PDF to text: extract the words from any PDF
Extract plain text from any PDF file in seconds.
To convert a PDF to text, upload the file, optionally enter the pages you want, and the tool shows the extracted text on the page with a button to download it as a .txt file. It reads the text layer that already exists in the PDF, in page order, with a blank line between pages. It does not do OCR, so a scanned PDF made of page photos will return nothing until you add a text layer.
How to extract text from a PDF
Choose a PDF up to 25 MiB. Leave the page field empty to extract every page, or type pages and ranges such as 1-3,5 to pull out only those. Submit the form, read the text in the result box and use the download button to save it as a plain text file. Nothing needs to be installed.
What the text output looks like
You get plain text only. Each page's text is trimmed and the pages are joined with a blank line between them. Fonts, bold, tables, columns and images are not kept, and the order of words follows how the PDF stores them, which can differ from the visual order on pages with several columns or sidebars. Check tables and multi-column pages by eye.
Scanned PDFs and empty results
If a PDF is a scan, each page is a picture and there is no text to read, so the tool shows a warning that no text could be extracted. Run the file through Searchable PDF first, which uses OCR to add a text layer, then extract the text from that result. Password-protected PDFs are not accepted here; remove the password with the PDF Password tool first.
When to use a different tool
If you want an editable document instead of a text file, PDF to Word keeps paragraphs and page breaks in a DOCX. If you need pictures from the file, use Extract PDF Images. To read text from a photo or screenshot rather than a PDF, use the image-to-text OCR tool.
Frequently asked questions
How do I copy text from a PDF that will not let me select it?
Try this tool first. If it reports that no text could be extracted, the PDF is probably a scan made of images. Run it through Searchable PDF to run OCR and add a text layer, then extract the text.
Can I extract text from only some pages?
Yes. Enter page numbers and ranges in the optional field, for example 1-3,5. Only those pages are included, in the order you list them. Leave it blank and every page is extracted. A page number beyond the document length returns an error.
Does PDF to text keep formatting and tables?
No. The result is plain text with a blank line between pages. Bold, fonts, images and table borders are dropped, and table cells come out as lines of text. Expect to tidy tables by hand after extracting.
Is there a size limit for PDF to text?
Each upload can be up to 25 MiB, and the tool handles one PDF at a time. For a bigger file, cut it into parts with Split PDF and extract the text from each part separately.
Will it read a password-protected PDF?
No. Encrypted PDFs are rejected with an error. If you know the password, run the file through the PDF Password tool and choose Remove password, then upload the unlocked copy here to extract the text.
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