PDF to Text Converter

Extract text from any PDF — native text PDFs are parsed instantly on your device. Scanned PDFs are automatically detected and processed with AI-powered OCR. Free, private, no signup.

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How It Works

Text-based PDFs are parsed directly in your browser — no data leaves your device. Scanned PDFs are detected automatically and processed page-by-page using our OCR engine.

Use Cases

  • Research Papers & Academic PDFs — Extract quotes and citations for literature reviews.
  • Legal Document Review — Pull text from contracts and court filings for analysis.
  • Invoice & Receipt Processing — Extract line items and totals for bookkeeping.
  • Resume & CV Parsing — Convert PDF resumes into plain text.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does PDF text extraction work?

TextExtract uses a dual approach: text-based PDFs are parsed directly on your device using client-side processing — no upload needed. Scanned PDFs (image-based pages) are automatically detected and processed page-by-page using our OCR engine.

Can it handle scanned PDFs?

Yes. Scanned PDFs are automatically detected and each page is processed as an image through our OCR engine. This works even with low-quality scans, though higher resolution documents (150+ DPI) produce better results.

Is there a page limit?

Text-based PDFs have no practical page limit since they're processed on your device. Scanned PDFs processed with OCR support up to 50 pages per extraction to maintain quality and speed.

What PDF versions are supported?

All standard PDF versions from 1.0 through 2.0, including documents with embedded fonts, multi-column layouts, tables, and mixed content (text + images on the same page).

Can I extract text from password-protected PDFs?

Password-protected PDFs are not currently supported. You'll need to remove the password protection first before uploading. This is a security measure — we never attempt to bypass document protection.

Does it preserve formatting?

We preserve text content and basic structure (paragraphs, headings, line breaks). For complex layouts, use our built-in tools to clean formatting, remove line breaks, or merge paragraphs after extraction.

Why use TextExtract instead of copying text from a PDF viewer?

PDF viewers often produce garbled text when copying — broken words, lost formatting, missing characters, and jumbled column order. TextExtract handles multi-column layouts, embedded fonts, and non-standard encodings correctly, giving you clean, usable text every time.