# PII Redaction

> Redact personally identifiable information from scrape and parse output

import PIIPython from "/snippets/v2/scrape/pii/python.mdx";
import PIINode from "/snippets/v2/scrape/pii/js.mdx";
import PIICURL from "/snippets/v2/scrape/pii/curl.mdx";
import PIICLI from "/snippets/v2/scrape/pii/cli.mdx";

PII redaction replaces personally identifiable information in returned markdown before you send it downstream to agents, logs, vector stores, or analytics pipelines.

## How it works

Set `redactPII: true` on a scrape request. Firecrawl redacts the generated markdown and returns the redacted version in `markdown`. You do not need to pass `formats`; markdown is the default output.

<CodeGroup>

<PIIPython />

<PIINode />

<PIICURL />

<PIICLI />

</CodeGroup>

## Redaction options

For most requests, use `redactPII: true`. To tune redaction, pass an options object:

```json
{
  "redactPII": {
    "mode": "accurate",
    "entities": ["EMAIL", "PHONE", "SECRET"],
    "replaceStyle": "tag"
  }
}
```

| Option | Values | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| `mode` | `accurate`, `aggressive`, `fast` | `accurate` | Redaction strategy. `accurate` uses the model-only path, `aggressive` increases recall with additional heuristics, and `fast` skips the model call. |
| `entities` | `PERSON`, `EMAIL`, `PHONE`, `LOCATION`, `FINANCIAL`, `SECRET` | All entities | Limit redaction to specific entity buckets. |
| `replaceStyle` | `tag`, `mask`, `remove` | `tag` | Replace spans with tags like `<EMAIL>`, mask them with `*`, or remove the characters entirely. |

<Note>
The Firecrawl CLI and MCP server expose simple boolean redaction. Advanced options are available through the API and SDKs that expose the full `redactPII` options object.
</Note>

## Response

When redaction succeeds, `markdown` contains the redacted content:

```json
{
  "success": true,
  "data": {
    "markdown": "Contact us at <EMAIL> or <PHONE>.",
    "metadata": {
      "sourceURL": "https://example.com/contact"
    }
  }
}
```

For command-line viewing, pipe the markdown into your preferred renderer:

```bash cURL
curl -X POST https://api.firecrawl.dev/v2/scrape \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $FIRECRAWL_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  --data '{
    "url": "https://dlptest.com/sample-data.pdf",
    "redactPII": true
  }' | jq -r ".data.markdown" | glow
```

## Billing

PII redaction costs 5 credits per page: 1 base scrape credit plus 4 additional credits for redaction.

For parsed PDFs, each additional PDF page still incurs the normal PDF parsing credit and also receives the additional redaction charge.

## Availability

PII redaction is supported anywhere Firecrawl accepts scrape options:

- **Scrape** - set `redactPII` on `/v2/scrape`.
- **Crawl, batch scrape, and search** - pass `redactPII` inside `scrapeOptions`.
- **Parse** - pass `redactPII` inside the multipart `options` JSON.
- **SDKs** - Python uses `redact_pii`; JavaScript and other SDKs use `redactPII` or their native option casing.
- **CLI** - pass `--redact-pii` to `firecrawl scrape`.
- **MCP server** - include `"redactPII": true` in `firecrawl_scrape` tool arguments for simple boolean redaction.

> Are you an AI agent that needs a Firecrawl API key? See [firecrawl.dev/agent-onboarding/SKILL.md](https://www.firecrawl.dev/agent-onboarding/SKILL.md) for automated onboarding instructions.