PDF to Text
Pull the text out of a PDF as a plain .txt file, or copy it straight to your clipboard. It runs in your browser — your file is never uploaded.
This extracts the text that's already stored in the PDF. Scanned pages or photos of documents contain no real text, so they need OCR, which this tool doesn't do. Layout, tables, fonts and images are not kept — you get plain text only.
Click to upload or drag and drop
PDF files only
How it works
- 1. Upload Select a PDF. It is read by your browser, not sent to a server.
- 2. Review The text from every page appears in a box, with a marker at the start of each page.
- 3. Save Download it as a .txt file or copy it to paste anywhere.
Frequently asked questions
- Is my PDF uploaded?
- No. The text is read by your browser on your own device. PDFFry never receives the file.
- Why is the result empty for my scanned PDF?
- A scan is a picture of a page, not real text. Reading text from pictures needs OCR, which this tool does not offer.
- Are tables and columns kept?
- No. The output is plain text in reading order, so tables and multi-column layouts may come out as simple lines. For editable layout, try PDF to Word.
- Does it work with Urdu, Arabic or other languages?
- It extracts whatever text the PDF stores, in any language. Some PDFs store text in ways that come out scrambled or out of order, especially right-to-left scripts, so check the result.
- Can I use a password-protected PDF?
- Remove the password first with Unlock PDF, then extract the text.