# PDF to Markdown online — headings, tables and links kept

URL: https://mindmax.me/tools/pdf-to-markdown/
Last verified: 2026-11-09

> Convert a PDF to Markdown in your browser, with headings, lists, tables and links rebuilt and page headers and numbers dropped. Free, nothing uploaded.

PDF to Markdown

## Get the document out of the PDF, not just the words.

Open a PDF and get Markdown with its headings, paragraphs, lists, tables and links rebuilt, and the page furniture left behind. It converts in your browser and opens as a document you can edit before you take it.

[Open the editor — it’s free](https://mindmax.me/write/?utm_source=tool_pdf-to-markdown&lang=en&make=pdf)[See the five steps →](https://mindmax.me/#steps)

Price

Free · no account, no watermark

Runs in

Your browser — nothing to install

Your document

Stays in this browser

[Runs on the MindMax web editor →](https://mindmax.me/tools/online-markdown-editor/) · [All online tools](https://mindmax.me/tools/)

A page of your PDF

Acme Ltd · Annual report 2025

3. Results

Revenue rose 12% to 4.2m, see the full accounts.

| Region | Revenue |
| --- | --- |
| Europe | 2.6m |
| Asia | 1.6m |

12

→

The Markdown you get

## 3. Results

Revenue rose 12% to 4.2m, see the [full accounts](https://example.com/accounts).

| Region | Revenue |
| --- | --- |
| Europe | 2.6m |
| Asia | 1.6m |

## PDF to .md in five steps

-

Open the editor

Click Open the editor on this page. The MindMax web editor opens with a PDF card at the top. No install, no account.

-

Choose or drop the PDF

Pick the file or drag it onto the card. You can also open a PDF later with the open-file button in the document list.

-

Let it convert in your browser

The text layer is read page by page and rebuilt as Markdown. The file never leaves your computer.

-

Check and tidy

The result opens as a document. Fix a heading level or a table cell where the PDF layout was unusual.

-

Take the Markdown

Click Export at the top right and choose Markdown for the .md file, or Word document if you need a .docx.

## What it rebuilds

Copying text out of a PDF gives you a line break at the end of every printed line and a page number in the middle of a sentence. This puts the document back together.

Headings

Found by type size, font and numbering such as 3.1, then written as # to ######.

Paragraphs

Wrapped lines are joined, words hyphenated across a line break are put back together, and a paragraph that runs onto the next page stays one paragraph.

Columns

Two-column papers and reports are read left column first, not straight across.

Tables

Rows and columns are rebuilt from where the text sits on the page and written as Markdown tables.

Lists and links

Bullets become - items, numbered lists stay numbered, and words that link somewhere in the PDF keep the link.

Page furniture removed

Running headers, footers, page numbers and watermarks are dropped. Footnotes are kept as their own paragraphs.

## Where it gets hard

- Scanned PDFs have no text to convert

A scan is a picture of a page. The web converter reads the PDF’s text layer and says so when there is none. The desktop app can recognise scanned PDFs.

- Equations come out flattened

A PDF does not store equation structure, so x² arrives as x2 and fractions lose their bars. When a document has equations, the editor tells you roughly how many pages to check.

- Images, bold and italic are not carried over

You get the text and its structure. Figures stay in the PDF, and emphasis is not marked.

- Unusual layouts need a look

Posters, forms, slides saved as PDF and tables without clear columns can come out in a surprising order or as paragraphs instead of a table.

- Up to 60 MB, kept in this browser

Larger files are too big to convert in a browser tab. The converted document is stored in this browser until you download or export it.

## Common questions

### How do I convert a PDF to Markdown for free?

Click Open the editor on this page and choose the PDF. It converts in your browser and opens as a document; click Export, then Markdown, for the .md file. No account is needed.

### Is my PDF uploaded?

No. The PDF is read and converted in your browser, and the result is kept in your browser’s storage.

### Does it keep tables?

Yes, when the table’s columns line up on the page. Each detected table is written as a Markdown table. Tables with merged cells or no clear column edges can come out as plain paragraphs.

### Why convert a PDF to Markdown before giving it to ChatGPT or Claude?

Markdown keeps the headings, lists and tables as structure the model can follow, without the page numbers and repeated headers a raw copy drags in, and it is much shorter than the PDF.

### Can it convert a scanned PDF?

Not on the web. A scan has no text layer to read. The MindMax desktop app can recognise scanned PDFs.

### Can I get a Word file instead?

Yes. After converting, click Export and choose Word document. The .docx keeps the headings, lists and tables.

### Is the converter open source?

Yes. The engine is @mindmax/pdf-markdown, released under Apache-2.0, and it is the same code that runs in this page. It reads the text layer only, so you can run it yourself and see exactly what it does. [Source on GitHub](https://github.com/woodpeng/mindmax-pdf-markdown)

Open source

## The part that does the work is a library you can read.

Every step — reading the text layer, rebuilding paragraphs and columns, finding headings, drawing tables — is done by the same open-source engine in this page and on your own machine. Nothing that shapes your Markdown happens on a server you cannot inspect.

`$npm i @mindmax/pdf-markdown`

Licence

Apache-2.0

Package

@mindmax/pdf-markdown 0.1.0

Guarded by

22 documents · 170 tests

Ships as

25.1 KB gzipped · 0 runtime dependencies

[Source on GitHub →](https://github.com/woodpeng/mindmax-pdf-markdown)[On npm →](https://www.npmjs.com/package/@mindmax/pdf-markdown)[How it rebuilds a page →](https://mindmax.me/open-source/pdf-markdown/)[Corpus results, per document →](https://mindmax.me/open-source/pdf-markdown/benchmark/)[Open source at MindMax →](https://mindmax.me/open-source/)

Maintained in public by the MindMax team; the MindMax app installs this same package. The licence covers the engine, not the app around it.

## See also

[AI paper readerAsk questions about the PDF itself, with answers that quote the page.](https://mindmax.me/tools/ai-paper-reader/)[Markdown to WordTurn the Markdown into a .docx with real tables and editable equations.](https://mindmax.me/tools/markdown-to-word/)[Online Markdown editorThe editor the converted document opens in.](https://mindmax.me/tools/online-markdown-editor/)[Scanned PDF OCRThe desktop app: recognise scanned pages when there is no text layer.](https://mindmax.me/features/scanned-pdf-ocr/)

## Open the PDF. Take the Markdown.

[Open the editor — it’s free](https://mindmax.me/write/?utm_source=tool_pdf-to-markdown&lang=en&make=pdf)

Free, no account. Your file is not uploaded.

[Need a whole folder of documents? Get the desktop app →](https://mindmax.me/download/)