How to Convert PDF to Word (Editable DOCX) for Free

To convert a PDF to an editable Word document, open PDF to Word, drop the PDF in, choose whether each PDF page should start a new Word page, and press Convert to Word. You get a .docx with the text, headings, bold, italic and lists. It works for text PDFs, not scanned images, and runs in your browser.

When is PDF to Word useful?

• Updating an old CV or report when you've lost the original Word file
• Reusing text from a brochure, policy or article without retyping
• Editing a contract draft someone sent as PDF
• Translating a document in Word or Google Docs
• Quoting long passages accurately

How do I convert PDF to Word step by step?

1. Open PDF to Word.
2. Drop the PDF onto the box, or click to choose it. Text PDFs up to 200 MB work on a computer.
3. Decide on page breaks: keep Start each PDF page on a new page ticked to mirror the PDF's pages, or untick it to let the text flow.
4. Press Convert to Word. A progress bar shows each page being read.
5. The .docx downloads with the same name as the PDF. Open it in Word, Google Docs, Pages or LibreOffice.

What does the converter keep?

• Text and paragraphs, rebuilt from the lines on each page
• Headings, detected from larger font sizes (Heading 1 and Heading 2)
• Bold and italic from the PDF's fonts
• Bullet and numbered lists as real Word lists
• Words split across lines with a hyphen are joined back together

What's simplified: multi-column layouts become single-column paragraphs, tables become plain text lines, and images aren't copied. It's built for getting your words back, not for recreating the design.

Why does my PDF "look scanned"?

Some PDFs are just photos of pages, made by a scanner or a phone app. They contain no text, only pictures. The converter checks for this and tells you instead of producing an empty document. You'd need OCR software to read the letters from the images.

How to tell: open the PDF and try to select a word. If you can't highlight text, it's scanned.

How do I tidy the Word file afterwards?

• Use Word's Styles to adjust headings in one go.
• Turn on Show formatting marks to spot extra line breaks, then remove them.
• For text copied from narrow columns, our Remove Line Breaks tool joins lines quickly.
• Paste messy text into Remove Formatting to clean hidden characters.

Should I keep PDF page breaks?

Keep Start each PDF page on a new page ticked when the page numbers matter, for example a contract where clauses are referred to by page, or a form you'll compare side by side with the original. Untick it when you just want the text to edit freely: paragraphs then flow naturally across pages, which is easier to reformat. You can always add or remove page breaks in Word afterwards.

Can I convert PDF to Word on a phone?

Yes. Open PDF to Word in your phone's browser and choose the PDF from your Files app or downloads. The .docx downloads to your phone and opens in the Word, Google Docs or Pages app. Long PDFs take longer on a phone, so for documents over a few hundred pages a computer is quicker.

Troubleshooting

• Password-protected PDF: you're asked for the password; type it and press Unlock and convert.
• Strange symbols instead of text: some PDFs use fonts without proper text mapping, so the extracted letters come out garbled. There's no reliable fix besides OCR.
• Text in the wrong order: complex layouts with sidebars can mix up reading order. Untick page breaks and tidy the result, or copy sections separately.

Is my PDF uploaded?

No. The PDF is read with pdf.js inside your browser and the Word file is built on your device, so confidential documents never leave it.

Convert your file with PDF to Word. Going the other way? See how to convert Word to PDF. To save pages as images, use PDF to JPG.