PDF to Text Online Free — Extract Text

Extract every word from a PDF into a plain .txt file. Perfect for searching, copying into other tools, or running text analysis. Works locally — your PDF never leaves your browser.

How it works

  1. Drop your PDF. Drag the PDF onto the page. GhostPDF starts extracting text immediately.
  2. Watch the progress bar. We read every page and pull out the embedded text. Most PDFs finish in a couple of seconds.
  3. Download the .txt file. The result is a plain text file you can open in any editor, search, or pipe into other tools. A preview of the first 600 characters is shown on screen.

Frequently asked questions

Does this work on scanned PDFs?

Not directly. Scanned PDFs are images of text — there's no embedded text to extract. Use OCR software first (then GhostPDF can extract the text-layer it added).

Will the formatting be preserved?

Partially. Paragraph breaks and page breaks are preserved. Bold, italic, font sizes, and exact column structure are not — the output is plain text.

Are tables preserved?

Table contents are extracted but lose their grid structure — cells become space-separated text in the order they appear in the PDF.

Do you see my PDF?

No. Text extraction uses your browser's PDF engine. No file is uploaded.

What's the file size limit?

100MB. Larger PDFs hit browser memory limits during render.

Free unlimited?

Yes. No caps, no signup, no watermark, no ad on the output.

Related tools

Every GhostPDF tool runs entirely in your browser. Your file is never uploaded — there is no upload endpoint to send it to.