Answers before you ask.

You upload a PDF. We detect the encryption type, extract the password hash (never the file's content), then run a free quick test (~25 000 multilingual common passwords). If that fails we offer a paid Standard recovery (1h GPU, ~6.6 billion candidates). If Standard fails we offer Deep (+2h, +50B candidates) and finally Max (+3h, +100B candidates). You only pay once we actually find the password — and only for the tier that found it.

Three tiers of GPU effort. Standard runs 1 hour on an NVIDIA L4 GPU (~6.6 billion candidates) and costs 9-29€ depending on encryption. Deep adds 2 hours of GPU and ~50 billion more candidates (49€ flat). Max adds 3 more hours and ~100 billion candidates (99€ flat). You always start with Standard. If we don't find your password we offer the next tier — your card is never charged for a tier that didn't succeed.

Always start with Standard. If your password follows a common pattern (year + symbol like Summer2024!, dictionary word + digits, leetspeak) Standard usually finds it in under an hour. Upgrade to Deep only if Standard fails — it adds extended dictionaries and modern leak databases. Upgrade to Max only if Deep also fails — it brute-forces 7-character passwords. We never ask you to upgrade upfront.

It depends on the encryption type and the tier you choose. RC4-40 is essentially 100% at any tier. RC4-128 / AES-128 reach ~45% with Standard, ~65% with Deep, ~75% with Max. AES-256 (Acrobat 10+) is the hardest — ~20% with Standard, ~30% with Deep, ~38% with Max. Truly random 12+ character AES-256 passwords are not recoverable with any current technology — we are honest about that upfront.

The free quick test finishes in under 10 seconds (5-25 000 multilingual common passwords). Standard recovery runs for up to 1 hour on an NVIDIA L4 GPU. If you upgrade to Deep, +2 hours. If you upgrade to Max, +3 more hours. So Max-tier total can reach ~6 hours. You'll see real-time progress on screen with the active phase, and we'll email you when each tier finishes if you close the page.

AES-256 R=6 (Acrobat X+) uses a SHA-256 key derivation that is roughly 20 000× slower per guess than RC4-128 on the same GPU. On an NVIDIA L4, our Standard tier (1h) can only test ~50 million candidates against AES-256, vs ~1 billion against RC4-128. That's why our honest success rates are: Standard ~20%, Deep ~30%, Max ~38%. Truly random 12+ character AES-256 passwords are not recoverable with current technology — anyone claiming otherwise is misleading you.

Contact our support immediately. We will verify the password against your file. If it really doesn't open the PDF, we issue a full refund as a goodwill gesture. There is no contractual right of withdrawal because the digital service is delivered immediately, but we always make things right when something goes wrong.

Yes. All payments go through Stripe, which handles your card data. We never see or store your card number. Stripe takes care of currency conversion automatically — we only charge in EUR.

Yes — provided you own the PDF or have explicit authorization to access it. By using PDFUnlock you certify that the file is yours or that you have the right to recover the password. We are not liable for misuse.

Your PDF is stored in europe-west1 and automatically deleted 24 hours after upload. We extract only the encryption hash to feed to the cracker — we never read or process the file's actual content. Passwords are removed from our database 7 days after recovery.

The site, dashboard, and emails are available in 11 languages. The cracker itself works on any password regardless of language — we use rockyou and rule-based variations that cover Latin scripts well.

We support every version of PDF encryption that Adobe has released: RC4-40 (Acrobat 2-4), RC4-128 (Acrobat 5-8), AES-128 (Acrobat 9), and AES-256 (Acrobat 10 and later). The file itself can be any standard PDF — we extract the encryption header regardless of content, page count, or file size (up to 50 MB).

Currently you upload one file at a time. Each file gets its own analysis and recovery job. If you need to process many files, contact our support — we can arrange batch processing for enterprise customers.

An owner password restricts what you can do with a PDF (printing, copying, editing) but doesn't prevent opening the file. We remove those restrictions for free in seconds. A user password prevents opening the file entirely — that's real encryption. Recovering it requires GPU-powered cracking and is a paid service (pay-on-success only).

Everything is hosted in europe-west1 (Belgium, EU). Your PDF file is stored in Firebase Storage and automatically deleted 24 hours after upload. The encryption hash is stored in Firestore and deleted along with the job data. Recovered passwords are removed from our database 7 days after recovery. We never read or process the actual content of your document.

No. You can upload a PDF and get owner restrictions removed without any account or email. For paid password recovery, we only ask for an email so we can notify you when the job finishes (in case you close the browser). Creating a full account is optional and only needed if you want a dashboard to track multiple jobs.

You can reach us at the in-app support form or through the support form in your dashboard. We respond within 24 hours on business days. Support is available in 11 languages.