PDF to Markdown converter
Convert PDF to Markdown in your browser. Headings, paragraphs, bullets and ruled tables come across as Markdown; scanned pages are read by an AI model on your own device.
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Accepts .pdf · Up to 20 files at a time · up to 80 MB each "Upload" and "download" here mean your browser reading a file from this device and writing one back to it. Nothing is sent to a server — open your browser's network panel and watch: no request carries your file.
FAQ
What does the Markdown actually contain?
Headings, paragraphs, bullet lists and tables. Heading levels come from type size: the sizes that stand out above the body text are ranked largest first, and the first six of them become # through ######. A line that starts with a bullet character becomes a list item, because in a PDF the bullet is literally part of the text rather than a list structure. A table comes across when the PDF drew its borders — those lines are the only place the file says where the grid is — so a table laid out with spacing alone arrives as paragraphs. Pictures are not carried: Markdown is a single text file with nowhere to put them. Convert to Word if you need them.
Why is nothing bold or italic?
Because recovering emphasis would mean guessing. A PDF stores glyph runs and the font each was drawn in, not the idea of emphasis — a heading set in a bold face, a caption in a semibold one and a word genuinely emphasised mid-sentence are indistinguishable at that level. Marking the wrong things would produce output that looks careful and is wrong, which is worse than prose that is plainly prose.
What are the --- lines between sections?
Page boundaries. Markdown has no pages, so the only choice is to lose them or to show them, and a horizontal rule is the one construct every viewer renders and every parser round-trips. It is written only between pages, never at the top, so it can never be mistaken for a front-matter block.
Does it work on scanned PDFs?
Yes, through the same on-device recognition the other PDF text conversions use. If the pages carry no text layer, an AI model runs locally — a one-time download of about 21 MB, then a few seconds per page. The recognised line heights stand in for type sizes, so headings are still found.
Do tables survive?
No. A PDF table is ruled lines and separately positioned text, with nothing in the file saying which cell is which, so the words come out as ordinary lines in reading order. Multi-column layouts have the same problem for the same reason. If the document is mostly tables, the conversion to work from is not this one.
Why Markdown rather than Word?
Because it is text. It goes into a static site, a notes app, a wiki or a language model without carrying a format nothing else can read, and it diffs in version control. If the destination is Word, use PDF to Word instead — it takes the same route and the same structure, and writes a .docx at the end.
Is it really free?
Yes — every conversion on this site, with no account, no watermark and no daily cap. The work happens on your own device, so there is no server bill for us to pass on to you.
Do I need to install anything?
No. It runs in any modern browser, on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS. There is nothing to download and nothing to sign up for, and once the page has loaded it keeps working with the network switched off.
Related converters
- PDFtoPNGRenders each page as PNG; several pages come back as a ZIP
- PDFtoJPGRenders each page as JPG; several pages come back as a ZIP
- PDFtoWordRebuilds headings, paragraphs, ruled tables and pictures as an editable Word fileAI text recognition, on your device
- PDFtoExcelReads the tables back into rows and columns, one sheet per page
- PDFtoPowerPointOne slide per page, each a picture of it — the text is not editable
- PDFtoTXTPulls out the text layer, or reads a scan on your deviceAI text recognition, on your device
PDF tools
- Compress PDFMake a PDF smaller by re-encoding the images inside it.
- Split PDFCut one PDF into several — one file per page, one every few pages, or by the ranges you type.
- Extract PDF pagesPull the pages you need into a new PDF and leave the rest behind.
- Rotate PDFTurn sideways or upside-down pages the right way up and save the result.