Strip comments, highlights, sticky notes and link boxes from a PDF in seconds: drop your file in, and download a clean copy with the page text and images untouched. Free, unlimited and watermark-free — and the cleaning happens on your own device, so your document is never uploaded. Ideal before sharing, archiving or submitting a reviewed PDF across the EU and US.
Researched by PDFBuddyFree Team · Last updated November 2, 2026
Review workflows leave traces. A supervisor's comments, a colleague's highlights, a reviewer's sticky notes and the link boxes around a table of contents are all annotations: objects attached to pages, not part of the page content itself. When the review is done and the document must go to a client, an archive or a submission portal, those traces are at best clutter and at worst a leak — reviewer names, internal comments and draft remarks travelling with a "final" file. Stripping the annotation layer is the clean fix, and it is different from redaction: redaction removes visible content, while this tool removes only the overlay layer.
What is removed: comment and markup annotations, highlight and underline markups, sticky notes, link annotations, and other entries in each page's Annots list. What is kept: all page text, images, fonts and layout. The tool reports exactly how many annotations it removed and from how many pages, so you can verify the result before sharing. For true content removal, use our redact PDF tool; for stripping hidden document data, use our remove PDF metadata tool; and for flattening form fields into static pages, use our flatten PDF tool.
| Before | After |
|---|---|
| 12-page report with 9 reviewer comments, 14 highlights and 6 link boxes | Same 12 pages, same text and images, 0 annotations |
| Reviewer names visible in comment popups | No comment popups, no reviewer names in the annotation layer |
| File shared with clients carries internal remarks | Clean final file, safe to share or archive |
Try it on any reviewed PDF you own: the status line tells you exactly what was removed, page by page count, before you share the result.
Keep annotations when the review is still open — stripping them deletes reviewer feedback permanently from that copy, so always work on a copy, never your only original. Also note that fillable form fields are displayed through widget annotations: stripping annotations from a form you still need to fill will hide its fields, so flatten the form first or keep a fillable original. And this tool does not remove document metadata or embedded attachments — pair it with the metadata tool above for a fully clean share.
Removing annotations does not remove visible text. If a page itself contains sensitive content, use our redact PDF tool — annotations and page content are different layers.
Fillable form fields display through widget annotations. Stripping annotations from a form you still need to fill will hide its fields — flatten first with our flatten PDF tool, or keep a fillable original.
Annotation removal is permanent in the downloaded file. Keep your original reviewed PDF, and share only the cleaned copy.
Password-protected PDFs may fail to load in the browser. Only process files you own, and only remove a password you legitimately hold.
Adobe's online tools and most server-upload converters ask you to send your document to their servers before you can download a result — and their privacy pages say files may be kept for hours or used to improve services. For a petty-cash voucher, a work order, a purchase requisition or a deposit slip, that document contains supplier names, amounts, account details and internal approvals: exactly the data you least want sitting on someone else's server. This tool never uploads anything, so there is nothing to leak, retain or subpoena from a third party. The trade-off is honest too: because everything runs in your browser tab, the form clears if you refresh, and very large files can be slower than on a server. For everyday business documents, that trade is worth it — and the PDF you download is identical in quality, with no watermark and no account wall.
Yes — unlimited files, every page, PDF download, forever. No trial, no watermark, no account, no payment details. The cleaning happens in your browser, so there is nothing to meter.
No. The tool works the moment the page loads. There is no account and no email capture.
Only in this browser tab. The PDF is loaded, cleaned and saved on your own device — the document is never uploaded to any server.
Every entry in each page's Annots list: comments, highlights, underlines, sticky notes, link boxes and other markup annotations. Page text, images, fonts and layout are kept.
No. Annotations are a separate overlay layer defined by the PDF standard (ISO 32000); removing them leaves the underlying page content untouched.
No. Redaction removes visible page content; this tool removes only the annotation layer. For sensitive visible content, use our redact PDF tool as well.
Form fields display through widget annotations, so stripping annotations will hide fields on a form you still need to fill. Flatten the form first, or keep a fillable original and clean only the share copy.
Annotation behaviour follows ISO 32000 (the PDF standard), under which annotations form a layer separate from page content. Processing happens live in your browser; nothing is stored or transmitted. Researched by PDFBuddyFree Team · Last updated November 2, 2026.
Educational content only. Nothing on this site is legal or professional advice.