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Expensico

PDF to Text Converter

Extract all text from a PDF into a plain TXT file, page by page. Free, fast and private — the PDF is read in your browser, not uploaded.

Runs in your browser. Your files are processed on your device and are never uploaded.

How to use the PDF to Text Converter

  1. Choose or drop your PDF file.
  2. Adjust the options if needed — the defaults work well for most files.
  3. Select Convert. Conversion happens instantly in your browser.
  4. Preview the result and download your TXT file.

About this PDF to TXT converter

PDF to Text pulls the words out of a PDF so you can search, edit, translate or count them. It reads the PDF's text layer directly, so the output is the real text, not a guess from an image.

How PDF to TXT conversion works

  1. PDF.js reads the text objects stored on each page together with their positions.
  2. Text items are grouped into lines by their vertical position and ordered left to right.
  3. Lines are joined into paragraphs and saved as a UTF-8 .txt file, so accented letters, Indian scripts and symbols are preserved.

Conversion quality: High fidelity. Extracts the text layer of digital PDFs. Scanned PDFs (images of text) contain no text to extract.

When to convert PDF to TXT

  • Copying a long passage when the PDF viewer selects text awkwardly
  • Feeding document text into a translation tool, spreadsheet or search index
  • Counting words in a PDF essay or report

Limitations to be aware of

  • Scanned documents are images and contain no text layer; the result will be empty. This needs OCR, which this tool doesn't do.
  • Multi-column layouts may interleave columns, because PDFs store text by position rather than reading order.
  • Tables become lines of text separated by spaces; for tabular data consider copying into a spreadsheet.

PDF vs TXT

PDF. PDF (Portable Document Format) stores pages with fixed layout, fonts and images so a document looks the same on every device. It is built for viewing and printing rather than editing.

TXT. A plain text file contains only characters and line breaks, with no formatting. It opens in any editor on any device.

Frequently asked questions

Why is my output empty?

The PDF is most likely a scan or photo of a document. Those pages are images, so there is no text to extract without OCR (optical character recognition).

Does it keep formatting?

No. A TXT file can't hold fonts, bold or layout. If you need headings and paragraphs in an editable document, try PDF to Word.

Are non-English characters supported?

Yes, as long as the PDF embeds proper Unicode text. The output is UTF-8 encoded.

Are my files uploaded?

No. This tool reads and processes files directly in your web browser. Nothing is sent to Expensico's servers, and the data is discarded when you close or reload the page.