PDF to Markdown
Get the text of a PDF as Markdown, with its headings, lists and paragraphs.
- Free, no sign-up
- Files stay on your device
- PDF / up to 50 MB
Step by step
How to convert a PDF to Markdown
Step 1: Drop a PDF on the box above, or select Choose file.
Step 2: Select Convert to Markdown. The start of the text appears on the result screen.
Step 3: Select Download Markdown to save the .md file.
How the layout is read
The tool reads the text of every page and uses its layout: lines in a clearly larger font become headings, with up to three levels; lines that start with a bullet or a number such as 1. become list items; and lines close together become one paragraph. Words split with a hyphen at the end of a line are joined again.
It follows fixed rules, not AI, so the result is predictable: what is in the PDF is what you get, nothing is summarised or rewritten. Markdown is plain text that note apps, documentation sites, GitHub and AI chat tools read well.
Limits
Tables, columns side by side, footnotes and images are not recognised. Their text still comes out, as paragraphs, but table cells and column order may need tidying. Bold and italic are not detected yet. Each page is read on its own, so a paragraph that runs over a page break becomes two paragraphs.
Scanned PDFs are pictures of pages with no text to read. The tool tells you when a PDF has no text; text recognition (OCR) is coming as a separate tool. Password-protected PDFs need unlocking first with Unlock PDF.
Private
The text is read inside your browser tab. Your PDF is never uploaded, and the Markdown is created on your device.