Free · no signup · nothing uploaded
PDF to Text
Extract the text from a PDF into a plain .txt file, right in your browser — great for copying, searching, or reusing content.
Choose a PDF to extract text from
or drop your file here.
Pulls the text layer out to a plain .txt file
Runs in your browser — your file is never uploaded.
Short answer
To extract text from a PDF, choose your file and download a plain .txt with the document’s text, page by page. It reads the PDF’s text layer in your browser — nothing is uploaded. Note: scanned (image-only) PDFs have no text layer and need OCR, which this doesn’t do.
PDF to text guides
How to extract text from a PDF
- 1Open the tool. Open the PDF to text extractor — no signup.
- 2Choose your PDF. Select or drop the PDF file.
- 3Extract. The text layer is read in your browser.
- 4Download .txt. Save the extracted plain text.
Which PDFs give up their text
| Type of PDF | Text extraction | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Exported from Word, Pages, LaTeX | Complete | Real text is embedded in the file |
| Generated by a web or report tool | Complete | Text is drawn as text |
| Scanned paper (no OCR) | Nothing at all | Each page is a photograph of text |
| Scanned then OCR'd | Usually complete | OCR added an invisible text layer |
| Multi-column layouts | Reading order may jumble | Extraction follows the drawing order |
| Tables | Cell text only | The grid is drawn separately from the text |
| Password-protected | Nothing | Content is encrypted |
If a PDF returns no text at all, it is almost certainly a scan: the page is an image, and there is nothing to extract until it has been through OCR. Selecting text in your PDF viewer is the quickest way to check before converting.
Frequently asked questions
Does this work on scanned PDFs?+
No. Scanned documents are images with no text layer, so there's nothing to extract — you'd need OCR (optical character recognition) for those. This tool pulls out real, selectable text from digitally-created PDFs.
Are my PDFs uploaded?+
No. The text is read from the PDF entirely in your browser with pdf.js, so confidential documents never leave your device. It works offline once the page has loaded.
Will formatting be preserved?+
No — you get plain text, page by page, without fonts, columns, or layout. That's ideal for copying content, searching, or feeding text into another tool.
Why is some text missing or jumbled?+
Complex layouts (multi-column pages, tables) can extract in an unexpected reading order, and text stored as an image won't appear at all. The tool returns the text layer exactly as the PDF stores it.
Is it free?+
Yes — no signup, no watermark. It's ad-supported and runs entirely in your browser.
Related tools
Text is extracted from the PDF's text layer entirely in your browser and is never uploaded. Scanned/image PDFs have no text layer. Provided free and ad-supported, without warranty.