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Convert PDF to TXT

Free PDF to TXT converter that runs in your browser. No upload, no signup, no watermark. Files never leave your device.

Conversion Successful
100% local. Your file is processed in this tab and never uploaded.

How to Convert PDF to TXT

  1. 1

    Drop your PDF file

    Drag it into the converter above, or click to browse. Nothing is uploaded.

  2. 2

    Adjust settings (optional)

    Reorder, split, or compress pages from the sliders icon.

  3. 3

    Convert and download

    TXT is preselected. The file converts in this tab and downloads when done.

Why Convert PDF to TXT?

A text PDF already holds its words as real characters, wrapped in layout and fonts you may not want. Pulling them out as plain text hands you something you can grep, paste into a script, or drop into notes without the formatting baggage.

It reads the text layer directly, so it is quick and exact, but it only works on genuine text PDFs, never on scanned images.

PDF
TXT
Type
Document container
Type
Plain text
Editable
Read-only (by default)
Encoding
UTF-8 (typical)
Page-size locked
Yes
Formatting
None
Searchable text
Yes (native) or via OCR
Max size
No practical limit
Browser support
Universal
Editor support
Universal
Typical use
Sharing, archiving, print
Typical use
Notes, logs, code

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Frequently Asked Questions

Does this work on a scanned PDF?
No. A scan is a photograph of a page with no text layer, so there is nothing to pull out. That needs OCR; the desktop app reads scans with Tesseract instead.
How do I know whether my PDF has real text?
Try selecting a few words in any PDF viewer. If they highlight, the text is real and this converter extracts it cleanly. If your cursor just drags a box across the page, it is a scan.
Will the layout survive?
Not really. Plain text keeps the words and rough line breaks but drops columns, tables, headers, and fonts. If you need structure, extract to Markdown or HTML instead.
Does it handle columns and tables?
Multi-column pages can interleave in the wrong reading order, and tables flatten into loose rows. Single-column prose comes out clean; busier layouts need a cleanup pass afterwards.
Is this conversion free, and is my file private?
Yes. The conversion runs in your browser tab, nothing is uploaded, and no account is needed. The only limit is size: 100 MB for this format. Bigger files route to the desktop app.

Pulling text out of scanned PDFs?

TeraConvert Desktop runs Tesseract OCR to read text out of scanned, image-only PDFs that a text extractor can't touch.

Get TeraConvert for MacFree to download. This format unlocks with Pro.