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Redact text with chat in Acrobat
Last updated on
Oct 13, 2026
Learn how to redact text in your PDF using natural language with the AI Assistant in Adobe Acrobat.
Before you begin
Redact text with chat is available to paid Acrobat users, with the app language set to English. Check the supported tools and actions to confirm what is available on your plan.
When working with PDFs in Acrobat, the AI Assistant understands your document structure and content, so you can describe what you want to redact in plain language. It identifies one or all matching instances by meaning, shows you a preview, and asks for confirmation before permanently removing the information. You can choose to redact a specific instance or all instances of the identified confidential information.
Redact text with chat
Select AI Assistant in the top bar to open the chat panel.
In the chat field, describe the change in plain language. For example:
- To redact specific instances: Redact the Social Security number in the application form.
- To redact all instances: Redact all personal identifiers (PII) from the document.
Select Submit.
Review the highlighted text and the number of matches found.
Tip
To redact all matching instances without reviewing them individually, select Redact all from the top ribbon of the viewer pane.
When multiple matches are found, select Next to preview each one as AI Assistant takes you through them individually. If you do not wish to redact a specific instance, select Don’t redact this.
Select Redact all to permanently remove every matching instance.
In the Apply redactions dialog box, keep Remove metadata and hidden document information turned on to help prevent hidden sensitive data from being shared, then select Confirm.
Alert
Review your redactions carefully before saving the PDF. After you save it, the redacted information cannot be recovered.
