PDF to Text Converter
Extract selectable text from a PDF free — copy it or download a .txt file, with word count. Runs privately in your browser, nothing uploaded.
About the PDF to Text Converter
Pull the plain text out of any text-based PDF in one click. The tool reads the document's text layer with pdf.js, reconstructs the reading order line by line, and gives you the full contents in an editable box you can copy or download as a .txt file. It even reports the page count and word count.
This is the fast way to reuse a report, quote a contract, feed text into another tool, or move content out of a PDF without retyping it. Because it reads the embedded text layer, extraction is accurate and instant for digitally created PDFs.
Everything happens locally in your browser — the PDF is never uploaded, stored or logged, so sensitive documents stay private. Scanned PDFs (which are images of text with no text layer) will come back empty; for those, use an OCR tool instead.
How to Use the PDF to Text Converter
- 1Upload the PDF you want to extract text from.
- 2Click Extract Text to read the document.
- 3Review and, if needed, edit the extracted text.
- 4Copy it or download it as a .txt file.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is the extracted text empty or garbled?
If nothing comes back, the PDF is almost certainly a scan — an image of text with no underlying text layer to read. Run it through an OCR PDF tool first. Occasional spacing quirks can happen with unusual fonts or multi-column layouts; you can tidy those in the editable box before copying.
Does it keep the original formatting?
It extracts the text content and preserves line and paragraph breaks based on the page layout, but not fonts, colours, tables or images. The output is clean plain text, which is exactly what you want for copying into another document or tool.
Is my PDF uploaded to a server?
No. The text is extracted in your browser using pdf.js and never leaves your device. That makes the tool safe for contracts, statements and other confidential files.
Can I extract text from a multi-page PDF?
Yes. Every page is processed and the text is joined together in order, with the total page and word counts shown above the output. There is no page limit.