PDF to Text Converter
Last updated: June 2026 · Free · No sign-up required
Drag & drop a PDF here
or browse files
Frequently Asked Questions
Does this tool support scanned PDFs (OCR)?
This tool extracts text layers from digitally created PDFs. It does not perform Optical Character Recognition (OCR) on flattened, scanned images, meaning images of text cannot be read.
Is there a file size limit?
Because all extraction runs locally inside your browser's runtime, very large PDFs (e.g. hundreds of megabytes) might exceed tab memory limits, but typical documents process in just seconds.
Are my files uploaded or stored on your servers?
No. The converter uses PDF.js to process and parse documents entirely inside your local sandbox. Your data remains secure on your device.
Quick reference
| PDF type | Extraction result |
|---|---|
| Digital (born-PDF) | Full, accurate text |
| Scanned (image-only) | No text layer — needs OCR |
| Mixed | Digital portions extract; scans don’t |
Interpretation guide
| Use case | Benefit |
|---|---|
| Quoting from reports | Copy clean text without layout junk |
| Feeding text to scripts/AI | Plain .txt input |
| Word counts & search | Analyse the full document text |
Formula & methodology
Formula: Text = concatenated content streams per page, decoded from the PDF text operators
- Drop a PDF — parsing happens locally; nothing uploads.
- The tool walks each page’s content stream and decodes the text operators in reading order.
- Copy the result or download it as a .txt file.
Worked example: a 40-page digital report extracts to ~90 KB of clean text in a couple of seconds; an image-only scan yields nothing — the tell that OCR is needed instead.
Frequently asked questions
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