From security and GDPR to pricing — answers to the most common Blackline AI questions.
Blackline AI is a web-based document redaction tool that uses AI and OCR to automatically detect sensitive data — names, addresses, IBANs, emails, amounts and more — in PDFs and images, and exports a permanently redacted PDF.
Redaction is the permanent removal of sensitive text from a document. Unlike simply drawing a black box over text in a regular PDF editor, true redaction makes the underlying content unrecoverable, even by copy-paste or text extraction.
Lawyers, tax advisors, HR teams, doctors, real estate agents, insurance brokers, journalists, public authorities and anyone who needs to share documents while protecting personal data under GDPR.
No. Blackline AI runs entirely in your browser. Open the app, upload a document, and you're ready to redact.
Yes. The Free plan lets you redact 3 documents per month (up to 5 pages each) at no cost and with no account needed to start.
Yes. PDF rendering, OCR, and the final export happen entirely in your browser. Only the extracted text — not the file itself — is sent to the AI for detection. The redacted PDF is generated locally on your device.
No. Blackline AI re-renders each page as a flattened image before embedding it into the final PDF. There is no hidden text layer, no copyable content, and no recoverable data beneath the black bars.
Yes. Because documents stay in your browser and only text is sent for AI detection, processing is minimal and transparent. A Data Processing Agreement (DPA) is available on the Business plan.
Nowhere by default. Files are processed in your browser session and discarded when you close the tab. We do not retain uploaded documents.
No. Your documents are never used for model training.
PDF, JPG and PNG. Multi-page PDFs are fully supported, including scanned documents thanks to built-in OCR.
Names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, IBAN and bank account numbers, credit card numbers, monetary amounts with currency, customer and contract numbers, tax IDs, ID and passport numbers, dates of birth, and company names.
Yes. You can draw your own redaction rectangles directly on any page, and you can remove individual AI-suggested redactions with a single click — useful when you want to keep one specific value visible.
Yes. The built-in OCR engine recognizes text in scanned PDFs and image files, so redaction works even on documents that contain no selectable text.
Most single-page documents are analyzed in seconds. OCR and AI detection run in parallel across pages, so even multi-page PDFs are processed quickly.
Yes. PDF is the default and recommended format. If you uploaded an image, you can also export as JPG or PNG.
Free for 3 documents per month. Paid plans start at €4.90/month (Starter), €9.90/month (Pro), and €29/month (Business). A €2.90 Day Pass is also available for one-off use.
Yes. The Pro plan at €9.90/month is roughly 2.5× cheaper than Adobe Acrobat Pro and includes AI detection, which Acrobat does not.
Yes. All paid plans are billed monthly and can be cancelled at any time from your account — no contract, no cancellation fees.
Annual billing with a discount will be available shortly after launch.
Yes. The Business plan includes 3 team seats and API access. For larger teams, custom Enterprise pricing with SSO, on-premise deployment and a DPA is available on request.
Yes. Blackline AI is specifically built to handle redaction in subject access requests, removing third-party personal data before disclosure.
Yes. The flattened PDF export contains no recoverable text behind the redactions, making it suitable for legal disclosure where permanent removal of confidential information is required.
Yes. Patient names, dates of birth, addresses and identifiers can be detected and removed before sharing records for research or insurance purposes.