PDF to text
How do you convert a PDF into text you can edit?
A digital-text PDF is still a box: you can read it, but you cannot paste it into an editor without a fight. The free tool reads pages 1 to 15 of a digital PDF up to 8 MB and returns Markdown — headings, lists and tables as text.
How to do it in three steps
The page does not read photographed paper. If the PDF is a scan, this free tool does not run OCR. Export from the program that made the PDF, or use the API when the document contract includes another flow.
- Send a digital PDF up to 8 MB. The page asks for pages 1 to 15. If what matters sits after 15, trim the PDF first or go to the API.
- Wait for the conversion. Time depends on size and load. The page has a wait cap; if the engine is busy, try again. A scan is refused with a notice, not with invented text.
- Read the Markdown in the preview, copy the raw output, paste it into the editor. Titles become headings, lists become lists, tables become text tables. A magazine two-column break can shuffle order: that is the PDF, not “magic text”.
What to expect: formats, size and time
Digital PDF, up to 8 MB, pages 1 to 15 on this free page. No OCR on a scanned page. No DOCX input. No password: unlock the PDF first. Free-tool allowance; sign-up when the quota ends.
Repeated headers, footnotes and double columns sometimes enter the text flow. Check the preview. Formulas as images do not become LaTeX here. The contract is digital text already selectable in the PDF.
When to use the paid API
When the PDF arrives in the pipe on its own: mail, folder, public notice, dossier. The API converts with a page range and a key. /products and /pricing.
One PDF now, fifteen pages: free page. A week's queue and pages past 15: API.
Frequently asked questions
Does a phone-photographed PDF go in?
Not on this page. A scan does not run OCR here. You need a PDF with selectable text.
Are pages 16 and after converted?
Not on the free tool. This page's range is 1 to 15. Trim the file or use the API.
Is the output a plain TXT?
The output is Markdown: headings, lists and tables. You can copy it as raw text.
Does a password PDF open?
No. Unlock the file in the program that made it and send it again.