Extract Text from PDF
Pull selectable text from a PDF and save it as a .txt file. Works on text-based PDFs — for scans, run OCR first.
Drop your PDF file here
One PDF, up to 100 MB·click to browse
How to extract text from a PDF
Pull all selectable text out of a PDF and save it as a plain .txt file.
Open Extract Text
Visit makemypdf.com/extract-text.
Upload the PDF
Drop the file onto the upload area or click to browse.
Wait for the scan
PDF.js walks every page in your browser and pulls the text content. No upload happens.
Copy or download
Preview the extracted text, then copy it to your clipboard or save it as a .txt file.
Frequently asked questions
Does this work on scanned PDFs?
No. Scanned PDFs are images of text — the characters are not selectable. Run the OCR PDF tool first, then come back here.
Are accented characters and non-Latin scripts preserved?
Yes. The extracted string is UTF-8, so Spanish, French, German, Greek, Cyrillic, CJK, and Arabic all come through correctly.
Will line breaks match the original layout?
The extractor preserves reading order and page breaks but may differ slightly from the visual layout on multi-column pages or pages with text boxes.
Is any data sent to a server?
No. The entire extraction runs in your browser using PDF.js.