Home / Tools / PDF to Text & Markdown

Extract Plain Text and Markdown from PDFs

Extract PDF text as clean Markdown or plain text for AI prompts and notes.

Extract Plain Text and Markdown from PDFs

Extract PDF text as clean Markdown or plain text for AI prompts and notes.

Why use PDFWix to convert PDFs

• AI-ready Markdown: Headings, lists and paragraphs survive, so assistants understand the document's structure.
• No broken lines: Lines are rebuilt from positions, not copied from the screen, so sentences stay whole.
• Scan detection: If the PDF is an image-only scan, you are told immediately and pointed to OCR.
• Private: Contracts and research stay on your device — nothing is uploaded or used for AI training.

Common uses for converting PDFs

• Pasting a report or research paper into ChatGPT or Claude as Markdown
• Importing PDFs into Notion, Obsidian or a knowledge base
• Extracting contract text for review and clause search
• Making searchable plain-text archives of PDF documents
• Reusing text from brochures and manuals in new content

How to Copy All Text Out of a PDF

1. Add your PDF — Drop a text-based PDF — reports, papers, contracts, e-books.
2. Choose Markdown or text — Markdown keeps headings and lists for AI tools and notes; .txt is plain text.
3. Convert — Click Convert. Pages are read in order with lines and paragraphs rebuilt.
4. Copy or download — The file downloads, and the preview has a Copy all button for pasting straight into a chat.

Tips for extracting PDF text

• Scanned PDF? — If you get a 'no selectable text' message, run [OCR PDF](/ocr-pdf) first.
• Tables go to Excel — For tables of numbers, [PDF to Excel](/pdf-to-excel) keeps rows and columns.
• Split huge documents — For very long PDFs you only need part of, use [Split PDF](/split-pdf) first to keep prompts short.
• Keep images — Need the pictures too? [Extract Images from PDF](/extract-images-from-pdf) saves them at original quality.

PDF to text: which output should I use?

Choosing an output for extracted PDF content.

Related tools

• OCR PDF
• PDF to Word
• Extract Images from PDF
• Compress PDF
• Convert PDF to HTML

Quick answer

To convert a PDF to text free: open PDFWix PDF to Text & Markdown, add your PDF, choose Markdown (.md) or Plain text (.txt), and click Convert. The file downloads and a preview appears with a Copy all button — ideal for pasting into ChatGPT or Claude.

How PDFWix PDF to Text & Markdown works

PDFWix PDF to Text & Markdown uses Mozilla pdf.js to read each page's text items, groups them into lines by baseline position, inserts paragraph breaks where the vertical gap exceeds 1.7× the line height, and marks lines at least 1.6× or 1.25× the median font height as Markdown # and ## headings. Pages are separated by --- with page comments. Scanned PDFs without a text layer are detected and routed to OCR. Processing is in the browser; nothing is uploaded.

Why Markdown is the best format for AI prompts

Large language models such as ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini were trained on huge amounts of Markdown, so they understand '# Heading', '- list item' and blank-line paragraphs as structure. Giving them a PDF's text as Markdown keeps the document's outline, which improves summaries and answers and uses fewer tokens than an uploaded file with layout noise. Markdown is also what Notion, Obsidian, GitHub and most note apps import natively. Text extraction only works when the PDF has a real text layer — documents exported from Word, Google Docs or a website. A scanned page is just a picture of text; PDFWix detects when there is no selectable text and tells you to run OCR PDF first. Complex multi-column layouts and tables are extracted in reading order but may need light tidying; for editable tables, PDF to Excel is the better choice.

At a glance

Output: .md or .txt · Headings: Detected from font size · Processing: 100% in your browser

The bottom line

Working with PDFs inside Claude directly? The free PDFWix Claude connector can extract PDF text right in the chat.

Frequently asked questions

How do I convert a PDF to text for free?

Open PDFWix PDF to Text & Markdown, add the PDF, choose Plain text or Markdown and click Convert. The file downloads and you can copy everything from the preview.

How do I convert a PDF to Markdown?

Choose Markdown (.md) and click Convert. Headings are detected from font size and pages are separated with horizontal rules.

Why is my PDF showing no text?

It is probably a scan — a picture of text with no text layer. Run it through OCR PDF first, then convert.

Is Markdown better than uploading a PDF to ChatGPT?

Often, yes. Markdown keeps the structure, uses fewer tokens and avoids layout noise, which usually gives better summaries and answers.

Does it keep tables?

Table text is extracted line by line in reading order. For real rows and columns use PDF to Excel.

Is my PDF uploaded or used for AI training?

No. Text is extracted in your browser; PDFWix never receives the file.

Need an editable document instead of text? Try PDF to Word. Scanned pages first need OCR PDF.