Convert EPUB to TXT with chapters in the right order
The EPUB to TXT converter turns an ebook into a clean plain-text file. It follows the book’s own reading order (the EPUB “spine”), keeps chapter and section headings, writes lists as simple dashes and numbers, lays tables out in columns and gives you control over line length, blank lines and footnotes.
Plain text is the most durable and portable format there is. It opens in Notepad, TextEdit, every phone and every programming language, it is tiny, and it is easy to search, diff, count or feed to a screen reader, a text-to-speech app or an AI tool. Writers use it to pull a manuscript out of an EPUB, students to quote and annotate, and developers to build word lists or train search indexes.
The book is unzipped and read entirely inside your browser tab, so private documents, review copies and personal libraries never leave your device.
How to convert an EPUB to plain text
- Drop an
.epubfile onto the upload area or click to choose one. The text appears straight away. - Pick a Line width: keep one line per paragraph for word processors and e-readers, or wrap at 60–100 characters for email, terminals and old devices.
- Choose how Footnotes and Headings are written, and whether to keep a blank line between paragraphs, image descriptions and chapter titles.
- Check the result in the Plain text box, then press Download .txt or Copy text. Choose CRLF line endings only if an old Windows program shows everything on one line.
EPUB to TXT Converter features
True reading order
Chapters come out in spine order, so prefaces, chapters and appendices stay where the publisher put them. Cover images and table-of-contents pages are skipped unless you untick the option.
Chapter titles from the contents
If a chapter file has no heading of its own, its name is taken from the book’s navigation document or NCX table of contents, so every chapter is labelled.
Three footnote modes
Keep notes where they are with [1] markers, gather each chapter’s notes under a “Notes” heading at its end, or strip markers and notes for a clean reading copy.
Readable lists and tables
Bulleted and numbered lists keep their numbering and a hanging indent when wrapped, and tables become aligned columns separated by | characters.
Hard wrapping that respects words
Wrapping never breaks a word and never touches preformatted code or tables. The longest-line figure under the result confirms the width you chose.
Honest DRM detection
Books locked with Adobe, Apple, Kobo or Readium LCP DRM are recognised and explained instead of failing with a confusing error.
What happens to each part of the book
| In the EPUB | In the TXT file |
|---|---|
| Book title and author (OPF metadata) | First two lines of the file |
| Level 1 and 2 headings | Underlined with === or ---, in capitals, or as # Markdown, as you choose |
| Paragraphs | One paragraph per line, or wrapped at your line width |
| Bulleted / numbered lists | - item / 1. item, nested lists indented |
| Tables | Aligned columns separated by | |
| Images | [Image: alt text] when the book describes them; decorative images are left out |
| Footnote references | [1], or removed |
| Code and preformatted text | Copied exactly, never wrapped |
Tips for better plain text
- For e-readers and word processors, leave “No wrapping” selected: the reading app wraps lines to the screen itself, and hard line breaks would show up mid-sentence.
- For email, Usenet or code repositories, 72 characters is the traditional width; 80 suits terminals.
- Comics, picture books and scanned books store their pages as images, so there is little or no text to extract. A page-by-page format such as EPUB to PDF keeps the pictures instead.
- To count words or reading time afterwards, paste the result into the Word Counter. Need a Kindle copy instead? Try EPUB to MOBI.
How the EPUB is read
An EPUB is a ZIP archive of XHTML chapter files plus a package document (the OPF) that lists them in order. The converter reads META-INF/container.xml to find the OPF, takes the title, authors and language from its metadata, follows the spine for the reading order and reads chapter names from the EPUB 3 navigation document or, in older EPUB 2 books, the NCX file.
Each chapter is parsed with your browser’s own XHTML parser. Scripts, styles and hidden elements are ignored, page-number markers inserted by publishers are dropped, and soft hyphens and zero-width characters are removed so words are never broken in the output. Text is saved as UTF-8, so accents, Hindi, Chinese, Arabic and emoji survive unchanged.
EPUB to TXT Converter FAQ
How do I convert EPUB to TXT?
Open the EPUB with the upload area above, choose your line width and footnote options, and press “Download .txt”. The EPUB to TXT conversion is free, has no file-size limit beyond your device’s memory and works offline once the page has loaded.
Will the TXT keep my chapters and headings?
Yes. Chapters are written in reading order with their headings, and a chapter without a heading gets its title from the book’s table of contents. Bold, italics, fonts and colours cannot exist in plain text, so they are dropped.
What happens to footnotes?
By default each chapter’s notes are collected under a “Notes” heading at the end of that chapter, with [1]-style markers in the text. You can also keep them where they appear in the book or remove them completely.
Can I convert an EPUB bought from Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo or Google Play?
Only if it is DRM-free. Books protected by DRM are encrypted, and this tool does not remove DRM. It tells you which kind of protection it found so you know why the book cannot be opened.
Why does my text have no line breaks in Notepad?
Very old versions of Windows Notepad only understand CRLF line endings. Choose “CRLF (old Windows programs)” under Line endings and download the file again.
Is my ebook uploaded anywhere?
No. The EPUB is unzipped and converted by JavaScript in your browser; nothing is sent to a server.