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PDF to Text Converter

Extract plain text from your PDF in seconds

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.PDF · up to 25 MB

Premium Feature

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Extraction Options

Add '--- Page N ---' dividers between pages in the output text

Try to preserve text positioning and column structure from the original PDF

How it works

  1. Select your PDF file using the button above or drag and drop it into the zone
  2. Optionally enable page numbers or layout preservation
  3. Click the convert button to extract text from your PDF
  4. Download your plain text (.txt) file

Note: Free users can extract text from PDF files with up to 30 pages. The extracted text is saved as a plain UTF-8 encoded .txt file.

Extract plain text from PDF files

PDF to Text extraction pulls all embedded text from your PDF and saves it as a plain UTF-8 encoded .txt file. This is ideal for data processing, indexing, archiving, or feeding content into other tools.

Text-based PDFs extract cleanly and quickly. For scanned documents, consider running OCR first to generate selectable text before using this tool.

Why Choose Our Tool?

Plain Text Output

Extracts all text content from your PDF into a clean, portable .txt file

Page Number Dividers

Optionally add page separators so you know where each page begins

Layout Preservation

Option to preserve text positioning and column structure from the original

Instant Extraction

Fast text extraction with immediate download

Tips for PDF Text Extraction

  • Enable page numbers to easily navigate large extracted documents.
  • For multi-column PDFs, try enabling layout preservation for better results.
  • Scanned PDFs require OCR before text extraction — use our PDF to Word tool for that.

PDF to Text FAQ

What text formats can be extracted from a PDF?
All selectable text embedded in the PDF is extracted. Scanned PDFs or image-based PDFs without embedded text will produce empty or minimal output.
What does the 'preserve layout' option do?
When enabled, the extractor tries to maintain the original text positioning and column structure of the PDF. This can help with multi-column documents but may add extra whitespace.
Will the output include images or tables?
No. Only plain text is extracted. Images are skipped, and table data is extracted as plain text rows without formatting.