RTF to TXT Converter

Strip formatting — convert RTF to plain text online

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Lightning Fast

RTF to TXT conversion is nearly instantaneous — plain text output means minimal processing and rapid delivery.

Clean Text Output

All formatting is stripped cleanly, giving you a pure text file ready for scripting, data entry, or archiving.

Cross-Platform Access

Convert from any device with a browser — desktop, tablet, or smartphone. No installation or signup needed to start.

How to convert RTF to TXT

1

Select files from Computer, Google Drive, Dropbox, URL or by dragging it on the page.

2

Choose txt or any other format you need as a result (more than 200 formats supported)

3

Let the file convert and you can download your txt file right afterwards

About formats

RTF (Rich Text Format) is a document interchange format developed by Microsoft and first published in 1987 with Word 3.0. The format encodes document content and formatting as plain ASCII text using control words (backslash-prefixed commands) and groups (curly-brace-delimited sections) that describe fonts, character formatting, paragraph layout, tables, images, and page setup. Because RTF is fundamentally a text format with no binary components, documents pass cleanly through any text channel — email systems, clipboard operations, and cross-platform transfers — without corruption. Microsoft designed RTF explicitly as a cross-application and cross-platform exchange format, and it achieved broad adoption: virtually every word processor, text editor, and document tool on every operating system has supported RTF reading and writing for decades. One advantage is exceptional cross-platform compatibility — an RTF document created on any application renders with consistent formatting on any other, making it the most reliable format for text exchange between incompatible systems. The text-based structure provides another benefit: RTF files resist corruption, are trivially generated by programs (requiring only string concatenation), and can be debugged by reading the raw markup in a text editor. While RTF lacks modern features like tracked changes and advanced layout controls, and Microsoft declared the specification frozen at version 1.9.1 in 2008, the format persists as a dependable interchange option where DOCX compatibility cannot be assumed.
Developer: Microsoft
Initial release: 1987
TXT (Plain Text) is the most fundamental digital document format, storing unformatted text as a sequence of character codes with no embedded styling, layout instructions, or metadata beyond the characters themselves. The foundation of plain text computing traces to the ASCII standard published in 1963 by the American Standards Association (now ANSI), which defined 128 character codes including uppercase and lowercase Latin letters, digits, punctuation, and control characters. Modern plain text files typically use UTF-8 encoding, a variable-width Unicode scheme that encompasses virtually every writing system worldwide while maintaining backward compatibility with ASCII. Line endings vary by platform convention — LF on Unix/macOS, CR+LF on Windows — though most contemporary tools handle both transparently. One advantage is absolute universality — TXT files can be created, read, and edited on every computing device ever manufactured, from 1960s mainframes to modern smartphones, without any specialized software. The minimal overhead is another core strength: plain text carries zero formatting baggage, making TXT files ideal for configuration files, log output, data interchange, source code, scripts, and any context where content must be processed programmatically. Plain text serves as the substrate for structured formats like CSV, JSON, XML, YAML, and Markdown, and remains the input/output medium for virtually all command-line tools and programming environments. Despite decades of richer alternatives, TXT endures as the one truly universal document format.
Developer: ANSI
Initial release: 1963

Frequently Asked Questions

Why convert RTF to TXT?

TXT strips away all formatting to leave pure text — perfect for data processing, scripts, or minimal-footprint storage.

What programs can open TXT files?

Virtually any text editor — Notepad, TextEdit, VS Code, Sublime Text, nano, and every code editor you can think of.

Does RTF to TXT remove images and tables?

Yes — TXT is plain text only. Images, tables, and styling are discarded, leaving just the readable text content.

Is RTF to TXT conversion free here?

Completely free for standard use. Convertio also offers paid plans if you need higher throughput for bulk tasks.

How fast is the RTF to TXT conversion?

Almost instant for most files. The server handles extraction quickly since TXT is a lightweight output format.

Can I convert multiple RTF documents to TXT?

Yes — add several RTF files to the queue and batch-convert them all to TXT in a single operation.

RTF to TXT Quality Rating

4.7 (4,358 votes)
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