PDF to Text Converter
Extract clean, accurate text from any PDF — reflowed for reading or aligned to preserve layout.
Extract Text From PDF — Plain Text Output in Seconds
Sometimes you do not need the formatting, the images, or the layout. You just need the words. A researcher pulling quotes from a paper, a developer feeding content into a CMS, a student copying notes into Anki flashcards — all of them need the raw text from a PDF without the overhead of tables, fonts, and page geometry.
Our PDF to Text converter strips everything except the readable text from your document. Choose reading mode for clean paragraphs in the correct reading order, or layout mode to keep columns and tables aligned like pdftotext -layout. The output is a clean .txt file ready to paste into any editor, terminal, spreadsheet, or script. Scanned PDFs are handled automatically through OCR, so even photographed documents produce editable text. No signup and no watermark: 2 free tasks a day (3 with a free account).
How to Extract Text From a PDF
The tool works in two modes without you having to choose. If the PDF has selectable text it is extracted directly; if the file is a scan or a photo, OCR kicks in automatically.
1. Upload the PDF
Drop a file from your device, Google Drive, or Dropbox. Text-based and scanned PDFs are both supported.
2. Auto-Detect or OCR
The engine checks whether the PDF has embedded text. If not, it applies OCR in 14 languages to recognise and extract the content.
3. Assemble the Text
Paragraphs are placed in natural reading order. Columns, headers, and footers are handled so the output reads like a normal document.
4. Download the .txt File
A plain text file with UTF-8 encoding is ready to download. Copy-paste it anywhere or feed it into your script or pipeline.
Why This PDF to Text Extractor Works Better
Basic copy-paste from a PDF viewer jumbles columns, loses line breaks, and turns tables into scrambled rows. Our parser understands page layout and reassembles the text in the correct reading order.
Smart Column Detection
Two-column academic papers and newspaper layouts are reassembled so text flows left-column-first, then right-column — not zigzagging across lines.
OCR in 30+ Languages
Scanned documents are recognised in English, Hindi, Tamil, Marathi, Spanish, French, German, Arabic, Chinese, and more.
Clean Paragraph Breaks
Line wrapping inside paragraphs is collapsed, and real paragraph breaks are preserved, so the output reads naturally in any text editor.
UTF-8 Encoding
Output uses UTF-8, so non-Latin characters, accented letters, currency symbols, and mathematical notation display correctly everywhere.
Free Daily Allowance
Extract text from 2 PDFs a day without an account, or 3 with a free account, with no forced waiting between conversions.
Privacy First
Runs in your browser — your file never leaves your device. No account needed.