Text extraction reads the words already stored in a PDF and writes them to a plain text file. It is not OCR: if the page is a picture of words, the extractor has nothing to read.
Step by step
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1
Upload your PDF
Drag your PDF onto the box or click Choose file. It is sent over an encrypted connection and only used for this task.
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2
Run it and download
Press PDF to Text and the page shows progress while it works. When it finishes you get a download link — nothing is emailed and nothing is stored longer than it needs to be.
Is the text real?
Try selecting a sentence in your PDF viewer. If it highlights, the PDF has a text layer and extraction will return it. If the page is a scan, run OCR first. This one check avoids most disappointing empty text files.
Reading order and line breaks
Text is stored by position, not by paragraph. Multi-column pages can come out interleaved, and justified text can introduce line breaks in the middle of sentences. Read the first few paragraphs and fix the order before feeding the text into another tool. Tables usually lose their grid; use PDF to Excel for data.
Check encoding and special characters
Accented characters, ligatures and symbols may change when the text leaves the PDF. Search for a name with an accent and a number with a currency symbol. If the output is for a database or a script, check the encoding rather than assuming UTF-8.
Good habits for PDF to Text
- Text PDFs convert best. If the page is a scan, run OCR first.
- Tables are detected by their alignment, so ruled lines convert most reliably.
- Check the result before deleting the original.
Common questions
Is this tool free?
Yes. Every tool on this site is free to use, with no sign-up, no watermark and no daily task limit.
Do I need to install anything?
No. The tools run in your browser and are processed by this server.
What happens to my files?
They are stored under an unguessable id and swept automatically after a couple of hours. Nothing is shared or indexed.
Does it work on a phone?
Yes. The page pickers and editors are built for touch, so dragging, rotating and selecting pages all work without a mouse.
What does PDF to Text do exactly?
Extract text from PDF. Copies all text from the PDF document and extracts it to a separate text file
Why is the extracted file empty?
The PDF is probably a scan without a text layer. Run OCR first, then extract the text from the searchable copy.
Can I keep the layout?
Plain text extraction keeps words, not the page design. Use PDF to Word if the layout matters.
Does extraction include comments?
It extracts page text, not annotations or form values. Remove or export those separately if they matter.