Step-by-step guide
How to Convert PDF to Markdown
Turn any text-based PDF into clean Markdown in your browser — free, private, and ready in seconds. Use the converter below and follow the steps.
Drop your PDF here, or
click to browseSee it in action
- 01
Upload a text-based PDF, or click "Try sample PDF" above to use our demo article.
- 02
Review the Markdown in Preview or Source view, then copy or download the .md file.
- 03
Paste into your editor, knowledge base, or LLM prompt — headings, lists and tables are preserved.
Getting Started with RAG
Retrieval augmented generation combines a language model with an external knowledge base.
Why Markdown
Markdown is compact and structured, which makes it the preferred input format for large language models.
Next Steps
Convert your source documents to Markdown, chunk them, and store the embeddings in a vector database.
1. Upload your PDF
Drag and drop a text-based PDF onto the converter above, or click to browse. Files up to 50 MB are supported. Try the sample PDF if you want to see the output first.
2. Review the Markdown
Switch between Preview and Source view to check headings, lists, and tables. Edit is not built in yet — copy the output into your editor if you need to tweak it.
3. Copy or download
Click Copy Markdown to paste into ChatGPT, Obsidian, or a code editor. Or download the .md file and move it into your vault, repo, or RAG pipeline.
Frequently asked questions
What type of PDF works best?
Text-based PDFs — reports, papers, ebooks exported from Word or Google Docs — convert most reliably. For scanned or image-only PDFs, use our OCR converter, which recognizes the text in your browser.
Is conversion really local?
Yes. Parsing and Markdown generation run entirely in your browser via WebAssembly. Your PDF is never uploaded to our servers.
Why use Markdown instead of copying text from the PDF?
Copy-paste often breaks table columns, loses heading hierarchy, and includes page headers. Structured Markdown preserves document layout with fewer tokens — ideal for LLMs and note apps.
Can I convert multiple PDFs at once?
Yes. Use our batch converter to drop many PDFs at once and download them all as a ZIP — free and unlimited, all in your browser.
Related tools
Convert PDF to clean Markdown right in your browser. Built for LLM, RAG, Obsidian and Notion workflows.
PDF to Markdown for ObsidianConvert PDFs into clean, offline Markdown notes you can drop straight into your Obsidian vault — headings, lists and tables kept intact.
PDF to Markdown for ChatGPT & LLMsConvert PDFs into compact, structured Markdown that ChatGPT, Claude and RAG pipelines can parse reliably — all processed locally in your browser.