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Extract text from PDF

Pull selectable text from a PDF to copy or download.

Processing happens in your browser; we do not upload your file.

ActivePDFFree
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About this tool

Extract text from PDF recovers selectable text from a document so you can copy it or download it as a TXT file.

How to use

  1. Upload the PDF.
  2. Optional: toggle on preserving approximate line breaks to keep the layout closer.
  3. Review the text extracted per page.
  4. Copy the result or download it as TXT.

Use cases

  • Reuse text from a document without retyping it.
  • Quote or search content inside a PDF.
  • Convert a document to plain text.

Limits

  • Only selectable text is recovered; a scanned PDF (images) has no text to extract and the tool warns you about it.
  • Max PDF size: 50 MB.

Privacy

Processing happens in your browser — we don't upload your files.

Common errors

  • The PDF looks scanned and has no selectable text.
  • Strange symbols show up when the PDF uses non-standard fonts.

Technical notes

  • Uses pdf.js to read text content.
  • Detects whether the document looks scanned and warns about problematic symbols.

Related tools

Technical details
ID
extract-pdf-text
Slug
/en/tools/extract-pdf-text
Backend
Not required
AI
Not required
API
Planned