Document processing

Document Text Extractor: PDF, Word and Excel to clean text and Markdown

Extract text, Markdown, tables and metadata from PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, EPUB, HTML and CSV files. Scanned pages are read with OCR in 19 languages, and documents can be split into RAG-ready chunks for LLM pipelines.

19 users97.3% successful runs (30 days)

Run on Apify — free trial Use via API

What data you get

`markdown`	Clean Markdown with headings, lists and tables
`fullText`	Whole document as plain text
`tables`	Each table as Markdown and as a row array
`metadata`	Document metadata
`pages`	Optional page-by-page text and Markdown
`ragChunks`	Optional retrieval chunks with heading path
`ocrText`	Text read from scanned pages with OCR

How it works

Open the scraper on Apify and sign up (free).
Enter routes, dates and options in the form.
Click Start and download results as JSON, CSV or Excel, or call the API.

Pricing

$0.15 per 1,000 rows

Pay per event: you are charged per document processed and per page parsed, plus per OCR page when you turn on OCR for scanned pages.

Apify gives $5 free credits every month — enough to test this scraper at no cost.

Example tasks

Ready-made inputs. Copy one into the scraper form or send it through the API.

Convert PDF to Markdown with tables

Markdown output with every table extracted.

{
  "urls": [
    "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/lergassy/apify-actor-assets/main/document-text-extractor/sample-report.pdf"
  ],
  "includeMarkdown": true,
  "extractTables": true
}

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Split PDF and Word files into RAG chunks

1,200-character chunks with 120 overlap.

{
  "urls": [
    "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/lergassy/apify-actor-assets/main/document-text-extractor/sample-report.pdf",
    "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/lergassy/apify-actor-assets/main/document-text-extractor/sample-contract.docx"
  ],
  "chunkForRag": true,
  "chunkSize": 1200,
  "chunkOverlap": 120
}

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OCR scanned pages of a PDF

Read up to 20 pages without a text layer.

{
  "urls": [
    "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/lergassy/apify-actor-assets/main/document-text-extractor/sample-report.pdf"
  ],
  "ocrScannedPages": true,
  "ocrLanguage": "eng",
  "ocrMaxPagesPerDocument": 20
}

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Extract text from the first 5 pages of a PDF

Page-by-page text for pages 1 to 5.

{
  "urls": [
    "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/lergassy/apify-actor-assets/main/document-text-extractor/sample-report.pdf"
  ],
  "pageRange": "1-5",
  "includePages": true
}

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Use cases

AI and RAG developers: turn PDFs and Office files into clean Markdown chunks for embeddings.
Operations teams: pull text and tables out of reports, invoices and contracts.
Researchers: extract searchable text from scanned papers and books.
Automation builders: add document parsing to Make, n8n or Zapier workflows.

FAQ

Which file types are supported?

PDF, DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, EPUB, HTML, CSV and TXT, via URL, upload or base64.

Can it read scanned PDFs?

Yes. Turn on OCR for scanned pages and pick one of 19 languages.

Can it handle password-protected PDFs?

Yes, if you provide the password.

Is it legal to extract text from documents?

The tool only processes the files you give it. Make sure you have the right to use those documents and that processing any personal data in them complies with applicable law.

How do I get the data into my app?

Use the Apify API, Python or JavaScript clients, or integrations with Make, n8n, Zapier and Google Sheets.

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Turn any document into clean text

Run on Apify — free trial