Extract Text from PDF — Free PDF to Text Converter
Pull every word out of any PDF in seconds. Copy the text or download a clean .txt file — your PDF never leaves your device, no signup, no page limits, free forever.
Your PDF
Drop your PDF here or click to browseText-based PDFs only — scanned image PDFs contain no extractable text.
0 pages0 words0 characters
100% private
Extraction runs entirely in your browser with a local PDF engine. Your file is never uploaded to any server.
No signup
No account, no email, no waiting room. Drop a PDF and read the text instantly.
Free forever
Unlimited PDFs, unlimited pages. No watermarks, no daily caps, no trial.
How to extract text from a PDF
1Upload your PDF
Drag and drop the file onto the box above, or click it to browse your device. Any text-based PDF works — reports, ebooks, contracts, resumes.
2Let the page engine read it
The tool opens your PDF page by page right in your browser and pulls the text in reading order. A progress bar shows how far along it is.
3Copy or download the text
Hit Copy Text to paste it anywhere, or Download .txt to save a plain-text file named after your PDF. Toggle page separators off if you want one continuous block.
Features
Truly local extraction
A real PDF text engine (pdf.js) runs inside this page — unlike Adobe’s online tool or Smallpdf, nothing you open here is ever uploaded.
Whole document, one pass
Every page is read in order, with line breaks preserved, so multi-page reports come out as one clean block of text.
Live word and character counts
See pages, words, and characters instantly — handy for checking article length, resume keywords, or contract size.
Copy or download
Paste straight into Word, Google Docs, or an email, or grab a .txt file that keeps your PDF’s original filename.
Optional page separators
Leave the “Page 1 / Page 2” markers on to know exactly where each page ends, or switch them off for uninterrupted text.
Honest about scanned PDFs
Image-only scans contain no real text, and this tool tells you so instead of returning gibberish — those need OCR, not extraction.
Frequently asked questions
Is my PDF uploaded anywhere?
No. The entire extraction happens inside your browser tab using a local PDF engine. Close the tab and nothing remains — not even on our servers, because your file never reaches them.
Does it work on scanned PDFs?
No — a scanned PDF is just pictures of pages, with no actual text inside to extract. This tool only reads real embedded text. Scanned documents need OCR (optical character recognition), which is a different kind of tool.
What kinds of PDFs are supported?
Any standard text-based PDF: reports, ebooks, invoices, resumes, contracts, academic papers. Password-protected PDFs are not supported — remove the password first.
Is there a page limit?
No. Extract from a 2-page memo or a 500-page manual — there are no caps, queues, or “upgrade for more pages” prompts.
Why isn’t the formatting perfect?
PDFs store individual letters at fixed positions, not paragraphs. This tool reconstructs reading order and line breaks, which works great for normal documents — but multi-column layouts or complex tables may come out in a different order than they appear visually.
Can I extract only certain pages?
Currently the tool reads the whole document at once. For a section of a large PDF, split out the pages you need first (our PDF Toolkit can do that) and extract from the smaller file.
Is it really free?
Yes — unlimited extractions, no account, no watermark, no catch. Unlike tools that charge per document, everything runs on your own device so there is nothing to pay for.
