diff --git a/bypy/linux/__main__.py b/bypy/linux/__main__.py
index 93d4d39705..863b31357e 100644
--- a/bypy/linux/__main__.py
+++ b/bypy/linux/__main__.py
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ qt_get_dll_path = partial(get_dll_path, loc=os.path.join(QT_PREFIX, 'lib'))
 
 def binary_includes():
     return [
-        j(PREFIX, 'bin', x) for x in ('pdftohtml', 'pdfinfo', 'pdftoppm', 'optipng', 'JxrDecApp')] + [
+        j(PREFIX, 'bin', x) for x in ('pdftohtml', 'pdfinfo', 'pdftoppm', 'pdftotext', 'optipng', 'JxrDecApp')] + [
 
         j(PREFIX, 'private', 'mozjpeg', 'bin', x) for x in ('jpegtran', 'cjpeg')] + [
         ] + list(map(
diff --git a/bypy/macos/__main__.py b/bypy/macos/__main__.py
index ea7037793e..bca00451d2 100644
--- a/bypy/macos/__main__.py
+++ b/bypy/macos/__main__.py
@@ -484,7 +484,7 @@ class Freeze:
         print('\nAdding poppler')
         for x in ('libopenjp2.7.dylib', 'libpoppler.115.dylib',):
             self.install_dylib(join(PREFIX, 'lib', x))
-        for x in ('pdftohtml', 'pdftoppm', 'pdfinfo'):
+        for x in ('pdftohtml', 'pdftoppm', 'pdfinfo', 'pdftotext'):
             self.install_dylib(
                 join(PREFIX, 'bin', x), set_id=False, dest=self.helpers_dir)
 
diff --git a/bypy/windows/__main__.py b/bypy/windows/__main__.py
index 20d181fea3..aff1b5a49b 100644
--- a/bypy/windows/__main__.py
+++ b/bypy/windows/__main__.py
@@ -145,7 +145,7 @@ def freeze(env, ext_dir, incdir):
             shutil.copy2(x + '.manifest', env.dll_dir)
 
     bindir = os.path.join(PREFIX, 'bin')
-    for x in ('pdftohtml', 'pdfinfo', 'pdftoppm', 'jpegtran-calibre', 'cjpeg-calibre', 'optipng-calibre', 'JXRDecApp-calibre'):
+    for x in ('pdftohtml', 'pdfinfo', 'pdftoppm', 'pdftotext', 'jpegtran-calibre', 'cjpeg-calibre', 'optipng-calibre', 'JXRDecApp-calibre'):
         copybin(os.path.join(bindir, x + '.exe'))
     for f in glob.glob(os.path.join(bindir, '*.dll')):
         if re.search(r'(easylzma|icutest)', f.lower()) is None:
diff --git a/src/calibre/db/fts/text.py b/src/calibre/db/fts/text.py
index 3da5698b5d..faff0fd618 100644
--- a/src/calibre/db/fts/text.py
+++ b/src/calibre/db/fts/text.py
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 # License: GPL v3 Copyright: 2022, Kovid Goyal <kovid at kovidgoyal.net>
 
 
+import os
 import re
 import unicodedata
 
@@ -61,6 +62,19 @@ def is_fmt_ok(input_fmt):
     return input_plugin
 
 
+def pdftotext(path):
+    import subprocess
+
+    from calibre.ebooks.pdf.pdftohtml import PDFTOTEXT, popen
+    from calibre.utils.cleantext import clean_ascii_chars
+    cmd = [PDFTOTEXT] + '-enc UTF-8 -nodiag -eol unix'.split() + [os.path.basename(path), '-']
+    p = popen(cmd, cwd=os.path.dirname(path), stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stdin=subprocess.DEVNULL)
+    raw = p.stdout.read()
+    if p.wait() != 0:
+        return ''
+    return clean_ascii_chars(raw).decode('utf-8', 'replace')
+
+
 def extract_text(pathtoebook):
     input_fmt = pathtoebook.rpartition('.')[-1].upper()
     ans = ''
@@ -68,6 +82,8 @@ def extract_text(pathtoebook):
     if not input_plugin:
         return ans
     input_plugin = plugin_for_input_format(input_fmt)
+    if input_fmt == 'PDF':
+        return pdftotext(pathtoebook)
     with TemporaryDirectory() as tdir:
         texts = []
         book_fmt, opfpath, input_fmt = extract_book(pathtoebook, tdir, log=default_log)
diff --git a/src/calibre/db/tests/fts.py b/src/calibre/db/tests/fts.py
index dd278a6bfc..5c4c0abd23 100644
--- a/src/calibre/db/tests/fts.py
+++ b/src/calibre/db/tests/fts.py
@@ -3,12 +3,14 @@
 
 
 import builtins
+import os
 import sys
+import tempfile
 from apsw import Connection
 
 from calibre.constants import plugins
-from calibre.db.tests.base import BaseTest
 from calibre.db.annotations import unicode_normalize
+from calibre.db.tests.base import BaseTest
 
 
 def print(*args, **kwargs):
@@ -51,7 +53,7 @@ CREATE VIRTUAL TABLE fts_row USING fts5vocab(fts_table, row);
 
 
 def tokenize(text, flags=None, remove_diacritics=True):
-    from calibre_extensions.sqlite_extension import tokenize, FTS5_TOKENIZE_DOCUMENT
+    from calibre_extensions.sqlite_extension import FTS5_TOKENIZE_DOCUMENT, tokenize
     if flags is None:
         flags = FTS5_TOKENIZE_DOCUMENT
     return tokenize(unicode_normalize(text), remove_diacritics, flags)
@@ -183,6 +185,73 @@ class FTSTest(BaseTest):
 
     # }}}
 
+    def test_pdftotext(self):
+        pdf_data = '''\
+%PDF-1.1
+%¥±ë
+
+1 0 obj
+  << /Type /Catalog
+     /Pages 2 0 R
+  >>
+endobj
+
+2 0 obj
+  << /Type /Pages
+     /Kids [3 0 R]
+     /Count 1
+     /MediaBox [0 0 300 144]
+  >>
+endobj
+
+3 0 obj
+  <<  /Type /Page
+      /Parent 2 0 R
+      /Resources
+       << /Font
+           << /F1
+               << /Type /Font
+                  /Subtype /Type1
+                  /BaseFont /Times-Roman
+               >>
+           >>
+       >>
+      /Contents 4 0 R
+  >>
+endobj
+
+4 0 obj
+  << /Length 55 >>
+stream
+  BT
+    /F1 18 Tf
+    0 0 Td
+    (Hello World) Tj
+  ET
+endstream
+endobj
+
+xref
+0 5
+0000000000 65535 f
+0000000018 00000 n
+0000000077 00000 n
+0000000178 00000 n
+0000000457 00000 n
+trailer
+  <<  /Root 1 0 R
+      /Size 5
+  >>
+startxref
+565
+%%EOF'''
+        with tempfile.TemporaryDirectory() as tdir:
+            pdf = os.path.join(tdir, 'test.pdf')
+            with open(pdf, 'w') as f:
+                f.write(pdf_data)
+            from calibre.db.fts.text import pdftotext
+            self.assertEqual(pdftotext(pdf).strip(), 'Hello World')
+
 
 def find_tests():
     import unittest
diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/pdf/pdftohtml.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/pdf/pdftohtml.py
index 7fb4345840..3e8145b977 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/pdf/pdftohtml.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/pdf/pdftohtml.py
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@ if iswindows and hasattr(sys, 'frozen'):
     PDFTOHTML = os.path.join(base, 'pdftohtml.exe')
 if (islinux or isbsd) and getattr(sys, 'frozen', False):
     PDFTOHTML = os.path.join(sys.executables_location, 'bin', 'pdftohtml')
+PDFTOTEXT = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(PDFTOHTML), 'pdftotext' + ('.exe' if iswindows else ''))
 
 
 def pdftohtml(output_dir, pdf_path, no_images, as_xml=False):
diff --git a/src/calibre/test_build.py b/src/calibre/test_build.py
index d366edf7f5..c0f5029216 100644
--- a/src/calibre/test_build.py
+++ b/src/calibre/test_build.py
@@ -409,11 +409,12 @@ class BuildTest(unittest.TestCase):
     @unittest.skipUnless(getattr(sys, 'frozen', False), 'Only makes sense to test executables in frozen builds')
     def test_executables(self):
         from calibre.utils.ipc.launch import Worker
-        from calibre.ebooks.pdf.pdftohtml import PDFTOHTML
+        from calibre.ebooks.pdf.pdftohtml import PDFTOHTML, PDFTOTEXT
         w = Worker({})
         self.assertTrue(os.path.exists(w.executable), 'calibre-parallel (%s) does not exist' % w.executable)
         self.assertTrue(os.path.exists(w.gui_executable), 'calibre-parallel-gui (%s) does not exist' % w.gui_executable)
         self.assertTrue(os.path.exists(PDFTOHTML), 'pdftohtml (%s) does not exist' % PDFTOHTML)
+        self.assertTrue(os.path.exists(PDFTOTEXT), 'pdftotext (%s) does not exist' % PDFTOTEXT)
         if iswindows:
             from calibre.devices.usbms.device import eject_exe
             self.assertTrue(os.path.exists(eject_exe()), 'calibre-eject.exe (%s) does not exist' % eject_exe())