Convert a PDF to text or Markdown

Kortex PDF to Text reads the text in a PDF in your browser and gives it back as plain text or Markdown. It rebuilds headings, lists and paragraphs and drops page numbers and running headers. It counts words and pages and finds pages that are scans with no text. It uploads nothing.

How do I get the text out of a PDF?

1. Drop the PDF on the box above, or choose it. Reading starts at once, page by page.
2. Pick Text or Markdown, and the whole document or Page by page.
3. To keep only some pages, select them in the Pages panel.
4. Click Copy, or download a .txt or .md file. Several PDFs? Download them all in one .zip.

Plain text or Markdown?

Use plain text to paste anywhere: an email, a form, a spreadsheet. Markdown marks headings with # and lists with - or 1.. Notes apps such as Obsidian and AI assistants then see the document’s structure, not one long block. Both formats drop the page numbers and repeated margin lines that get in the way when you search or quote the text.

What if the PDF is a scan?

A scanned PDF holds pictures of pages, not text, so this tool has nothing to read. You see a note naming those pages, and the Pages panel marks them No text. Image to Text runs OCR (text recognition) on scanned PDFs and photos in your browser.

How does this compare with other PDF to text converters?

Many online converters upload the PDF and give you one plain .txt file. PDF24’s PDF to TXT, for example, says the conversion runs on its servers (as of 4 Nov 2026, source). Here the PDF stays on your device. You also get Markdown, page-by-page files, page selection, word counts and a list of pages with no text.

Getting a PDF’s text into Gemini Notebook

Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM) reads PDFs directly. A text copy helps most when you want only part of a document: one chapter, a few pages, or several papers combined into one source. Select the pages and copy the text. In Gemini Notebook, add a source and choose Copied text. To divide the PDF itself, use Split PDF.