PDF to Text
Get the words out of a PDF as plain text you can paste anywhere, without the layout, the fonts or the page furniture coming with them. It is free, needs no account, and adds no watermark to your result.
PDF to Text
Add your files. Recommended settings are ready, so you can process in one click.
PDF, Word, images, audio, video, archives and more
Up to 100 files · 250 MB · No account- 1Add files
- 2Choose an action
- 3Download or keep going
What people use it for.
What happens to your file.
The text layer is read straight out of the PDF and reassembled into paragraphs, using the spacing and line positions to decide where one paragraph ends and the next begins rather than breaking at every line. Running headers and footers repeat on every page, so they can be detected and dropped, which is what the optional header and footer removal does. The result is plain text: no fonts, no columns, no page numbers unless you keep them.
Where it stops: A scanned PDF holds pictures of words, not words, so nothing comes out; run it through PDF OCR first. Multi-column layouts are read in the order the text was written into the file, which is usually correct but occasionally interleaves columns. Tables lose their structure entirely, because plain text has no cells: use PDF to Excel if the numbers matter.
Everything you need, without a paywall.
Common questions.
How do I extract text from a PDF for free?
Upload the file and the text appears ready to copy, or download it as a TXT. No account, no watermark, no page limit.
Why did I get nothing back?
The PDF is almost certainly a scan, which holds images of words rather than text. Run it through PDF OCR first and then extract.
Can I keep the tables?
Not as tables. Plain text has no cells, so a table arrives as loose lines. Use PDF to Excel when the structure matters.
Will it include the headers and page numbers?
Only if you want them. Repeating headers and footers are detected and can be dropped, which is usually what you want for pasting.
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