Will this work on scanned PDFs?

No. Scanned PDFs contain images, not searchable text. Use OCR PDF first to add a text layer, then extract the text.

Is formatting preserved?

Only basic paragraph structure is kept. Text styling (bold, italic, fonts) is not included in plain text output.

What about tables and columns?

Tables are extracted as plain text, which may disrupt the visual structure. Columns are extracted in reading order.

PDF to Text

How To PDF to Text Online for Free

Upload PDF

Add the PDF to extract text from.

Extract Text

Processing pulls all readable text content.

Download or Copy

Get your extracted text.

Extract plain text from PDF documents. Get all readable text content without formatting or images. Perfect for copying content, searching text, or processing with other tools.

Everything You Need in a PDF to Text

Extracts all readable

Extracts all readable text

Outputs plain text

Outputs plain text format

Handles multi-page documents

Preserves paragraph structure

Works with text-based

Works with text-based PDFs

Fast extraction process

Frequently Asked Questions

Document Work Made Easy

Process your PDFs with our collection of free, privacy-first tools. No uploads to servers, no registration required. Everything runs directly in your browser.