PDF to Text

Convert PDF to text by extracting selectable text into a plain text file.

or drop files here

Encrypted transfer

Auto-delete after processing

Security details

Extract text from PDF files into plain text output

Use this tool to pull machine-readable text out of PDF files and save it as a plain TXT document.

It works best on PDFs that already contain selectable text. Scanned PDFs with image-only pages may return no extractable text without OCR.

When to use this tool

Copy text from reports, contracts, and exported PDFs into notes or downstream tools.
Pull raw text out of PDFs before analysis, summarization, or cleanup.
Save PDF text in a lightweight TXT format for archival or automation workflows.

Best-practice tips

This tool extracts existing selectable text; it does not run OCR on scanned pages.
If a PDF opens like an image, you may need an OCR workflow before text extraction.
Plain TXT output is useful when you want content over original layout.

Quality and limits notes

Layout, columns, and table structure can simplify when converted to plain text.
Scanned or image-only PDFs may return no extractable text.
Password-protected PDFs are not supported.

Privacy and trust

Files are processed automatically and removed after processing windows complete.

Suggested next steps

Tool hubs

PDF Conversion Tools OCR and Extraction Tools

Need more than PDFs?

Need another file format?

Explore ConverterHQ for document, image, archive, ebook, audio, video, and CAD conversion.

PDFHQ Knowledge

PDFHQ Knowledge Browse Formats Browse Glossary

Frequently asked questions

Does this preserve the PDF layout?

Why was no text found?

Related PDF tools

Convert PDF documents into editable Word files.

Extract selected pages into a new PDF.

Convert PDF tables and data into Excel spreadsheets.

Convert PDF files to TXT.

Convert PDF files to MD.

Reduce PDF file size for sharing, upload, and storage.

Convert TXT files to PDF.

Convert PDF files to ABW.

Convert PDF files to ADOC.

Convert PDF files to APNG.

All PDF Tools

Organize PDF

To PDF

Optimize PDF

Edit PDF

PDF Security

Remove Metadata