PDF to Text
Pull just the text out of a PDF and save it as a text file, ready to paste, search or translate.
Add one PDF file to convert to text.
or drop a file here
Files never leave your device. Everything runs in your browser.
How to use it
- Click "Choose a file" or drop the PDF you want to convert.
- Set a page range if you only need some pages.
- For a scanned PDF, check the text recognition languages.
- Click "Convert to text" and download the .txt file.
What it does
Clean paragraphs
Lines broken up by the PDF are joined back into paragraphs, so the text reads naturally.
Tables with tabs
Table cells are separated by tabs, so pasting into Excel keeps the columns.
Scanned pages too
Pages without a text layer are read with text recognition in the languages you pick.
Page markers
Multi-page documents get a marker like "— Page 2 —" so you can find where text came from.
No upload
Text is extracted inside your browser; the document never leaves your device.
Good to know
Plain text opens on any device and in any program. It is ideal for pasting meeting notes or paper excerpts into a chat, feeding a translator or word counter, or keeping documents searchable.
Fonts, bold and pictures are not kept; use PDF to Word if you need the layout. The file is saved as UTF-8, so accented letters, Korean and Japanese open correctly.
Questions and answers
Can I extract only the text from a PDF?
Yes. Add the PDF and click "Convert to text" to get a .txt file containing just the text.
Special characters look wrong in my editor.
The file is UTF-8 with a marker at the start that Windows Notepad recognizes. In other programs, choose UTF-8 when opening it.
Does it work on scanned PDFs?
Yes. Pages without a text layer are read with text recognition, which can misread a few characters, so give it a quick check.
How are tables handled?
Cells are separated by tabs. Paste the text into Excel and the columns line up.
Can I count the words too?
Paste the extracted text into Character Counter to see words and characters at once.