PDF to Text free
Pull all the text out of a PDF so you can copy, edit, search or translate it.
- 100% freeNo sign-up, no watermark
- PrivateFiles never leave your device
- FastRuns instantly in your browser
- Any deviceMac, Windows, iPhone, Android
How to pdf to text online
Three steps, no learning curve.
- 1
Add your PDF.
- 2
The text is extracted page by page.
- 3
Copy it or download it as a .txt file.
Why use this PDF to Text tool
- Extracts text from every page
- Copy to clipboard in one click
- Download as plain .txt
- Keeps page breaks
Reuse text without retyping
Copying from a PDF viewer often breaks lines and loses spacing. Extracting gives you clean text per page, ready for editing, quoting or translating.
Scanned PDFs
If a PDF is a scan (a photo of paper), it has no real text inside. Those need OCR, which this tool doesn't do — you'll see an empty result.
Get ilovepdfmac for Mac
The ilovepdfmac app lets you edit PDFs directly — add text, white-out and replace words without copying anything out. Plus Word, Excel and PowerPoint to PDF, a full PDF editor and real compression — all offline.
PDF to Text FAQ
Still stuck? Email shubhranshukhatua@gmail.com
Why is my result empty?+
The PDF is probably a scanned image without a text layer. Text can only be extracted from PDFs that contain real text.
Is formatting kept?+
Plain text has no fonts or tables, but lines and page breaks are kept as well as possible.
Does it work with other languages?+
Yes, any language the PDF contains is extracted as Unicode text.
Is this tool really free?+
Yes. No sign-up, no watermark, no daily limits. It's free because it runs on your own device.
Are my files uploaded to a server?+
No. Your files are processed entirely inside your browser and never leave your device. You can even disconnect from the internet after the page loads.
Is it safe for confidential documents?+
Yes. Because nothing is uploaded, contracts, bank statements, IDs and medical records stay on your device. There's no server copy that could be stored, shared or leaked.
Do I need to create an account or install anything?+
No. Open the page and use the tool — no account, no email, no extension and no download.
How large can my files be?+
There's no fixed limit. Because the work happens on your device, the practical limit is your browser's memory — files of a few hundred MB usually work fine on a laptop. Very large files are faster in the Mac app.
Which browsers are supported?+
Any modern browser: Chrome, Safari, Edge, Firefox, Brave and Opera, on Mac, Windows, Linux, iPhone, iPad and Android.
Will my file have a watermark?+
No. Your result is exactly what you made — no watermark, no added pages and no branding.
Is there a desktop app?+
Yes — ilovepdfmac for Mac does all of this and much more (Word, Excel and PowerPoint to PDF, a full PDF editor, real compression) offline, for a one-time $9.99.