PDF Text Extractor

PDF Text Extractor downloads PDF files and returns their text as paragraphs or as Markdown with headings and lists, one row per file or one row per page. File rows also carry the metadata (title, author, dates, PDF version), the page count, a SHA-256 checksum and the web links found in the file. Paste PDF links, or a web page that links to PDFs, and click Start. There is no OCR, so pages that are only scanned images come back without text. It costs $0.20 per 1,000 PDF pages on the Free plan ($0.10 on Business), and the $5 of monthly credit in Apify's Free plan covers about 25,000 PDF pages.

What data does it return?

Field	Description
url, fileName	Address of the PDF and the file name in it, e.g. p5027.pdf.
sourcePage	The web page that linked to the PDF when you gave a page; null for direct links.
status, error	ok, no_text (no page had text), not_pdf, robots_disallowed (the website's robots.txt disallows the file) or error, with the reason in error, e.g. The server answered HTTP 404.
pageCount, pagesExtracted, pagesWithoutText	Pages in the file, pages that gave text, and pages without text such as scans or blank pages.
title	Title from the file's metadata, or the largest line on the first page when the metadata has none.
author, subject, keywords	Metadata as the file carries it. IRS forms and publications, for example, give an office code such as SE:W:CAS:AM:IPSO as the author.
creator, producer, pdfVersion	The programs that made the document and the PDF, e.g. Adobe InDesign CS5.5 (7.5.2), and the PDF version (1.7).
createdAt, modifiedAt	Creation and modification dates from the metadata, ISO 8601 in UTC.
language, hasForm	Language from the metadata (en-US) and whether the PDF has fillable form fields.
sizeBytes, sha256	File size in bytes and the SHA-256 checksum; a new checksum means the file has changed.
text, format	The text of the whole file, in text or markdown format.
wordCount, charCount	Words and characters in text.
links	Web links in the file, up to 500, e.g. http://www.identitytheft.gov/.
checkedAt	When the file was read, ISO 8601 in UTC.

How to extract text from PDFs

1. Put the addresses in PDF links or web pages, one per line. A link that returns a PDF is read directly. A web page, such as a list of reports, is searched for links that end in .pdf, and up to Maximum PDFs per web page of them (50 unless you change it) are read.
2. Pick the Output format. Plain text joins the lines of each paragraph and rejoins words hyphenated at a line end. Markdown adds # headings for lines set larger than the body text, and - and 1. list items.
3. Turn on One row per page to get every page as its own row, for example to index a long document page by page.
4. To read part of each file, fill Pages with a range such as 1-5, 8, 10- (10- means page 10 to the end), or lower Maximum pages per PDF from 1,000.
5. Click Start. Three files are read at a time, and the rows appear in the Output tab, where you can export them as JSON, CSV or Excel.

Input for the API:

{
  "urls": [
    "https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p1281.pdf",
    "https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-w-9"
  ],
  "format": "markdown",
  "rowPerPage": true,
  "pages": "1-10"
}

Example output

A file row from a run on 27 September 2026. The PDF was found on an IRS page about Form W-9 that was given as a web page, so sourcePage is filled. The Markdown text is cut after its first two sections; wordCount and charCount describe the whole text.

{
  "url": "https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p5027.pdf",
  "sourcePage": "https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-w-9",
  "fileName": "p5027.pdf",
  "status": "ok",
  "error": null,
  "pageCount": 1,
  "pagesExtracted": 1,
  "pagesWithoutText": 0,
  "title": "Publication 5027 (Rev. 5-2018)",
  "author": "SE:W:CAS:AM:IPSO",
  "subject": "Identity Theft Information for Taxpayers",
  "keywords": null,
  "creator": "Adobe InDesign CS5.5 (7.5.2)",
  "producer": "Adobe PDF Library 9.9",
  "createdAt": "2018-06-05T22:34:59.000Z",
  "modifiedAt": "2018-06-06T13:10:48.000Z",
  "language": null,
  "pdfVersion": "1.7",
  "hasForm": false,
  "sizeBytes": 93363,
  "sha256": "fdffcfc09ff43520c2f51e11c8e2fda12b80eb8d0b86193303592a1eda620fad",
  "wordCount": 690,
  "charCount": 4203,
  "format": "markdown",
  "text": "# Identity Theft Information for Taxpayers\n\nIdentity theft places a burden on its victims and presents a challenge to many businesses, organizations and governments, including the IRS. The IRS combats this crime with an aggressive strategy of prevention, detection and victim assistance.\n\nPublication 5027 (Rev. 5-2018) Catalog Number 67495R Department of the Treasury Internal Revenue Service www.irs.gov\n\n## What is tax-related identity theft?\n\nTax-related identity theft occurs when someone uses your stolen Social Security number (SSN) to file a tax return claiming a fraudulent refund. If you become a victim, we are committed to resolving your case as quickly as possible.\n\nYou may be unaware that this has happened until you e-file your return and discover that a return already has been filed using your SSN. Or, the IRS may send you a letter saying it has identified a suspicious return using your SSN.\n\n## Know the warning signs\n\nBe alert to possible tax-related identity theft if you are contacted by the IRS about:\n\n- More than one tax return was filed for you,\n\n- You owe additional tax, have a refund offset or have had collection actions taken against you for a year you did not file a tax return, or\n\n- IRS records indicate you received wages or other income from an employer for whom you did not work.\n\n...",
  "links": [
    "https://www.irs.gov/",
    "http://www.identitytheft.gov/",
    "http://www.equifax.com/",
    "http://www.experian.com/",
    "http://www.transunion.com/",
    "https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f14039.pdf",
    "https://www.irs.gov/identitytheft",
    "https://www.irs.gov/Individuals/Data-Breach-Information-for-Taxpayers",
    "https://www.irs.gov/taxessecuritytogether",
    "https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p4524.pdf"
  ],
  "checkedAt": "2026-09-27T07:18:50.225Z"
}

How much does it cost to extract text from PDFs?

	Free plan	Starter	Scale	Business
1,000 PDF pages	$0.20	$0.16	$0.13	$0.10

You pay only for the events in the table. There is no start fee, and compute time and proxies are included.

A batch of 100 reports with 20 pages each is 2,000 pages: $0.40 on the Free plan and $0.20 on Business. Only pages that gave text count, and a page range or Maximum pages per PDF caps the cost of long files.

Limits

• The text keeps the order in which the PDF stores it; the actor does not re-sort it by position on the page. A file whose text boxes are stored out of order comes out in that order.
• Tables come out as lines of text, and the Markdown output has no table syntax.
• Headings are recognized by font size only. Bold text in the body size stays a plain paragraph.
• Running headers and footers stay in the text of every page. Only lines that consist of a page number, with or without the word page or a total, are dropped.
• On web pages, only links whose address ends in .pdf or carries format=pdf or type=pdf count. Files offered through scripts or download buttons without such an address are not found.
• The actor reads each website's robots.txt first and follows it, also for every redirect. A file address you entered that robots.txt disallows gives a free robots_disallowed row; disallowed files linked from a web page are skipped and counted in the SUMMARY record. When robots.txt answers with a server error or not at all, the website is skipped in that run.
• Some websites refuse the download and answer HTTP 403; those files come back as error. Files behind a login cannot be read, because the actor sends no cookies or credentials.
• Excel cells hold at most 32,767 characters, and a file row can have more: the six-page Form W-9 alone has 37,975 characters. For spreadsheets, use One row per page.
• When no address in a run can be read at all, the run ends as failed. Its rows still give the reason for each address.

Scanned, locked and very large files

The actor reads the text layer of each PDF and has no OCR. Pages that are only images, as in scanned documents, have no text layer: they are left out of the text and counted in pagesWithoutText. When none of the pages read has text, the file row has status no_text and the metadata, and the file is not charged. Scans that already went through OCR carry an invisible text layer and are read like any other PDF.

A PDF that needs a password to open cannot be read. Its row has status error and the message The PDF could not be opened: No password given, and there is no input for passwords. PDFs that only restrict copying or printing open without a password and are read normally.

The largest file a run reads depends on the memory it runs with: 32 MB with 512 MB, 100 MB with 1 GB and 150 MB with 2 GB or more. A larger file is not downloaded past that size, also when the server does not say the size in advance, and its row has status error with the limit in error, such as The file is larger than 150 MB. A download that takes more than 3 minutes is started again, up to three attempts in all. Of long files, only the first 1,000 pages are read unless you change Maximum pages per PDF; pageCount still shows the full length.

Rows per page

With One row per page on, each page that has text becomes a row with page (its number), pageCount, text, wordCount and charCount, plus the file's url, fileName, sourcePage, title and author. The links of the file are attached to its first page row. Pages without text get no row. A file that yields no text at all still comes back as one file row with its status, so failed files stay visible.

FAQ

Is it legal to extract text from PDFs?

The actor downloads the files at the addresses you give, as a browser would, reads the text in them and keeps nothing beyond the run's output. It does not sign in anywhere. Copyright in the documents stays with their authors, and some PDFs contain personal data, so you are responsible for using the text in line with each document's license and the law that applies to you.

Why does title differ from the heading on the first page?

title comes from the file's metadata when it has one, and publishers often fill it with a form or catalog name. The IRS publication in the example has the metadata title Publication 5027 (Rev. 5-2018), while its first heading reads Identity Theft Information for Taxpayers. The largest line of the first page is used only when the metadata title is empty.

Can it collect every PDF on a website?

It reads the PDFs linked from each page you list and does not follow links to other pages. List the pages that hold the documents, such as a reports or publications page, one per line.

Related scrapers

• Article Extractor

Support

This actor is built and maintained by deriverge s.r.o., a software company based in the Czech Republic. If a run fails or a field you need is missing, please open an issue in the Issues tab or write to us at info@deriverge.com. We respond in English and Czech. Runs can be scheduled in Apify Console or started from the API tab, which has examples for Python, JavaScript and cURL and works with Make, Zapier, n8n and the Apify MCP server. If the actor saves you time, a short review helps other people find it.