              .put("file", "document")
            )
          )
          .put("actions", new JSONArray()
            .put(new JSONObject()
              .put("type", "createRedactions")
              .put("strategy", "text")
              .put("strategyOptions", new JSONObject()
                .put("text", "macaque")
                .put("includeAnnotations", true)
                .put("caseSensitive", false)
              )
            )
            .put(new JSONObject()
              .put("type", "applyRedactions")
            )
          ).toString()
      )
      .build();

    final Request request = new Request.Builder()
      .url("https://api.nutrient.io/build")
      .method("POST", body)
      .addHeader("Authorization", "Bearer your_api_key_here")
      .build();

    final OkHttpClient client = new OkHttpClient()
      .newBuilder()
      .build();

    final Response response = client.newCall(request).execute();

    if (response.isSuccessful()) {
      Files.copy(
        response.body().byteStream(),
        FileSystems.getDefault().getPath("result.pdf"),
        StandardCopyOption.REPLACE_EXISTING
      );
    } else {
      // Handle the error
      throw new IOException(response.body().string());
    }
  }
}

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Net;
using RestSharp;

namespace PspdfkitApiDemo
{
  class Program
  {
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
      var client = new RestClient("https://api.nutrient.io/build");

      var request = new RestRequest(Method.POST)
        .AddHeader("Authorization", "Bearer your_api_key_here")
        .AddFile("document", "document.pdf")
        .AddParameter("instructions", new JsonObject
        {
          ["parts"] = new JsonArray
          {
            new JsonObject
            {
              ["file"] = "document"
            }
          },
          ["actions"] = new JsonArray
          {
            new JsonObject
            {
              ["type"] = "createRedactions",
              ["strategy"] = "text",
              ["strategyOptions"] = new JsonObject
              {
                ["text"] = "macaque",
                ["includeAnnotations"] = true,
                ["caseSensitive"] = false
              }
            },
            new JsonObject
            {
              ["type"] = "applyRedactions"
            }
          }
        }.ToString());

      request.AdvancedResponseWriter = (responseStream, response) =>
      {
        if (response.StatusCode == HttpStatusCode.OK)
        {
          using (responseStream)
          {
            using var outputFileWriter = File.OpenWrite("result.pdf");
            responseStream.CopyTo(outputFileWriter);
          }
        }
        else
        {
          var responseStreamReader = new StreamReader(responseStream);
          Console.Write(responseStreamReader.ReadToEnd());
        }
      };

      client.Execute(request);
    }
  }
}

// This code requires Node.js. Do not run this code directly in a web browser.

const axios = require('axios')
const FormData = require('form-data')
const fs = require('fs')

const formData = new FormData()
formData.append('instructions', JSON.stringify({
  parts: [
    {
      file: "document"
    }
  ],
  actions: [
    {
      type: "createRedactions",
      strategy: "text",
      strategyOptions: {
        text: "macaque",
        includeAnnotations: true,
        caseSensitive: false
      }
    },
    {
      type: "applyRedactions"
    }
  ]
}))
formData.append('document', fs.createReadStream('document.pdf'))

;(async () => {
  try {
    const response = await axios.post('https://api.nutrient.io/build', formData, {
      headers: formData.getHeaders({
        'Authorization': 'Bearer your_api_key_here'
      }),
      responseType: "stream"
    })

    response.data.pipe(fs.createWriteStream("result.pdf"))
  } catch (e) {
    const errorString = await streamToString(e.response.data)
    console.log(errorString)
  }
})()

function streamToString(stream) {
  const chunks = []
  return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
    stream.on("data", (chunk) => chunks.push(Buffer.from(chunk)))
    stream.on("error", (err) => reject(err))
    stream.on("end", () => resolve(Buffer.concat(chunks).toString("utf8")))
  })
}

import requests
import json

response = requests.request(
  'POST',
  'https://api.nutrient.io/build',
  headers = {
    'Authorization': 'Bearer your_api_key_here'
  },
  files = {
    'document': open('document.pdf', 'rb')
  },
  data = {
    'instructions': json.dumps({
      'parts': [
        {
          'file': 'document'
        }
      ],
      'actions': [
        {
          'type': 'createRedactions',
          'strategy': 'text',
          'strategyOptions': {
            'text': 'macaque',
            'includeAnnotations': True,
            'caseSensitive': False
          }
        },
        {
          'type': 'applyRedactions'
        }
      ]
    })
  },
  stream = True
)

if response.ok:
  with open('result.pdf', 'wb') as fd:
    for chunk in response.iter_content(chunk_size=8096):
      fd.write(chunk)
else:
  print(response.text)
  exit()

<?php

$FileHandle = fopen('result.pdf', 'w+');

$curl = curl_init();

curl_setopt_array($curl, array(
  CURLOPT_URL => 'https://api.nutrient.io/build',
  CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST => 'POST',
  CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
  CURLOPT_ENCODING => '',
  CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => array(
    'instructions' => '{
      "parts": [
        {
          "file": "document"
        }
      ],
      "actions": [
        {
          "type": "createRedactions",
          "strategy": "text",
          "strategyOptions": {
            "text": "macaque",
            "includeAnnotations": true,
            "caseSensitive": false
          }
        },
        {
          "type": "applyRedactions"
        }
      ]
    }',
    'document' => new CURLFILE('document.pdf')
  ),
  CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => array(
    'Authorization: Bearer your_api_key_here'
  ),
  CURLOPT_FILE => $FileHandle,
));

$response = curl_exec($curl);

curl_close($curl);

fclose($FileHandle);

POST https://api.nutrient.io/build HTTP/1.1
Content-Type: multipart/form-data; boundary=--customboundary
Authorization: Bearer your_api_key_here

--customboundary
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="instructions"
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "parts": [
    {
      "file": "document"
    }
  ],
  "actions": [
    {
      "type": "createRedactions",
      "strategy": "text",
      "strategyOptions": {
        "text": "macaque",
        "includeAnnotations": true,
        "caseSensitive": false
      }
    },
    {
      "type": "applyRedactions"
    }
  ]
}
--customboundary
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="document"; filename="document.pdf"
Content-Type: application/pdf

(document data)
--customboundary--

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API comparison

BASIC

Redaction API

A streamlined API designed for fast, secure redaction — perfect for 90 percent of use cases.

FEATURES

Simple request format
Minimal configuration required
Purpose-built for specific tasks

ADVANCED

Build API

Maximum flexibility and advanced features for complex workflows.

FEATURES

Multipart document support
Advanced actions and transformations
Workflow orchestration

Getting started

The following section will walk you through how to best make use of the functionality the redaction API provides.

GUIDES

1 — Introduction

Applying redactions

Most common next steps

Connect redaction evaluation to API key setup, pricing, privacy, and the broader Processor workflow

OPEN GETTING STARTED

Use the following:

AI redaction If the workflow needs automatic PII detection rather than manual coordinate-based redaction

Get started:

Getting started For API key setup

Postman collection For the fastest first request

API reference For endpoint and request details

Platform resources:

Processor API pricing For credits

Privacy documentation For regulated workflows

Processor API overview To connect redaction to broader DWS document-processing automation

Security is our top priority

No document storage

No input or resulting documents are stored on our infrastructure. All files are deleted as soon as a request finishes. Alternatively, check out our self-hosted product.

HTTPS encryption

All communication between your application and Nutrient is done via HTTPS to ensure your data is encrypted when it’s sent to us.

Safe payment processing

All payments are handled by Paddle. Nutrient DWS Processor API never has direct access to any of your payment data.

Ready to try it?

Create an account to get your DWS Processor API key and start making API calls.

START FOR FREE

Redaction API

Permanently remove PII and sensitive data

Automate with Zapier

Pattern-based compliance workflows

Try it out

Create an account to access your API key and start with 50 free credits per month

API comparison

Redaction API

Build API

Getting started

Introduction to PDF redaction

Creating redactions with text search

Preset pattern redaction

Create redactions with regex search

Applying redactions

Connect redaction evaluation to API key setup, pricing, privacy, and the broader Processor workflow

Security is our top priority

No document storage

HTTPS encryption

Safe payment processing

Ready to try it?