Extract Text from PDF
Pull the selectable text out of a PDF — copy it or save as .txt.
About this tool
Reads the text layer of every page and hands it over as plain text — with optional page markers, live word and character counts, one-click copy and a .txt download. It's the fast answer to most “PDF to Word” searches, because what's usually wanted is the words, not a wobbly .docx reconstruction.
What it can and can't extract
PDFs store text two ways, and the difference decides your day. Digitally-born PDFs (exported from Word, LaTeX, a browser) carry a real text layer — extraction is exact. Scanned PDFs are photographs of pages: there is no text inside, only pixels, and recovering words from pixels is OCR — a genuinely different technology, which the PDF OCR tool does on your device, page by page. This tool tells you plainly when a PDF has no text layer rather than returning suspicious emptiness. Layout, fonts and tables don't survive into plain text by definition; what you get is the words, in reading order, ready for counting, frequency analysis or reading aloud.
Frequently asked questions
Why did my PDF extract nothing?
It's almost certainly a scan — images of pages with no text layer inside. Extracting text from images is OCR: use the PDF OCR tool, which reads each page on your device.
Can this convert PDF to Word?
It extracts the text, which is what most people converting to Word actually want. Recreating layout and formatting in .docx is a different, messier job — paste the extracted text into Word and you're usually there faster.
Does the file get uploaded?
No. The PDF is parsed in your browser by the same engine Firefox uses. Confidential documents stay on your device.
Are line breaks preserved?
Roughly — the extractor keeps the document's line structure where the PDF records it. PDFs position text by coordinates, so perfect paragraph reconstruction is sometimes impossible; you get honest best-effort.