PDF to text
See the PDF's text on screen, copy it in one tap or download a .txt file. Your file never leaves your device.
One PDF up to 50 MB and 500 pages.
Your file never leaves your device: everything happens in the browser, with no upload to any server.
How to extract text from a PDF in 3 steps
Choose the PDF
Tap Choose PDF and pick the file.
Extract the text
Tap Extract text. Pages are read one at a time.
Copy or download
Tap Copy text to paste it anywhere, or Download .txt to keep the file.
What it’s for
- Quoting a passage from an article, a law or a notice without retyping it.
- Pasting into a translator or a writing assistant.
- Keeping the content of a long PDF in a light file any device opens.
- Moving a table into a spreadsheet: the columns come separated by tabs.
The text comes out clean
A PDF breaks text into loose lines. Here the lines of a paragraph are joined again, paragraphs are separated by a blank line, and the end-of-line hyphen disappears when the word continues below.
If the PDF is scanned (a photo of paper), there is no text inside it: the screen tells you. To use the pages as images, use PDF to JPG.
Your file never leaves your device
The PDF is read in your browser, in your phone’s or computer’s memory. No file goes through our server, and the text isn’t stored anywhere.
Limits
One PDF up to 50 MB and 500 pages, read one page at a time, with a cancel button. The on-screen preview shows the first 20,000 characters.
Other PDF tools
To edit with the formatting, use PDF to Word. To keep only the pages you need first, use split PDF.
Frequently asked questions
How do I copy text from a PDF on my phone?
Choose the PDF, tap Extract text and then Copy text. All the text goes to your clipboard, ready to paste into a message, an email or a document.
Why does text pasted from a PDF come out broken?
Because a PDF stores each line separately. Here the lines of a paragraph are joined again, and a word hyphenated at the end of a line comes back whole.
My PDF is scanned. Will it work?
No. In a scanned PDF, the letters are a photo, so there is no text to extract. The tool tells you instead of giving you an empty file. Reading text from images (OCR) does not run here, in the browser.
Will accented letters show correctly in the .txt?
Yes. The file is UTF-8 with the marker Notepad recognizes, so accented letters show correctly even on older computers.
What about tables?
Each table row becomes a line of text, with the columns separated by tabs. Paste it into a spreadsheet and each column lands in its own cell.
I want the text with its formatting. Is that possible?
Yes: PDF to Word keeps headings, tables and images in a .docx you can edit.
Is my PDF uploaded to a server?
No. The text is read in your browser, and your PDF never leaves your device. Nothing is stored.
Is there a page limit?
Up to 500 pages and 50 MB. The screen shows the first 20,000 characters; Copy text and the .txt file have all of it.
Can I open a password-protected PDF?
No. A protected PDF won’t open here, and we don’t try to break the password. See the guide PDF won’t open or is password protected.