PDF2Go
German browser PDF toolkit for converting, compressing, OCR and redaction.
Where your files are processed
Reported to upload your files
The vendor states that files are uploaded to their servers. We have not independently tested this. This covers the web service. We have not checked desktop app processing, and we do not extend the finding to it.
It is a hosted service: uploaded files go to the vendor’s servers to be processed, so the record describes the upload and the documented handling rather than declaring files unsuitable for confidential use, which is the reader’s assessment to make. Desktop offline operation is a vendor claim rather than a tested confidentiality guarantee, and the current download page lists Windows, macOS for Apple Silicon and Linux. EU residency would need an explicit data-processing source, because German ownership alone is not that.
What it does
PDF2Go is an online document service run by QaamGo Web GmbH in Germany, with well over a hundred tools for converting, editing, merging, splitting, compressing, OCR, e-signing, protecting and redacting PDFs and other file types. Free use needs no account; paid Starter, Pro and Business plans add larger files, batch processing up to 200 files, queue priority and credits. The web editions upload your file to PDF2Go's European servers, and a separate desktop app is advertised as working offline.
Best for: People who need a quick conversion or PDF fix in a browser without installing anything, and small teams that prefer a credit-based batch plan to a desktop licence.
Worth knowing: The free tier is limited and queued, AI and heavy jobs burn credits, and the web tools require uploading the document to their servers — unsuitable for confidential material unless you use the offline desktop app. The current pricing page supports paid batches of up to 200 files and up to 64 GB per task with tool-specific constraints, while the help pages still describe 400 files and 8 GB, so the two are recorded as a source conflict and the free maximum remains unspecified. The developer page offers URL-based integration and refers users to a partner service, which is not a native PDF2Go HTTP API.
Details, and where each comes from
Vendor statements, our own reading of their pages, and the things nobody has established yet, each answered separately. Where we have not confirmed something it says so rather than guessing, and a row nobody has established is greyed out.
- Versions covered
- Web · Windows · macOS · Linux · Android · iOS
- Website
- pdf2go.com
- Requires an account
- No
- Free tier
- Yes
- Watermark on the free tier
- Not verified
- Maximum file size
- Not verified
- Batch processing
- Yes
- Data residency
- European Union
- Open source
- No
- Self-hostable
- No
- Licence
- Proprietary
- Redaction
- Removes the content
- Programmatic access
- HTTP API
- Last availability check
- Responded in 215 ms 16 October 2026
Checked automatically by our own runner, not reported by the vendor. 100% of our last 30 checks got a response.
What the redaction verdict rests on
From the vendor's own documentation, read 22 September 2026. Not tested by us.
“After you draw the black boxes, the tool deletes the hidden content so it cannot be copied, selected, or searched. … Redacted files are processed to remove all marked content before download.”
What that does not establish: The vendor’s own words on the tool page, not a test we ran. The mechanism it describes — drawing black boxes — is also how covering tools describe themselves, and that one sentence is the only thing distinguishing them: we tested PDF Candy’s similar-looking tool and it covers rather than removes. The page separately claims it clears metadata, which is a different claim from removing the marked content. Test your own file.
What the vendor says
Claims are labelled rather than repeated as fact. Where we have checked something ourselves, it says so and shows when. Checked means we read the vendor's own page and it says what we recorded — not that we tested the behaviour, unless the note says we did.
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“Permanently remove sensitive content from a PDF file.”
Checked by us — the source says this Read 22 September 2026
Confirmed verbatim: "Permanently remove sensitive content from a PDF file." is the page's own strapline. The fuller copy claims more than the claim does, and both parts are worth recording because one of them is contradicted by our own observation. It says the tool "deletes the hidden content so it cannot be copied, selected, or searched", which is a claim about the marked area specifically — and our own test of this tool on 2026-09-21 could not place a mark at all, because the document is painted into a single landscape canvas with no element of its own, so that part is untested. Separately, the same page says "the tool works directly in the browser, and there is no need to install anything", and that is the sentence to be careful with: it reads as local processing, and it is not. Our own run observed the upload going to dragon.pdf2go.com/api/z. "No need to install anything" is true; "works directly in the browser" is about the absence of an installer, not about where the file goes, and a reader skimming it would reasonably conclude the opposite. Recorded as an observation on the page, not as a refutation of the claim, which the page does state.
Standing: Re-read and matched byte for byte
Check it yourself: the source, the SHA-256, and how we checked
- From
- the text a browser renders
- SHA-256
- fdd947dd6b15a2c980ed7192aad24e59268912e1f26b1d5bb26a73bc9b9d5991
- Note
- unstable by nature: the upload prompt was rewritten between reads ("Drop files or click here Choose File" against "Drop files here or click to upload Choose"), and a variant that DID reproduce was served moments earlier. The page appears to be A/B tested, which makes it a poor target for a content hash.
How we checked: Re-verified verbatim on 2026-09-22: https://pdf2go.com/redact-pdf re-rendered in headless Chrome with scripts/render-page.mjs and the claim's wording found in the rendered text. Originally verified on 2026-09-21. sourceHash is the SHA-256 of the re-rendered text, held as rv-pdf2go-com-redact-pdf-9d248060.txt.
Each claim is quoted from the vendor's own pages. This section describes what we have and have not checked — it is not a judgement about anyone.
Sponsorship is distribution, not an endorsement or a promise of search rankings, AI citations, traffic, or sales. This listing is a free entry, compiled from published sources.
Related reading
- Which PDF tools really redact — which tools remove the content rather than cover it.