PDF to Text — Free Online Text Extractor
Copy text from any PDF in seconds. Works with regular PDFs and scanned images via OCR. Your file stays in your browser.
How to use PDF to Text — Free Online Text Extractor in 3 steps
- 1
Upload your PDF
Drag and drop or browse for the PDF. Files up to 100 MB supported, including multi-page documents.
- 2
Automatic extraction
Text-based PDFs extract instantly. Scanned PDFs trigger OCR (optical character recognition) in 99+ languages.
- 3
Copy or download
Review the extracted text, copy to clipboard, or download as TXT, DOCX, or Markdown.
Why choose PDF to Text — Free Online Text Extractor
Text and scanned PDFs
Direct extraction for text-based PDFs; built-in OCR for scanned documents or image-based PDFs.
99+ languages
OCR supports 99+ languages including English, Spanish, Mandarin, Arabic, Japanese, and Korean.
Stays in your browser
All processing happens locally via pdf.js and WebAssembly OCR. Your document never uploads to a server.
Preserves structure
Columns, tables, and paragraph breaks are preserved where possible in the output.
Free unlimited use
No account, no page limit, no watermark.
Who uses PDF to Text — Free Online Text Extractor
Copy from locked PDFs
Extract text from PDFs with copy protection (for documents you own the rights to use).
Digitize scanned books
Turn scanned pages into searchable, editable text with OCR. Great for research and archiving.
Data extraction
Pull tabular data from invoices, reports, and forms for spreadsheets or databases.
Translation prep
Extract source text before feeding into a translation engine or workflow.
Trusted by creators worldwide
Frequently asked questions
- Does it work with scanned PDFs?
- Yes. Scanned or image-based PDFs trigger OCR automatically. Text-based PDFs use direct extraction for perfect fidelity.
- What languages does OCR support?
- 99+ languages including all major European, Asian, and Middle Eastern languages. Specify the language for best accuracy or let auto-detect handle it.
- Is there a file size limit?
- Files up to 100 MB work reliably. Multi-gigabyte scanned archives should be split first.
- How accurate is the OCR?
- 95-99% for clean scans at 300 DPI or higher. Low-resolution or skewed scans may require manual correction.
- Are my PDFs uploaded to a server?
- No. pdf.js and OCR run locally in your browser via WebAssembly.
- What export formats are available?
- Plain text (TXT), Word (DOCX), and Markdown (MD).
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