Convert PDF to Markdown without uploading it
Drop a PDF and get GitHub Flavored Markdown in seconds. Headings, lists and tables are rebuilt automatically, and nothing is ever uploaded — it's private PDF to Markdown conversion in your own browser.
100% private · runs in your browser
Drop your PDF or Word file here
or choose a file from your computer
PDF or Word (.docx) · up to 50 MB
How do I convert a PDF to Markdown?
Drop your PDF onto the converter on this page. It reads the document in your browser and returns GitHub Flavored Markdown in a few seconds, which you can edit, copy, or download as a .md file.
Is PDF to Markdown conversion free and private?
Yes. My PDF 2 MD is free with no sign-up, and this converter runs entirely in your browser using PDF.js: your document is never uploaded, stored or transmitted to any server, including ours. Scanned PDFs are the one opt-in exception.
Never uploaded
Your PDF is parsed on your own device. No server, no storage, no copies.
Real structure
Font sizes and text positions are analysed to rebuild headings, lists and GFM tables.
Instant results
A ten-page document converts in about a second, with a live editable preview.
How to convert a PDF to Markdown
- 1
Add your PDF
Drag the file onto the drop zone above, or click to pick it from your computer. Files up to 50 MB are accepted.
- 2
Wait a couple of seconds
The document is parsed on your own device. A ten-page file converts in about a second.
- 3
Review and edit
The Markdown appears beside a live preview. Edit it directly if a heading or a table needs a nudge.
- 4
Copy or download
Copy the Markdown to your clipboard, or download it as a .md file ready for your editor or repository.
Specifications
| Output format | GitHub Flavored Markdown (GFM) |
|---|---|
| Maximum file size | 50 MB |
| Free page limit | 30 pages per document |
| Where conversion runs | In your browser, via PDF.js in a Web Worker |
| Files uploaded | None — no file, filename or page content is transmitted |
| Account required | No |
| Password-protected PDFs | Supported; the password stays on your device |
| Scanned PDFs (OCR) | Optional — recognised on our server, only when you ask |
| Images inside the PDF | Not extracted; the surrounding text is |
| Cost | Free |
Frequently asked questions
- Does the file get uploaded to a server?
- No. The PDF is read directly from your disk by JavaScript running in your browser tab. No network request carries the file or any part of its contents.
- What Markdown flavour does it output?
- GitHub Flavored Markdown, so pipe tables render correctly on GitHub, in Obsidian, in VS Code, and in most static site generators.
- How many pages can I convert for free?
- The web version converts the first 30 pages of a document. There is no limit on how many documents you convert, and no account is required.
- Does it work offline?
- The conversion itself runs in your browser, but the page and the converter's code are loaded over the network, so a fresh tab needs a connection. What never needs the network is the file: it is read from your disk and not sent anywhere.
- Can it convert scanned PDFs?
- Not in your browser — a scan is a picture of text, so there is nothing for the converter to read. Our scanned PDF converter recognises the words on our server instead. It is opt-in for each file, and nothing is stored.
- Do I need an account?
- No. There is no sign-up, no email address, and no account of any kind. Open the page and convert.
- Can I edit the Markdown before I download it?
- Yes. The result appears in an editable pane beside a live preview, so you can correct a heading level or straighten a table before you copy it out. Nothing is final until you copy or download.
- What happens to my document when I close the page?
- It is gone. The PDF is read into your browser's memory and never leaves it, so closing the tab discards everything. There is no copy on a server to delete, and no account holding a history of what you converted.
More converters
The same in-browser converter, with guidance written for wherever your Markdown is going.
- PDF to MarkdownHeadings, lists and tables rebuilt from the page layout, in your browser — the file is never uploaded.
- PDF to ObsidianTurn a PDF into a vault note with real headings, so outline, graph view and heading links all work.
- PDF to NotionGet PDF content into Notion as editable blocks instead of a file embed you can only preview.
- PDF to ChatGPTClean Markdown for a ChatGPT conversation, a custom GPT's knowledge or an API call, converted in your browser.
- PDF to ClaudeClean Markdown for a Claude chat, a Project's knowledge or an API call, converted in your browser.
- PDF tables to MarkdownColumns detected from cell alignment and returned as GitHub Flavored Markdown pipe tables.
- Scanned PDF (OCR)Recognise the text in a scanned or photographed PDF. Sent to our server, with your permission, and never stored.
- Word to MarkdownA .docx states its own headings, lists and tables, so it converts more faithfully than a PDF does.
Guides to converting PDFs well
Longer pieces on what a PDF does and does not record, why a conversion goes wrong in the particular ways it does, and what to do with the Markdown afterwards. All guides.
- Why conversion loses structurePDFs store positioned glyphs, not document structure. Understanding that explains every conversion error you will ever see.8 minute read
- Cleaning up converted MarkdownWhat the converter emits, which Markdown features survive the trip, and the handful of tidy-up passes worth doing every time.7 minute read
- PDFs into ObsidianTurning a folder of PDFs into notes that Obsidian's outline, search and graph can actually use.7 minute read
- PDFs for LLMs and RAGWhy Markdown outperforms raw extracted text in retrieval pipelines, and how to chunk it without destroying what makes it work.9 minute read
- How in-browser conversion worksThe pipeline end to end — what reads the file, where parsing runs, what the network does, and the limits that follow.7 minute read
- Two-column reading orderWhy a two-column paper sometimes converts into alternating half-sentences, and what to do when it does.8 minute read
- Repairing converted tablesWhy merged and wrapped cells break table detection, and how to repair the four failure modes in the output.8 minute read
- OCR and scanned PDFsRecognition turns pixels into positioned words with confidence scores. Knowing what that means explains which scans work.9 minute read
- DOCX versus PDFOne format states its structure and the other makes you infer it. That single difference decides most of the outcome.7 minute read
- Long documentsA three-hundred-page document is not a big version of a short one. It fails in its own ways, and splitting first avoids most of them.8 minute read
- Bibliographies into notesReference lists convert badly for a specific structural reason. Here is the repair, and the part worth scripting.7 minute read
- Obsidian, Notion, LogseqThree tools, three dialects. What each does with a converted file, and the one shape that suits all of them.8 minute read
- Chunking for retrievalChunk on the heading ladder rather than on character counts, and know what to do when conversion did not produce one.9 minute read