Does it work on scanned PDFs?

No. Scans have no text layer — run the Scanned PDF OCR tool first, then extract.

Does it keep the layout?

TXT is plain text and does not preserve tables or complex layout — only the words.

No. Text reading happens locally in your browser.

Extract text

Download selectable PDF text as TXT.

+Choose files or drop them herePDF files, up to 30 MB each

Files are processed in this browser only. Large files may take a moment.

Want the text out of a PDF? The extract-text tool reads the text layer of a PDF that already contains selectable text and exports it as a TXT file for editing or searching. Note it only works on PDFs with a real text layer; for scans, use the OCR tool first. It runs locally, so files are never uploaded.

How to use

Upload a PDF with selectable text
Click Process to read the text layer
Download the resulting TXT file

FAQ

Does it work on scanned PDFs?: No. Scans have no text layer — run the Scanned PDF OCR tool first, then extract.
Does it keep the layout?: TXT is plain text and does not preserve tables or complex layout — only the words.
Are files uploaded?: No. Text reading happens locally in your browser.