Extract text from a PDF
When you just need the text of a PDF — to copy, reuse, or edit elsewhere — extracting it to .txt is the most direct route. The extraction happens in your browser: the file is never sent to a server.
Drag your files here
or click to select
How to extract text from a PDF in 3 steps
Add the PDF
Drag the PDF onto the upload area or click to pick it. The file is read only in your device's memory.
Extract
Click process. The text of every page is read and gathered into a single file.
Download the .txt
Download the text file. No copy is kept anywhere.
When to use it
Use text extraction to copy passages from a PDF that won't let you select well, reuse the content in another document, or get a light, editable version with just the text.
The result is a .txt file: light, universal and easy to open in any editor.
It works with real text
The tool reads the PDF's real text layer — the text you can select with your mouse. For most computer-generated PDFs (reports, contracts, e-books), this works very well.
PDFs that are only an image (scanned or photographed documents) have no embedded text, so the result may come out empty or incomplete. Those cases need optical character recognition (OCR), which is a different step.
It does not do OCR — and that changes everything
The tool reads the text layer that already exists inside the PDF. If your file came from a scanner, it is internally a photograph of each page: there is no embedded text, and the result will come out empty or nearly so.
The test is simple and takes seconds: open the PDF and try selecting a word with the mouse. If you can, extraction works. If the cursor only draws a rectangle over the page, it is an image, and you would need optical character recognition — which this site does not do.
The file stays on your device
Extraction runs in the browser, in the background. The PDF is not uploaded.
What to do when it comes back empty
A blank result almost always means a scanned PDF: internally it is a photo of each page, with no embedded text. Not a fault of the tool — there was nothing to extract.
The routes from there: redo the scan with text recognition switched on in the scanner or app itself, or use an OCR service. After that, extraction here works normally.
Use cases
- Copy passages from a PDF that won't let you select well
- Reuse the content of a PDF in another document
- Get a light, editable version with just the text
- Extract quotes or data from a report
- Move the text of an e-book into a text editor
Frequently asked questions
Does it keep formatting?
No. The output is plain text, with no colors, fonts or layout. To keep formatting, use the PDF to Word conversion.
Does it work with scanned PDFs?
Not reliably. PDFs that are only an image have no embedded text and would need OCR.
What if the PDF has several pages?
The text of every page is extracted and gathered into a single .txt file, in page order.
General questions about the site
- Is it free?
- Yes — no sign-up, no usage limit and no watermark.
- Does it work on mobile?
- Yes, straight from your Android or iPhone browser.
- Do I need to install anything?
- No. No software, no extensions.
- Is my file sent to a server?
- On tools marked as local, no — the file never leaves your device. Only three tools use a server, and each says so on its own page.
How this works inside, and what the site does not do, is on the About page.