PDF to Text Converter

Extract the plain text of a PDF page by page, then copy it or save it as a .txt file. Everything happens in your browser — your file is never uploaded.

Drop a PDF to extract its text

or click to browse — max 50 MB

🔒 Text is extracted locally in your browser — your PDF is never uploaded to a server.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I extract text from a PDF?

Open the PDF, choose the pages and options you want, and click Extract text. The text appears in a box where you can copy it or download it as a UTF-8 .txt file.

Is my PDF uploaded to your servers?

No. The text is read by pdf.js running in your browser. The file is never uploaded, stored or logged, so you can safely process confidential documents.

Why is the extracted text empty?

Your PDF is probably a scan: each page is a picture and there is no text layer to read. Convert the pages to images and run them through an OCR tool such as our Image to Text converter.

What is the difference between keeping line breaks and reflowing paragraphs?

Keeping line breaks reproduces each line as it appears on the page, which suits code, tables and poetry. Reflowing joins the lines of a paragraph into one, which is better for pasting into an editor, translator or AI tool.

Does PDF to text keep tables and formatting?

No. Plain text has no fonts, colours or table cells. Words on the same line are kept together with spaces, but column alignment is approximate. Use PDF to Word if you need formatting.

Can I extract text from only some pages?

Yes. Enter a page range such as 1-3, 7 or 10- and only those pages are processed. You can also add a --- Page N --- separator between pages.

How PDF text extraction works

A PDF does not store paragraphs. It stores drawing instructions: "put these glyphs at this position in this font". A single line you read on screen may be split into dozens of fragments, and the spaces between words are often not stored at all — the gap is just a jump in position. That is why copying from a PDF viewer so often produces words glued together or lines in the wrong order.

This tool reads every text fragment with Mozilla's pdf.js, together with its coordinates and font size. Fragments that sit on the same baseline are grouped into a line and sorted from left to right. A space is inserted only where there is a visible gap between two fragments, so words are neither split nor merged. Larger vertical gaps mark paragraph breaks, and the end-of-line markers that pdf.js reports are respected.

Choosing the right output

  • Keep line breaks mirrors the page layout line by line. Choose it for source code, addresses, lists, lyrics or anything where line endings carry meaning.
  • Reflow paragraphs joins wrapped lines into flowing paragraphs and repairs words hyphenated at the end of a line. Choose it when pasting into a word processor, a translation tool or an AI assistant.
  • Page separators add a --- Page N --- marker before each page, which makes it easy to cite a page or split the text again later.
  • Page range accepts values like 1-3, 8, 12-, so you can pull a single chapter out of a long report.

Scanned PDFs and OCR

If a PDF was produced by a scanner or a phone camera, each page is an image. There are no characters to extract, only pixels. The tool detects pages without a text layer and tells you, instead of silently returning an empty file. To read those pages you need optical character recognition (OCR): export the pages as images and run them through an OCR tool, then paste the result wherever you need it.

Common uses

  • Quoting a contract clause or research paper without retyping it.
  • Feeding documents into search indexes, scripts or data pipelines that expect plain UTF-8 text.
  • Comparing two versions of a document with a text diff tool.
  • Making long reports readable on e-readers and screen readers that struggle with PDF layout.
  • Counting words in a manuscript or translation quote that only exists as a PDF.

A note on accuracy: some PDFs map their fonts to characters incorrectly, so extracted text may show odd symbols even though the page looks fine. Multi-column layouts are read in the order the document stores them, which is usually column by column. Always proofread extracted text before relying on it for legal or financial purposes.

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