📄 PDF to Text

PDF to Text Converter — Free, Online, Instant

Convert any PDF to plain text in seconds. Works on digital PDFs (instantly) and scanned PDFs (via OCR). No software to install, no signup.

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Try OCR PDF Free

Convert any PDF to editable text. Works on digital text PDFs and scanned image PDFs alike. Just upload and download.

Extract Text Now →

Free · No signup · Files deleted after 2 hours

PDFTash vs Other PDF to Text Tools

Feature
PDFTash
Adobe Acrobat
SmallPDF
Free to use
❌ $30/mo
Limited
Scanned PDF (OCR)
No signup required
Searchable PDF output
10+ languages
Limited

Pricing as of 2025. Subject to change.

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Always Free

No credit card, no trial, no surprise charges. PDFTash is free forever for basic use (up to 10MB). Pro plan at $2/month for larger files — that's it.

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OCR Built-In

Scanned PDFs are automatically processed with OCR — no separate upload step. Powered by Tesseract and ocrmypdf for accuracy across 10+ languages.

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TXT + PDF Output

Choose your output: plain text (.txt) for editing and translation, or searchable PDF that keeps the original layout with a text layer added for searching.

Two Ways to Convert PDF to Text

Digital PDF
Created in Word, Google Docs, or any PDF software. Already contains real text data.
Extracted instantly
100% accuracy
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Scanned PDF
Photographed, faxed, or scanned documents stored as images. Needs OCR to extract text.
OCR auto-applied
95%+ accuracy (300 DPI)

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Frequently Asked Questions — PDF to Text Converter

How do I convert PDF to text?

Visit pdftash.com/ocr-pdf and upload your PDF. If it is a digital PDF (created in software like Word or Google Docs), the text is extracted immediately. If it is a scanned PDF (a photographed or physically scanned document), select your document's language from the dropdown and click extract. The tool automatically applies OCR. Download your result as a TXT file or searchable PDF. The whole process takes 10-60 seconds depending on your file size and whether OCR is needed.

Is the PDF to text converter really free?

Yes, completely free for PDFs up to 10MB. No signup, no credit card, no watermarks on output, no page limits. Free users get full-quality text extraction and OCR. Pro users at $2/month unlock larger file sizes (up to 200MB), priority processing queue, and batch conversions. PDFTash does not offer "free trials" that expire — the free tier is permanent.

What's the difference between PDF to TXT and searchable PDF?

PDF to TXT extracts all text content from your PDF and saves it as a raw plain-text file (.txt). This is the best option if you want to edit the text, run it through translation software, import it into a spreadsheet, or use it in any other program. Searchable PDF keeps your original document looking exactly as scanned — same images, same layout — but adds an invisible text layer underneath. This lets you use Ctrl+F to search, and click-drag to copy text in any PDF reader. Choose searchable PDF when you need to archive the original document appearance while also making it digitally searchable.

Does the PDF to text converter work on mobile?

Yes. PDFTash runs entirely in your web browser with no app or software to install. It works on all modern mobile browsers — Chrome and Safari on both iOS and Android. You can upload a PDF from your phone's storage or directly from Google Drive or iCloud. The interface is responsive and works on small screens. For large scanned PDFs, a stable WiFi connection is recommended due to upload size.

Can I convert multiple PDFs?

Currently PDFTash converts one PDF at a time. After downloading your result, you can immediately upload the next file — there are no daily limits on the number of conversions. If you need to convert many PDFs at once, Pro users have access to batch processing which allows uploading multiple files simultaneously. The Pro plan is $2/month.