PDF to Text OCR
Extract editable text from PDFs with free online OCR. Convert scanned, image-based, and text PDFs to text instantly in your browser—no sign-up required.
Upload your PDF
Choose a PDF and we'll extract its text in your browser.
Drag & drop your PDF here
or click to browse from your device
PDF only · up to 25 MB
Your PDF is processed locally in your browser. Files are not uploaded to a server.
Extract Text from PDF Online
ScanText is a free PDF to text converter that runs entirely in your browser. Upload a PDF, choose Extract Text, and the tool reads the document using PDF OCR. Text-based PDFs are read directly, while scanned and image-based pages are recognized with OCR so you get clean, editable text.
How to Convert PDF to Text
Converting a PDF to text online takes just a few steps:
1. Upload your PDF
Choose a PDF from your device, or drag and drop it into the tool above. Files are processed locally.
2. Extract the text
Select Extract Text and let the browser-based OCR engine read each page of your PDF.
3. Review and edit
Read through the extracted text and make quick edits directly in the result box.
4. Copy or download
Copy the text to your clipboard or download it as a TXT or DOCX file to use anywhere.
PDF OCR Features
Text and scanned PDFs
Extract text from normal PDFs directly, and use OCR to extract text from scanned PDFs and image-based documents.
Multi-page support
Process entire multi-page PDFs while keeping page order, with clear “--- Page N ---” markers.
Private and local
OCR runs right in your browser. Your PDF is not uploaded to a server, which helps keep your documents private.
Editable output
Copy the result, download a TXT file, or download a DOCX file—then paste it into any editor.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is PDF OCR?
PDF OCR (optical character recognition) is the process of reading the text inside a PDF and turning it into editable words. For scanned or image-based PDFs, the engine looks at each page as a picture, recognizes the characters, and produces text you can copy, edit, or search.
Can ScanText extract text from scanned PDFs?
Yes. ScanText reads the pages of a scanned PDF, renders each one to an image, and runs OCR to recover the text. Text-based PDFs are read directly without running OCR unnecessarily, which keeps extraction fast.
Can I convert a multi-page PDF to text?
Yes. The tool processes every page in order and separates results with clear page markers such as “--- Page 1 ---”, so multi-page PDFs stay organized and easy to review.
Is PDF to Text free?
Yes. The PDF to text converter is free to use in your browser, with no account and no software installation required.
Can I download the extracted text?
Yes. After extraction you can copy the text, download it as a TXT file, or download it as a DOCX file. You can also edit the result before saving it anywhere.
Does PDF OCR work with images inside PDFs?
Yes. When a PDF page contains a scanned photo, screenshot, or image instead of selectable text, the OCR engine recognizes the words from that image and includes them in the extracted text.
Looking for other tools? Try the image to text converter, the online OCR tool, or browse the full list of supported image formats.