Free Online PDF to Text Converter with OCR
Need text from a PDF? Drop the file and get clean, copyable text in seconds. Our tool handles both digital PDFs (with embedded text layers) and scanned documents (image-only pages). For digital PDFs, text is extracted instantly using PDF.js. For scanned PDFs, built-in OCR powered by Tesseract.js reads the text from images automatically — no extra steps needed.
How It Works
The tool first tries native text extraction from the PDF's embedded text layer using Mozilla's PDF.js. If a page contains little or no embedded text (common with scanned documents, faxes, and photographed pages), the tool automatically switches to OCR mode. Each page is rendered to a high-resolution image and processed by Tesseract.js, a WebAssembly port of Google's Tesseract OCR engine. Everything runs locally in your browser — your PDF is never uploaded anywhere.
What This Tool Handles
Digital PDFs from Word, Google Docs, LaTeX, and web exports. Scanned documents from scanners and multifunction printers. Photographed documents saved as PDF. Multi-page documents of any length. Password-free PDFs up to 50MB.
Common Use Cases
Content repurposing and editing, data extraction for spreadsheets, accessibility for screen readers, search and indexing of document libraries, digitizing paper archives, and extracting text from receipts, invoices, and contracts.
Privacy and Security
Both the text extraction and OCR engines run entirely in your browser. Your PDF never leaves your device — no server uploads, no cloud processing, no data retention. Safe for confidential documents, legal files, and sensitive records.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can this tool extract text from scanned PDFs?
Yes. The tool automatically detects scanned pages and uses built-in OCR (Tesseract.js) to read text from images. No additional software or setup is needed.
How accurate is the OCR?
OCR accuracy depends on scan quality. Clean, high-resolution scans (300 DPI+) with good contrast typically achieve 95%+ accuracy. Handwriting, very small text, or poor scan quality will reduce accuracy.
Does the tool preserve formatting?
The output is plain text. Paragraph breaks are preserved, but bold, italics, tables, and columns are flattened to text. For structured extraction, consider a dedicated document parser.
Is there a file size limit?
The tool accepts PDFs up to 50MB. Most devices handle large documents well, though OCR on many pages may take longer since each page is processed individually.
Is my PDF uploaded to a server?
No. Everything — text extraction and OCR — runs in your browser. No data is transmitted over the internet.
Which languages does the OCR support?
The default OCR engine is configured for English. The underlying Tesseract engine supports 100+ languages.