PDF to Text — Extract Text from Any PDF
Copy-pasting from a PDF gives you broken lines and garbage characters. Get the whole document as a clean, plain text file instead — with OCR fallback for scanned pages.
How to convert PDF to text
- Upload your PDF (drag & drop or browse).
- Choose Extract Text. Toggle “preserve line breaks” to taste.
- Download the .txt file. Your PDF is deleted from our server automatically.
Why use File Forge?
- Works on scans: OCR fallback recognizes text in scanned documents that normal extractors return empty.
- Verifiably private: automatic deletion after download, with the full source code on GitHub to prove it.
- Free and anonymous: no signup, no watermark, no limits.
How File Forge keeps your PDF to Text files private
When you use the PDF to Text tool, your file is uploaded over an encrypted HTTPS connection and processed on the server, then handed straight back to you. File Forge is built privacy-first, and — because the entire codebase is open source — every claim on this page is something you can verify line by line or run yourself, rather than a marketing promise you have to take on trust.
Your file is deleted the moment you are done
The file you upload is removed from our server as soon as the PDF to Text operation finishes, and the processed result is deleted the instant you download it. As a safety net, a background sweeper runs continuously and purges anything older than one hour, so nothing of yours lingers on disk. We never build a library of your documents, never resell them, and never train anything on them. There is no hidden retention and no analytics tied to your file contents.
Open source you can audit — or self-host
Most “free” online file tools ask you to trust a closed black box. File Forge is different: the complete source code is public on GitHub, so a developer can read exactly how the PDF to Text tool handles uploads, confirm the deletion logic, and even run a private copy on their own machine or server. Verifiable privacy beats a privacy policy you simply have to believe.
No account, no watermark, no upsell
There is no signup, no email wall, and no credit card. File Forge never stamps a watermark on your output and never caps you at “one free file” before demanding payment. The PDF to Text tool is genuinely free to use as often as you need, on any device with a web browser — no software to install and no extensions to add.
Frequently asked questions
Can I extract text from a scanned PDF?
Yes — when the PDF has no embedded text layer, the OCR fallback recognizes the text from the page images, where available on the server.
Will the text keep its formatting?
Your choice: preserve line breaks and spacing to mirror the document, or disable it for continuous text that's easier to paste elsewhere.
What output do I get?
A plain .txt file — perfect for searching, quoting, summarizing, or feeding into other tools.
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