PDF to Text
Extract the text from a PDF.
Extract the text from a PDF.
How to use PDF to Text
- Open the PDF you want to read text from
- Let the tool extract the plain, unformatted text
- Copy the text into a document or email
About PDF to Text
PDF to Text pulls the plain, selectable text out of a PDF so you can copy, edit, or reuse the words without retyping them. Open a document and the tool reads the text from every page and lays it out as clean, unformatted text — a fast way to lift a few paragraphs from a report, grab the exact wording from a contract, or move content out of a PDF and into a document or email.
Because it hands you the raw words, it's also a simple route to editing text that's locked inside a PDF: copy the extracted text into your word processor, make your changes there, and you're done — no PDF editing software to buy or install. The result is plain text only, so fonts, colours, tables, and images aren't carried over; that's deliberate, since it keeps the output easy to paste anywhere. Note that this works in one direction — it reads text from PDFs but doesn't turn a text file back into a PDF.
It works on PDFs that already contain real, embedded text rather than scanned pages, which are stored as images with no letters to read. Everything is completely free — no account, no sign-up, no watermarks, and no usage limits. It runs entirely in your browser using pdf.js, so your document is processed on your own device and never uploaded to a server.
Frequently asked questions
- Is the PDF to Text tool free?
- Yes, it is completely free with no account, no sign-up, and no usage limits. You can extract text from as many PDFs as you like.
- Is my PDF uploaded to a server?
- No. The document is read entirely in your browser using pdf.js, so it stays on your own device. Nothing is uploaded, stored, or sent anywhere.
- How do I convert a PDF to text and what do I get back?
- Open your PDF and the tool extracts the text from its pages as plain, unformatted text that you can copy or save. Fonts, colours, and layout aren't carried over — only the words come across.
- Does it keep the original formatting and images?
- No. It returns plain text only, so styling, tables, and images are left out. That keeps the result easy to paste into another document, where you can format it however you need.
- How do I edit the text in a PDF file?
- Extract the text here, then paste it into a word processor like Word, Google Docs, or a plain text editor and make your edits there. This tool doesn't rewrite the PDF in place; it gives you the words so you can change them in whatever app you prefer, then save or re-export from there.
- Can this convert a text file to a PDF?
- No, this tool only works in one direction: it reads text out of PDFs. Turning a .txt or Word document into a PDF is the reverse job and needs a different tool, such as your app's Print to PDF or Save as PDF option.
- Do I need to install PDF-to-text converter software?
- No. This is a free online converter that runs in the browser, so there's nothing to download, buy, or install. Open the page, load your PDF, and copy the text out.
- Does it use OCR or text recognition?
- No. It reads the real, embedded text already stored in the PDF rather than recognising letters from an image. If your file is a scan or photo of a page, you'd need a separate OCR (optical character recognition) tool, which this doesn't include.
- Can it read text from a scanned PDF?
- Only if the PDF already contains real, selectable text. A scanned page is saved as an image, so there is no text to extract and the tool cannot read it by sight.
- Can I convert several PDF files to text?
- Yes. There are no limits, so you can run one PDF after another and copy the text from each. Load a file, grab its text, then open the next one.