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Extract text from a PDF

Copy all the text out of a PDF into a plain UTF-8 .txt file, separated page by page. It reads the text stored in the PDF; it does not recognise text in scanned pictures.

Choose files

Tap to pick files from your device

Free plan: 1 file per job. Each file up to 20,000,000 bytes and 50 pages. All selected files together up to 100,000,000 bytes. Encrypted PDFs have to be unlocked first.

This operation runs in your browser. Your files are not uploaded for processing.

Result

The result appears here after you run the tool.

How to extract text from a PDF

  1. 1

    Select or drop a PDF file.

  2. 2

    Extract the text.

  3. 3

    Download the .txt file.

What this tool does

  • Text read from the PDF itself, not guessed
  • One section per page, marked with its page number
  • UTF-8 with a byte order mark, so Notepad and Excel read it correctly
  • Works with Chinese, Japanese and Korean documents
  • Reads the file signature instead of trusting the file extension.
  • Copies real pages. Nothing is rasterized and no page is re-rendered.
  • Refuses encrypted PDFs instead of working around the protection.
  • Refuses digitally signed PDFs, because saving them again would break the signature.
  • Reports the measured size of the file your browser produced.

Questions about PDF to text

Why does it say my PDF has no text?
Because the pages are pictures, which is what a scanner or a phone scanning app usually produces. Reading text out of a picture needs text recognition (OCR), and that is not available on this site. Nothing is guessed in its place.
Is the layout kept?
No. A .txt file holds plain text only, so columns, tables, fonts and images are not kept. Lines appear in the order the PDF stores them, which is usually, but not always, the reading order.
Can I extract text from a password-protected PDF?
Unlock it first with the Unlock PDF tool, using the password you have.
Are my files uploaded to a server?
No. This tool runs inside your browser tab, so the file bytes are read and written on your own device and are never sent to us for processing. Closing the tab discards everything, which is also why results cannot be restored after a reload.
Do I need an account?
No. The free tools work without signing in. There is no account system yet, so nothing is stored between visits.

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