PDF Text Extractor
Extract all the text from a PDF and copy it or download it as a plain .txt file, entirely in your browser.
Drag & drop a PDF here, or click to browse
No uploads. Your files stay on your device.
Leave the Pages box empty for the whole document, or enter something like 1-3, 5.
How it works
Drop a PDF and every word in it is pulled out with PDF.js right inside your browser — the
file is never uploaded, so contracts, invoices, statements and research papers stay on your
device. Text is read in reading order, page by page, and appears in the box below
immediately. Copy it to the clipboard or download it as a plain .txt file.
Choose Keep the original line breaks to preserve the layout of the page, or
Merge wrapped lines into paragraphs to rejoin sentences that the PDF broke
across lines — handy when you want to paste the text into a document without ragged wrapping.
Use the Pages box to extract only part of a long document, and untick
Add page markers if you do not want the === Page 1 === headings.
Scanned PDFs contain pictures of text rather than real characters, so nothing can be
extracted from them without OCR — the tool tells you when that is the case.
Frequently asked questions
How do I extract text from a PDF without uploading it?
Drop the PDF onto this page. It is read with PDF.js inside your own browser tab, so the file is never sent to a server — there is no upload, no account and no size quota. The text of every page appears instantly in the box below, ready to copy to the clipboard or download as a plain .txt file. Because nothing leaves your device, it is safe for contracts, invoices, payslips and anything else confidential.
Can I extract text from a scanned PDF?
No — a scanned PDF contains a picture of a page rather than real characters, so there is no text to pull out. This tool tells you when that is the case instead of returning an empty file. To get text from a scan you need OCR (optical character recognition), which recognises the letters in the image. A quick way to check: open the PDF in any reader and try to select a word with your mouse. If nothing highlights, it is a scan.
Why is my extracted text full of odd line breaks?
PDFs store text as fixed positions on a page, so a line break is baked in at the end of every visual line rather than at the end of every sentence. Switch "Line handling" to "Merge wrapped lines into paragraphs" and the wrapped lines are rejoined into flowing sentences, with a break kept after full stops, question marks and colons. Keep the default setting instead when you want the original page layout preserved.