Extract Text from PDF

PDF & Documents

Pull all the selectable text out of a PDF into plain text.

What is Extract Text from PDF?

Extract Text from PDF pulls all of the selectable text out of a document and drops it into a plain-text box you can copy or download. It reads every page in order with pdfjs and separates them with blank lines, so the result mirrors the structure of the original. Everything happens in your browser — the PDF is never uploaded — making it a quick, private way to lift text out of a file for reuse.

How to use Extract Text from PDF

  1. Add your PDF

    Drop a PDF onto the page or click to browse. A badge tracks progress as each page is read.

  2. Let it read every page

    The tool walks through the document page by page, collecting the text and joining pages with a blank line between them.

  3. Review the text

    The extracted text appears in a scrollable box. If the PDF is a scanned image with no real text layer, you'll see a note suggesting OCR instead.

  4. Copy or download

    Use Copy to send everything to your clipboard, or Download .txt to save it as a plain-text file named after your PDF.

Common uses

  • Copy quotes or passages out of a report or ebook
  • Get the raw text of a contract for editing elsewhere
  • Feed a document's text into a translator or summariser
  • Pull addresses or figures out of an invoice
  • Save an article as a plain .txt file for archiving
  • Grab reference text from a research paper

Why choose FreeTools

100% private

Your files are processed inside your browser and are never uploaded to a server.

Free, no account

No sign-up, no watermark, no paywalled “premium” tier. Just open a tool and use it.

Instant

No upload, no queue, no server round-trip — work starts the moment you drop a file.

Runs in your browser

Built on open web standards. Works on any modern desktop browser, nothing to install.

No upload size caps

Nothing leaves your device, so there’s no server file-size limit — only your machine’s memory.

Yours to keep

Results download straight to your device in clean, standard file formats.

Frequently asked questions

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