Convert PDF to text
Pull the words out of a PDF as plain text. No formatting, no layout — just the content, ready to paste anywhere or feed into another tool.
- Free
- No signup
- Runs in your browser
- Nothing uploaded
or browse your device
Convert PDF to text in three steps
- Add the PDFtext-based files only; a scan holds no text to extract.
- Choose how lines are handledkeep the original breaks, or join them into paragraphs.
- Download the .txtthe word count is shown before you save.
What you get
Nothing but the words
No fonts, no layout, no images — the smallest possible representation of what the document says.
Feeds other tools
Plain text is what search indexes, scripts and language models want as input.
Reading order preserved
Fragments are grouped into lines by position and ordered down the page, so the output reads the way the page does.
Limits and formats
| Input | Text-based PDF |
|---|---|
| Output | UTF-8 plain text |
| Line handling | Keep original breaks, or join into paragraphs |
| Page markers | Optional — label where each page begins |
| Multi-column pages | Read line by line across the page; columns may interleave |
| Scanned input | Not supported — a scan contains no text layer |
Common questions
Why did nothing come out?
The file is almost certainly a scan. A scanned page is a picture of text, not text, so there is nothing to pull out. The tool tells you when it finds no text rather than handing you an empty file.
How are multi-column pages handled?
Not well, and it is worth knowing before you rely on it. Lines are assembled by vertical position across the full width of the page, so two columns side by side will interleave. Single-column documents extract cleanly.
What is the difference between the two line modes?
Keeping line breaks reproduces the layout of the page, one output line per printed line. Joining into paragraphs runs everything together, which suits text you intend to reflow or paste into a document.
Does it keep bold and italics?
No. Plain text has no styling. If formatting matters, keep the PDF.
What encoding is the output?
UTF-8, so accented characters and non-Latin scripts survive intact.
Are my files uploaded?
No. The PDF is opened and read inside your browser, and the text file is assembled there too. Nothing is sent anywhere.
What people do around this step
Getting the words out of a document
- Convert PDF to textYou are here · pull the text out as a plain file
- Count pages in a PDFcheck how much you are working with first
- Split a PDFor separate the sections you need before extracting