PDF to Text
Pull the text out of any PDF.
100% private — runs in your browser, nothing is uploaded.
Click to upload or drag & drop a PDF
Select one PDF file
How to use the PDF to Text
- 1Upload a PDF
Drag and drop or click to select a PDF file with real text.
- 2Read
Every page is read in the browser and its text is joined into readable lines.
- 3Copy or download
Copy the whole text to the clipboard, or save it as a .txt file.
Free online PDF to text extractor
This PDF to text tool reads every character out of a PDF and hands you a plain-text version you can copy, edit or feed into another program. It works on articles, forms, statements, ebooks and any other PDF that was made from real text.
Text PDFs vs scanned PDFs
If your PDF came from Word, a browser, an accounting app or any other document tool, this extractor will work. If your PDF is a scan of paper — pictures of pages — then no text is actually stored in the file, so nothing can be extracted without OCR. A quick test: try to select text in your PDF viewer. If you can, extraction will work.
Private and offline-capable
Reading happens entirely in your browser using pdf.js. Nothing is uploaded, so your PDF is safe even when it contains sensitive information — bank statements, legal documents, medical reports, contracts.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I extract text from a PDF?
Upload your PDF and this tool pulls out every text run using pdf.js, joins them into readable lines, and shows the result. You can copy the text or download it as a .txt file.
Why does nothing come out for some PDFs?
PDFs made by scanning paper are actually images of text, not real text. Extraction cannot read them — you need OCR (optical character recognition) to convert the image to characters.
Are my files uploaded?
No. The PDF is read directly in your browser with pdf.js, so nothing is uploaded. Your document stays on your device, which makes this safe for private files.
Does the tool keep line breaks and paragraphs?
It preserves line breaks based on the vertical position of the text runs, which reads well for most documents. PDFs have no true concept of paragraphs, so exact formatting is not guaranteed.
Can I get the text of just one page?
Extraction runs on the whole document, but with the page markers turned on you can easily copy just the section you need. If you would rather cut the PDF down first, use Split PDF.
Is there a page or size limit?
There is no fixed limit. Because everything runs locally, the practical ceiling is your device's memory. Very long PDFs take a few extra seconds.