Extract text from a PDF
Extract the text from a PDF as plain text or Markdown, ready to copy or download. Ideal for notes, AI prompts and reuse. Free and processed in your browser.
- Files never leave your device
- Free, no sign-up
- No watermark
About PDF to Text
Pull all the text out of a PDF in one go instead of copying page by page. Choose plain text for notes and search, or Markdown to keep headings and lists for documentation, wikis and AI prompts. Copy the result to your clipboard or download it as a file. Extraction runs in your browser, so the document is never uploaded.
How to use PDF to Text
- 1
Drop a text-based PDF onto the tool.
- 2
Choose plain text or Markdown output.
- 3
Click Extract and review the text.
- 4
Copy it to the clipboard or download it as a file.
Why use this tool
- Plain text or Markdown output.
- One-click copy to clipboard.
- Great for feeding documents into ChatGPT, Claude or other AI tools.
- Fast even on long documents, because nothing is uploaded.
- Private: works entirely on your device.
Frequently asked questions
Scanned PDFs are pictures of text with no text layer. They need OCR, which this tool does not do.
Markdown keeps simple structure such as headings and lists, which is useful for documentation tools and AI prompts.
Text is read page by page in the PDF’s own order. Multi-column layouts may need small fixes.
Yes. Use PDF to Word to produce a .docx file.
No. Text is extracted in your browser and the document stays on your device.
Yes. It runs in any modern browser on Android and iOS as well as on Windows, macOS and Linux, with nothing to install.
Yes. There is no account, no watermark and no usage limit. The tool runs in your own browser, so there is no server cost to charge you for.
Yes. Markdown output in particular pastes cleanly into AI assistants and keeps headings, so they understand the structure of the document.
Related tools
All PDF tools →- PDF to WordExtract the text of a PDF into an editable Word .docx document you can open in Word or Google Docs.
- Edit PDFAdd text, drawings, highlights, shapes, images and white-out to any PDF, right in your browser.
- Split PDFSplit a PDF into single pages, custom page ranges, every N pages or files under a size limit.
- Merge PDFCombine multiple PDF files into one document in seconds.
- Compress PDFReduce PDF file size by re-encoding page images at the quality you choose, or strip metadata losslessly.
- Organize PDFRearrange PDF pages by dragging thumbnails and remove the pages you do not need.