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Free tools · Documents

PDF to text

The text layer, in reading order, with headings and lists kept as Markdown.

Free · no sign-up · no watermark · up to 50 MB · uploads deleted after 24 hours, results after 7 days.

How to pdf to text

  1. Drop the PDF or document.
  2. Nothing to choose.
  3. Press Extract, then copy or download the text.

What happens to your file

The text layer is read in the order a person would read it — columns untangled, headers and footers dropped, hyphenation at line ends joined — and written as Markdown so headings, lists and tables keep their structure.

A scanned PDF has no text layer; the page detects that and tells you to run OCR PDF first rather than returning an empty file.

Word, PowerPoint and Excel files are accepted directly and give the same Markdown.

Questions

Why is my output empty?

The PDF is a scan — pictures of pages with no text underneath. Run OCR PDF, or Image to text for a single page.

Can I get plain text instead of Markdown?

Markdown is plain text; the extra characters are only the # and - that mark headings and lists. Delete them if you must.

Do this in code

curl -X POST https://api.fylane.dev/v1/jobs \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $FYLANE_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "file_id": "<file id>",
    "operation": "extract-text",
    "options": {}
  }'

The same operation, extract-text — Markdown and the structured v1 content schema. Upload first with the quickstart; every option is on the operations page. 500 free credits a month, then $5 per thousand.