PDF to Text
Pull all the text out of a PDF into a plain TXT file you can search, copy or edit.
or drop them here · up to 50 MB per file, free
Bigger files? Pro converts files up to 500 MBOver the free limits: you can unlock the download from €1.99.
Working on it…
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Free · No sign-up · No watermark · Your files never leave your device
PDF to Text in 3 steps
- Select your PDF files, or drop them on the box.
- Click Extract text.
- Download the TXT file, or all of them in a ZIP.
Plain text from any digital PDF
Copying text out of a PDF by hand often breaks lines in odd places or misses pages. This tool reads the text layer of every page and writes it to a TXT file, line by line and in reading order, with a blank line between paragraphs and a marked break between pages. The result opens in Notepad, TextEdit, Word or any code editor and is easy to search or paste into another document, a translator or an AI tool.
It works with PDFs that contain real text, such as documents exported from Word, e-books, reports and invoices. A scanned page is only a photo of paper, so it has no text to extract: if your PDF is a scan, the tool tells you and sends you to OCR PDF, which reads the text in the pictures and also gives it to you as a TXT file. If you need headings and layout too, PDF to Word keeps more of the formatting.
Frequently asked questions
How do I convert a PDF to a TXT file?
Select the PDF and click Extract text. A TXT file with the text of every page downloads straight away. You can convert up to 20 PDFs at once and get them together in a ZIP.
What if my PDF is a scan?
A scan or a photo has no text inside, only a picture of the page, so there is nothing to extract and the tool says so. Use our OCR PDF tool instead: it reads the letters with optical character recognition and gives you a searchable PDF plus a TXT file.
Does it keep accents and other languages?
Yes. The TXT is saved in UTF-8, so accents, Greek, Cyrillic, Chinese, Japanese and other scripts come out as they appear in the PDF, as long as the PDF stores them as real text.
What is the difference between PDF to Text and PDF to Word?
PDF to Text gives plain text only, which is ideal for searching, pasting and processing. PDF to Word rebuilds headings, bold text, lists and images in an editable DOCX document.
Is my PDF uploaded to a server?
No. Everything happens inside your browser on your own device, so contracts, statements and other private documents are never sent to us or stored anywhere. Once the page has loaded it keeps working even without an internet connection.