PDF to Text
Pull the plain text out of a PDF, with the running heads, page numbers and broken hyphens cleaned up. It runs in your browser, so the file is never uploaded.
Coming soon
This tool isn’t available just yet — it’s on the way. Meanwhile, explore the other free tools.
Browse all tools0 bytes of your file have left this device. Counted live in this tab, not claimed — open your browser’s Network tab and watch.
What this does to your file
The whole list, so there are no surprises after you download.
- Text
- extracted in reading order
- Running heads and page numbers
- dropped
- Words hyphenated across a line
- rejoined
- Columns, tables and layout
- flattened away
- Runs on
- your device
Where this won’t help
Cases we’re the wrong tool for, and what to use instead.
A scanned PDF. No text layer to extract. Run OCR first. OCR a PDF →
You need the tables. Plain text loses the grid. PDF to Excel →
You want headings and lists kept. Markdown keeps the structure. PDF to Markdown →
How it works
- 1
Drop a PDF — the text is read on your device with the same engine as our other tools.
- 2
Running headers, footers and page numbers are dropped, and words broken across a line are rejoined.
- 3
Copy the text straight out, or download a .txt, Word file or clean PDF. Free, no signup.
Frequently asked questions
Why not just select all and copy?
You can, on a short document. On a long one you also copy the running header from every page, the page numbers, and words split across line breaks — so you spend longer cleaning it than reading it. This drops that furniture and rejoins the hyphens as it goes.
What does “Tidy for reading” do?
Three things: it removes lines that repeat at the same edge on half the pages or more (headers and footers), drops stray page numbers, and rejoins a word hyphenated across a line break. Untick it and you get the text exactly as the PDF holds it.
Will it work on a scanned PDF?
No — a scan is a picture of a page with no text layer to extract. The tool detects this and points you at OCR, which adds a text layer first.
Does it keep the layout?
No, and that’s the point of plain text. Columns, tables and boxes are flattened into reading order. If you need the table structure, use PDF to Excel; if you want headings and lists preserved, use PDF to Markdown.
Is my PDF uploaded?
No. Extraction happens in this browser tab, which matters because the documents people most want as text — contracts, statements, reports — are exactly the ones that shouldn’t be handed to a website.
Is it free?
Yes, unlimited and no signup. It runs on your machine, so it costs us nothing to offer.