Privacy-first tools for your files
All processing happens locally in your browser. Your files never leave your device.
Local only
Everything runs in your browser with WebAssembly. Zero bytes are uploaded.
No accounts
No sign-up required. Optional analytics with your explicit consent.
What PlainFile is
A small set of browser tools for the files people would rather not hand over: a bank statement with an account number, a W-9 with a tax identification number, a passport application, or an iPhone photo that quietly records where you were standing.
The usual way to handle those files online is to upload them to somebody's server and hope for the best. The point of this site is that there is no "somebody's server" involved: the tool you are looking at is the software, running in the tab you already have open.
Why "local" is the whole product, not a feature
- There is no upload path to forget about. No file-processing backend exists, so there is no retention policy to read, no "we delete after an hour" promise to trust, and no database to leak.
- It is checkable in ten seconds. Open the Network tab while you work and watch the requests: no file bytes leave. This is the kind of claim that should be verified rather than believed, and the privacy page explains exactly how.
- It keeps working when the network does not. After the first load the engine is cached, so you can disconnect and keep redacting, converting and stripping metadata. Convenient on a plane; useful as proof everywhere else.
How the tools are checked
A privacy claim is only as good as the engineering behind it. PDF redaction here deletes content from the document structure, then re-opens its own output and verifies that the removed terms can no longer be extracted — the "Verified: 0 matches" step is a test, not a badge. Document metadata, annotations, embedded files and JavaScript are cleared as part of the same rebuild.
The source is public under AGPL-3.0 at github.com/plainfile/plainfile. When a limit exists, it is stated on the tool page rather than discovered halfway through a file.
Frequently asked questions
Are these tools really free?▼
Yes — no account, no watermark, no daily quota and no paid tier waiting behind the download button. The honest limits are stated on each tool: roughly 50 MB and ~200 pages for PDFs, and no OCR, so scanned documents are redacted with manual rectangles.
Do my files get uploaded to a server?▼
No. There is no file-processing backend at all: PDFs, photos and forms are opened in browser memory and processed by WebAssembly on your device. Nothing about the file is sent anywhere.
How can I verify that instead of taking your word for it?▼
Open the Network tab, process a file, and watch that no request carries its bytes. Or disconnect from the internet after the page loads and keep working — the tools are cached and run offline. The code is public as well.
What can I actually do on this site?▼
Permanently remove text, images and metadata from a PDF; fill official forms such as W-9, I-9, DS-11, DS-82, W-4 and the Schengen visa application; convert iPhone HEIC photos to JPG or PNG in batches; and inspect or strip EXIF metadata, including GPS coordinates, from photos.
Does it work offline or on a phone?▼
Both. After the first visit the app shell and the processing engine are cached, so the tools keep working with no connection. They run in a normal mobile browser — nothing to install, which matters when the file is on your phone in the first place.
Is the source code available?▼
Yes, under AGPL-3.0 on GitHub. That is the point of the promise above: a claim about secret-free processing is only worth something if you can read the code that does the processing.