Pull the plain text out of a PDF and get instant page, word and character counts — perfect for copying, editing or word-counting. Runs entirely in your browser.
Add a text-based PDF and download its text as a .txt file. If the result is empty, your PDF is a scan (a picture of text) — run it through OCR first.
This tool pulls the plain text out of a PDF and saves it as a .txt file, along with a live count of pages, words and characters. It's the quickest way to lift the words out of a document when you don't need the formatting — just the content.
Extraction only works on PDFs that contain a real text layer. If a page is a scan — a photograph of text — there are no characters to pull out, and the result will be empty. When that happens, run the file through OCR first to recognise the text, then extract it. The word count of 0 is your signal that a PDF is image-only.
You get the words, not the page design. Reading order usually follows the document, but complex layouts — multiple columns, tables, headers and footers — can interleave, so tables in particular may need a little cleanup afterwards. For a document you can edit with headings and paragraphs, try PDF to Word. Extraction runs entirely in your browser, so even confidential documents stay on your device.
No. Text is extracted in your browser and the file is never uploaded.
Your PDF is probably a scan with no real text layer. Run it through OCR to recognise the text first.
Yes — you get the page count, word count and character count.
The tool extracts text from every page at once. If you only need a specific page, use Split PDF to isolate it first, then extract.
No — the output is plain text with no bold, italic, headings or other formatting. If you need editable formatted text, try PDF to Word instead.
Last updated: 3 September 2026.