How to remove the password from your bank statement PDF

Bank statement PDF password formats: where to find yours

Banks choose the password, and the rule is normally stated in the e-mail or on the download page. Only rely on what your bank itself says — password "formats" copied between websites are often out of date or simply wrong. These are the formats the banks document on their own pages:

Lost the e-mail or the rule? Download the statement again from net banking or the app, or contact the bank. Never try to guess or crack a password on a document that isn't yours.

Remove the password with Chrome or Edge (free)

Open the PDF in the browser (drag it into a tab), enter the password, then press Ctrl+P (⌘+P on a Mac). Set the destination or printer to Save as PDF and save under a new name. The copy has no password.

If the bank's PDF restricts printing, the browser may refuse to print it or save the pages as images. Image pages look fine but have no selectable text, which makes later conversion to Excel slower and less reliable. In that case use one of the methods below, or upload the original locked file to a converter that accepts the password.

Remove the password on a Mac with Preview

Open the statement in Preview and enter the password. Then choose File → Print, open the PDF menu at the bottom of the print dialog and choose Save as PDF; don't set a password in Security Options. Recent macOS versions also have File → Edit Permissions, where the Require Password To Open Document setting can be turned off before you save.

Remove the password with Adobe Acrobat

The free Acrobat Reader can open a protected PDF but can't remove the password; you need a paid Acrobat plan (Standard or Pro). Open the file with the password, then remove it in the Protect tool — Adobe's instructions give the path as Tools → Protect → Encrypt → Remove Security. Save the file, ideally under a new name.

Remove the password with qpdf (command line)

For many files at once, the free, open-source qpdf tool decrypts a PDF when you give it the password: qpdf --password=YOURPASSWORD --decrypt statement.pdf statement-unlocked.pdf. It keeps the text layer intact, works offline and can be looped over a folder of statements that share one password.

Is it safe to use online PDF unlockers?

A bank statement contains your name, address, account number and every payment you made. Uploading it to an unknown "PDF password remover" means trusting that site with all of it, and not every free tool says how long it keeps them. The offline methods above do the same job without the file leaving your computer.

If the reason you're unlocking the PDF is to convert it, skip the unlocking step. Bank Statement Categorizer accepts password-protected PDFs directly: you enter the password once, it's used to open the file and never stored, and the uploaded file itself is processed in memory and never stored either. See how we handle your data.

Converting a password-protected statement to Excel

1. Upload the locked PDF — or several months at once.
2. Enter the password when asked. It opens the file once and is then discarded.
3. Check the result: each statement is balance-checked against its opening and closing balances, and rows that don't add up are flagged with their page number.
4. Export to Excel or CSV — or, for accounting software, QuickBooks, Xero, OFX or QIF. Accountants in India can use the Excel file to enter and reconcile vouchers in TallyPrime.

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