Skip to content
RTF to PDF

Free online RTF to TXT converter

Convert RTF to plain text

Drop an .rtf file below and get clean, readable text with all the formatting noise stripped away. No upload, no signup, nothing to install — the extraction runs right here in your browser.

  • Clean plain text
  • No upload
  • No signup
  • 100% free
  • Any device

Need the formatting preserved instead? Use the RTF to PDF converter to keep bold, fonts, tables and layout intact.

How to convert RTF to TXT

Three steps, all local. The file never leaves your browser.

  1. Drop your .rtf file onto the box

    Drag it from your desktop, Downloads folder, or click the box to pick it. The file stays on your device — nothing is uploaded. Up to 20 files at a time, 25 MB each.

  2. Text is extracted instantly

    The RTF markup is parsed and all formatting is stripped away, leaving clean plain text. Tables are preserved as tab-separated values. You can preview the result right on the page.

  3. Download the .txt file

    Press Download .txt to save the plain-text version. Converting several files? Download them all at once as a .zip.

When you need text, not formatting

RTF files carry more baggage than most people expect. Open one in Notepad and you get a wall of braces and backslash commands — {\rtf1\ansi\deff0 — with your actual words buried inside. That markup controls bold, italic, fonts, colours, margins and more, but when all you need is the text itself — for pasting into a form, feeding into a script, importing into a database, or reading on a device with no RTF viewer — the formatting is just noise.

This tool parses the RTF markup the same way a word processor would, then hands you only the text content. Tables come through as tab-separated values so column data stays aligned. Everything outputs as UTF-8, handling legacy code pages (cp1250 through cp1258) along the way, so accented and Cyrillic text from old documents comes out readable.

Common reasons to convert RTF to plain text

  • Data extraction: pull addresses, names or product lists out of formatted documents for a spreadsheet or script.
  • Search and indexing: plain text is what full-text search engines ingest — strip the RTF wrapper first.
  • Email or chat: paste the content into a plain-text field without carrying over invisible formatting that causes rendering surprises.
  • Archival: .txt files are the most durable document format — no application dependency, readable on any device decades from now.
  • Diff and version control: comparing plain text in Git or diff tools is straightforward; comparing RTF markup is not.

If what you actually need is a formatted, shareable document, the RTF to PDF converter keeps the layout intact. And if you want to understand the format itself, what is an RTF file breaks it down.

RTF to TXT — frequently asked questions

What is the difference between RTF and TXT?

RTF (Rich Text Format) embeds formatting — bold, fonts, colours, tables, images — inside control words and braces. A TXT file is plain text with no formatting at all. Converting RTF to TXT strips the markup and keeps only the readable text content.

Does the conversion lose anything?

All visual formatting (bold, italic, colours, fonts, indents) is removed — that is the point. The words and numbers in the document are preserved exactly. Tables come through as tab-separated text, and images are dropped since plain text cannot represent them.

Is my file uploaded to a server?

No. The entire conversion runs in JavaScript inside your browser tab. The file never leaves your device, and the page works offline once loaded.

Can I convert multiple RTF files to TXT at once?

Yes. Drop up to 20 files at a time. Each one is converted individually and you can download them one by one or grab all of them as a single .zip file.

Why not just open the RTF in Notepad?

Notepad shows the raw RTF markup — control words like \b, \par, font tables in braces — mixed with your actual text. This tool parses that markup and gives you only the readable content, cleanly separated from the formatting noise.

What encoding does the output .txt use?

UTF-8. The parser handles legacy Windows code pages (cp1250–cp1258) and Unicode escapes in the source RTF, then outputs everything as UTF-8 text.

Can I convert RTF to PDF instead?

Yes — the main converter at rtf-to-pdf.com does exactly that. If you need the formatting preserved rather than stripped, use the RTF to PDF converter on the homepage.