Extract text from a PDF
Pull the raw text out of any text-based PDF — for quoting, translating, feeding to other apps or just reading without the layout. For scanned PDFs (photos of text), use the OCR tool instead.
How to use the PDF to Text tool
Select or drag your PDF.
Click “Extract text”.
Download the .txt file or copy the text directly.
Your files stay on your device
This tool runs entirely in your browser using JavaScript and WebAssembly. There is no upload step and no server processing — open your network panel and check: zero document data is transmitted. It even keeps working offline once the page has loaded.
Frequently asked questions
Why does my PDF return empty text?
Your PDF is probably a scan — images of text, with no real text layer. Run it through our OCR PDF tool, which recognizes the characters in the images.
Is the text order always correct?
Text is extracted in the document’s internal order, which matches reading order in well-made PDFs. Multi-column layouts may interleave — that is a limitation of the PDF format itself.
Are headers, footers and page numbers included?
Yes, everything with a text layer is extracted, organized page by page with separators so you can clean it easily.
Is it safe to use this tool with confidential documents?
Yes — and verifiably so. PDFAgent has no upload step: your file is processed by JavaScript running in your own browser and never leaves your device. You can open your browser’s network panel (or even go offline after loading the page) and confirm that no document data is transmitted.
Related guides
- How to Convert a Scanned PDF to Editable Text (OCR, Free) A scanned PDF is just a photo of a page — you can't select or search the text. Here's how OCR turns it into real, editable text for free, right in your browser.
- What Is an ATS-Friendly Resume (and How to Make One That Passes) Most resumes are read by software before a human sees them. Here's how applicant tracking systems work and how to build a resume that gets through them.
- How to Convert a PDF to Excel (Free, and What Actually Works) An honest guide to getting tables out of a PDF and into Excel — what's realistic, when OCR is needed, and how to do it without uploading sensitive data.