PDF to Text
Pull all text into a plain .txt file you can edit or paste anywhere. Free, no signup.
PDF to Text
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Drag & Drop PDF Here
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PDF only, up to 50 MB
Plain text from a PDF
How PDF Text Extraction Works
A PDF that was created from a word processor, web page, or other digital source contains a text layer: the actual character data positioned on each page. This tool reads that text layer page by page and writes it into a single plain-text file. Unlike a Word conversion, the output drops all styling, fonts, and layout, leaving you with clean, raw text that is ideal for copying, searching, feeding into other software, or quoting.
Pages are separated by a simple divider so you can tell where one ends and the next begins. The character data is preserved in reading order as stored in the document.
When Plain Text Is the Right Choice
- Reusing content: paste passages into an email, document, or content management system without dragging along PDF formatting.
- Data processing: feed the raw text into scripts, search indexes, or analysis tools.
- Accessibility: produce a lightweight text version that any device or screen reader can open instantly.
- Quoting and citation: quickly grab exact wording from a report or contract.
- Translation prep: extract the words before sending them to a translation workflow.
Text PDFs vs Scanned PDFs
This tool extracts an existing text layer; it does not read text from images. If your PDF is a scan: a photograph of a page with no underlying character data, there is no text layer to extract, and the tool will tell you so. In that case, run the file through OCR first to recognise the characters, then extract the text. If you need a formatted, editable document rather than plain text, use PDF to Word instead; for tables, use PDF to Excel.
Privacy
Your PDF is processed on the server and removed automatically a short time after the text file is generated. Nothing is stored long-term or shared.