Edit PDF metadata
View and edit your PDF's title, author, subject, and keywords.
What is PDF metadata?
Every PDF quietly carries a small file of information about itself: a Title, an Author name, the software that produced it, the date it was first saved, the date it was last modified and a list of Keywords. None of that ever appears on the printed pages you read.
But it is one right-click away. Any PDF reader — Adobe, Preview, a Windows Explorer Properties tab, even the browser tab title — can display it in seconds, which means every file you send out is also telling recipients a small story about who made it, on what, and when. That story is often not the one you meant to tell: the Author field may still show the colleague whose template you reused, the Producer field reveals the exact software on your machine, and the timestamps quietly reveal when the document was really written.
How to edit PDF metadata online for free
- 1
Open the PDF whose properties you want to inspect
Click Select PDF file and pick any document. The tool immediately reads the file with pdf-lib, renders a small first-page thumbnail so you can confirm you picked the right one, and prints the page count next to the file size.
- 2
Read what the file is currently saying about itself
Four editable fields appear in the sidebar — Title, Author, Subject and Keywords — pre-filled with whatever is already stored inside the PDF. Below the thumbnail you can see the read-only trail: Created, Modified, Producer and Creator, each showing "Not set" when the field is empty.
- 3
Correct a field, or tick Clear all metadata
Type over any of the four editable fields to change them individually — for example, replacing a template's old author name with your own, or setting a proper document Title. To wipe the lot in one move, tick the Clear all metadata box: it blanks Title, Author, Subject and Keywords, resets Producer and Creator to empty strings, and removes the Created and Modified timestamps from the document information dictionary.
- 4
Save the updated copy
The Save PDF button lights up as soon as anything is different from the original. Click it and the tool writes a fresh document via pdf-lib and hands back a copy suffixed -updated.pdf. Your input file is untouched; only the downloaded copy carries the new properties.
Check what your PDF is telling people about you
Before you attach a resume, a proposal or a tender document, it is worth looking at what is riding along inside the file. The Author field may still carry a colleague's name from whichever template you reused, the Producer field reveals the exact application that saved it and the timestamps reveal your actual writing timeline down to the minute.
One tick of Clear all metadata strips those fields out, and because the whole flow runs inside your browser tab, auditing a sensitive file does not mean handing it to anyone. You open it, look at it, clean it and save the cleaned copy — the original never leaves your device, and neither does the copy.
Fix titles that look broken in browsers
When a PDF opens in a browser tab, the tab does not show the filename — it shows the metadata Title. That is why official documents so often appear in the wild with tab captions like "Microsoft Word - final_v3_REAL_use_this" or the name of someone else's template.
Set a proper Title here and save, and the file's tab caption matches your document in every browser and reader that displays it. It is a five-second edit that instantly makes an externally shared PDF look professional.
See everything at once
The moment a PDF drops in, every property the file carries — Title, Author, Subject, Keywords, Producer, Creator, Created and Modified dates — is on screen. There are no separate tabs or dialogs; you're looking at the same summary a colleague or recipient would see when they open File → Properties.
Edit or erase
Correct fields one at a time when you just need to fix a stale author name or write a proper Title, or flip the Clear all metadata switch to wipe Title, Author, Subject, Keywords, Producer, Creator and the Created / Modified timestamps in a single click. Both paths save into a fresh -updated.pdf copy.
Content untouched
Only the document's property fields change. Pages, text, images, layout, fonts and file quality stay exactly as they were; the tool rewrites the metadata dictionary and re-serialises the file, without touching a single page of content.
Private inspection
Auditing a sensitive document — a resume, a contract draft, an internal memo — usually means uploading it somewhere just to see who created it. Here the file is opened, inspected and rewritten inside your browser tab, so a sensitive document never becomes a stranger's copy just to be checked.
When do you need to edit PDF metadata?
Cleaning documents before you publish or share them externally
A whitepaper, a brochure or a downloadable resource almost always inherits the author name of whoever built the template. Before it goes on your website or into a partner's inbox, open it here, wipe the internal author and set a proper title so the file represents your organisation, not the intern who exported it.
Fixing embarrassing browser-tab titles on official documents
When an invoice, offer letter or tender opens in Chrome or Safari, the tab title comes from the metadata Title — which is why users sometimes see "Microsoft Word - draft_v3_FINAL_use_this_one" at the top of the browser. Set a clean Title here and every viewer that reads metadata shows it correctly.
Setting proper properties on reports, e-books and portfolios you distribute
Documents you're proud of deserve accurate cataloguing. A real Title makes the file easier to search on desktops, a real Author is what shows up in library apps and reference managers, and Keywords help operating-system search surface the PDF when someone looks for the topic later.
Anonymising documents where the author must not be identifiable
For blind reviews, whistleblowing submissions and anonymous tips, clearing the metadata author and producer is a required first step — but it's only the metadata half of the job. Pair this with Redact PDF to blank names, signatures and letterheads on the visible pages; metadata cleaning removes what's hidden, redaction removes what's shown.
Frequently asked questions
What is PDF metadata?+
It's the set of properties every PDF quietly carries about itself — Title, Author, Subject, Keywords, the software that produced it (Producer and Creator), and the creation and modification timestamps. None of it shows on the printed page, but anyone who opens File → Properties in a PDF reader can read all of it in seconds.
How do I remove all metadata from a PDF?+
Open the file here, tick Clear all metadata in the sidebar, then click Save PDF. The tool blanks Title, Author, Subject and Keywords, resets Producer and Creator, and removes the Created and Modified timestamps, then downloads a fresh -updated.pdf copy with those fields empty.
Can people really see my PDF's metadata?+
Yes, and no special tools are required. In Adobe Reader, Acrobat, Preview on macOS, most Linux viewers and even a right-click Properties on Windows, the Title, Author, Subject, Keywords, Producer and Creator are one dialog away. Browsers and search engines read the Title too, which is why tab titles sometimes contain names or template hints the sender didn't realise were in there.
Does editing metadata change the document's content?+
No. Only the property fields on the file are rewritten; the pages, text, images, layout, fonts and dimensions are copied through untouched. A recipient opening the -updated.pdf will see exactly the same document, just with different — or no — properties in the file dialog.
Which fields can I edit?+
Four fields are directly editable in the sidebar: Title, Author, Subject and Keywords (comma-separated). Producer, Creator, Created and Modified are shown as read-only trail information so you can inspect them, and Clear all metadata wipes them too — Producer and Creator are reset to empty strings and the Created and Modified timestamps are removed from the document information dictionary.
Do my files get uploaded to a server?+
No. Reading the existing metadata, rendering the first-page thumbnail and writing the new -updated.pdf all happen inside your browser tab with pdf-lib and pdf.js. Nothing about the file is transmitted anywhere, and once the page has loaded the whole flow continues to work offline.
Does clearing metadata make a PDF fully anonymous?+
No, and this is the important honest part. Clear all metadata wipes the property fields — Title, Author, Subject, Keywords, Producer, Creator — and removes the Created and Modified timestamps from the document information dictionary, and pdf-lib is instructed not to stamp a fresh modification date when it saves. But everything printed on the pages themselves stays: names in the text, signatures on the last page, letterheads at the top, watermarks, embedded photos with their own EXIF. For truly anonymous distribution, clean the metadata here, then use Redact PDF to permanently blank the identifying content on the pages. One more caveat worth knowing: this tool edits the standard document information dictionary, but some PDFs also carry a separate XMP metadata stream created by other software that can hold its own copy of the title, author and dates. It is not rewritten here, so always re-inspect a sanitised copy in a reader before you rely on it being clean.
Why does my PDF open with a weird title in the browser tab?+
Because Chrome, Safari, Edge and Firefox all show the PDF's metadata Title in the tab, not the filename. If the Title was never set — or was inherited from a template — you end up with tab titles like "Microsoft Word - final_v3_use_this" or a colleague's document name. Set a real Title in this tool, save, and every browser tab will show what you want it to.
Can I edit metadata on my phone?+
Yes. The tool is responsive and runs entirely client-side, so it works in mobile Chrome, Safari and Firefox on iOS and Android. Tap Select PDF file, pick a PDF from Files, Google Drive or iCloud, edit the four fields — or tick Clear all metadata — and save the -updated.pdf back to your device.
Do I need Adobe Acrobat?+
No. The editor is a web page that runs in any modern browser — Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge or Brave — with no Acrobat licence, no install and no signup. The download is a standard PDF that opens the same way in every reader, with your updated Title, Author, Subject and Keywords in place.