PDF to Text
Pull the text out of a PDF and download it as a clean .txt file.
How to use the PDF to Text
- Upload your PDF (or several at once).
- Click Extract text.
- Download the .txt file with the extracted text.
About the PDF to Text
This tool pulls the text out of a PDF and gives it back as a plain .txt file you can edit, search or paste anywhere. It reads the document's real text layer — the actual characters stored in the file — so extraction is fast and accurate for PDFs that were created digitally, such as exports from Word, web pages or design tools.
It is the quickest way to reuse content trapped in a PDF: quoting a report, repurposing an article, or feeding text into another tool. You can upload several PDFs at once and get each result back individually. Files are processed under random names on our server and deleted the moment the request ends — nothing is stored and there is no watermark.
One limitation to know: a scanned document is really a picture of text, with no text layer to read, so it will come back empty — that needs OCR, not extraction. If you want lightweight structure instead of flat text, PDF to Markdown keeps headings and lists. To create a PDF from text, see text to PDF.
Frequently asked questions
Why is my extracted text empty?
The PDF is probably a scan or image with no text layer. Extraction can only read real text; scanned pages need OCR software instead.
Can I convert several PDFs at once?
Yes. Upload multiple files and each is converted separately, with its own download plus a Download All option.
Is the formatting preserved?
This tool returns plain text, so layout and styling are dropped. For headings and lists, try PDF to Markdown.