Excise vs Redact PDF AI

Excise is a free, open-source PDF editor for Windows, macOS, and Linux. Its central feature is permanent redaction: it removes text, images, and vector graphics from PDF content rather than placing a visible cover over them. By default, the cleanup also removes metadata, attachments, JavaScript, thumbnails, and hidden layers, and reports those removals. The app handles search, text selection and copying, annotations, page organization, Bates numbering, file-size reduction, and AcroForm filling, flattening, and creation. Its command-line tools support batch work and stable JSON output; `unredact` checks for leaked redacted text, while `audit` looks for text beneath opaque overlays. Excise reads and writes AES-128 and AES-256 encryption and inspects digital signatures against the operating system trust store. Signature inspection does not check revocation or evaluate timestamp and long-term validation material. Dynamic XFA layouts are experimental and cannot be filled. Downloads include packages for Apple Silicon macOS, Windows 10/11 x64, Ubuntu/Debian, and x64 or ARM64 Linux; builds are unsigned, not notarized, and lack auto-update.

Redact PDF AI detects personal and sensitive information in PDFs and image files, then applies redactions. Users can select categories such as names, email addresses, phone numbers, organizations, dates, IBANs, and credit card numbers. Built-in OCR supports scanned documents, and the service says it handles more than 100 document languages, including mixed-language files. In the Studio editor, users can adjust redactions, add highlights, rotate pages, and exclude specified terms from masking. Multiple files can be uploaded together and downloaded as a ZIP. The features page lists support for PDFs up to 50 MB and documents of 1,000 or more pages. A REST API supports asynchronous jobs, batch uploads, PII controls, and configurable retention on every plan, using the same page quota. The maker says output pages are rasterized so redactions are burned into pixels and recoverable text layers are removed. It says documents are processed on Microsoft Azure in Frankfurt and Switzerland North, encrypted at rest and in transit, and automatically deleted after 14 days of inactivity by default. Starter is $50 a month; Business is $250 a month. A one-time prepaid credit offer is 5.00 USD.