MSG to TXT Converter
Processing entirely on your device — large files may take a moment.
MSG is Outlook's saved-email format: an OLE compound file holding headers, the HTML/plain body, recipients and attachments. It only opens properly inside Outlook — everywhere else it is a black box. Plain text is perfect for notes and data you want to paste anywhere; extracting PDF content to TXT makes it searchable and editable.
Because the whole conversion happens on your device, it is instant, unlimited and genuinely private — no accounts, no watermarks, no files on anyone's server. Multiple files are converted in one go.
How MSG compares to TXT
| MSG | TXT | |
|---|---|---|
| Layout | As saved in Outlook | None |
| Editability | Outlook only (natively) | Any editor on earth |
| Structure | OLE compound document | Plain character stream |
| Best for | Archived Outlook correspondence | Notes, logs, code, raw text |
How to convert MSG to TXT
- 1
Select your files
Drag & drop your MSG files onto the area above, or click to browse. You can add multiple files at once for batch conversion.
- 2
Convert instantly
Click "Convert to TXT". The conversion runs entirely inside your browser using WebAssembly — no upload, no queue, no waiting.
- 3
Download results
Download each converted TXT file individually, or grab everything at once as a ZIP archive.
About the MSG format
A .msg file is Outlook's saved email: an OLE compound document that stores headers, the HTML or plain-text body, recipients, flags and attachments. It opens cleanly only inside Outlook itself — everywhere else, including most web mail tools, it is an opaque binary.
Converting MSG to HTML or TXT puts the correspondence where people can actually read it — archives, discovery tools, CRM imports. Converting to EML hands it to every other mail client, which all speak the open RFC-822 standard instead of Outlook's container.
+ Strengths
- ✓Preserves Outlook-only correspondence
- ✓Body, headers and attachment names survive
- ✓EML output opens in Thunderbird and every client
! Limitations
- −Attachments are listed but not extracted here
- −Outlook-specific flags and categories are lost
- −Complex RTF bodies may simplify to text
About the TXT format
TXT is the floor of computing: a sequence of characters and nothing else. No headings, no bold, no embedded images — and because there is nothing to interpret, every editor, terminal, programming language and operating system ever built opens one. Modern files are UTF-8; older ones may be GBK, Latin-1 or Shift-JIS, which is the only surprise plain text can still deliver.
Its limits are obvious — no formatting means no structure — yet that is exactly why TXT refuses to die: logs, notes, code, READMEs, config fragments and data dumps all live happily as plain text. When you need the content and not the styling, TXT is the lowest-friction answer there is.
+ Strengths
- ✓Opens absolutely everywhere, including terminals
- ✓Tiny files, no parser, no corruption vectors
- ✓Perfect for logs, notes and machine-to-machine text
! Limitations
- −No formatting, structure or media whatsoever
- −Legacy encodings can garble non-English text
Why convert MSG to TXT?
Think of it as moving your file to the container that fits the job. Attachments are listed but not extracted here TXT works differently: Opens absolutely everywhere, including terminals If any of that sounds like your task, run the conversion — it takes seconds and nothing leaves your device.
Frequently asked questions
Is this MSG to TXT converter really free?
Yes — completely free, with no sign-up, no watermark and no daily conversion limits. The site is supported by advertising.
Are my files uploaded to a server?
No. The conversion runs entirely inside your browser using WebAssembly, so your files never leave your device — that is what makes it instant and private.
Does it work on Windows, Mac, iPhone and Android?
Yes. Anything with a modern browser works: Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS. No software installation is required.
Is there a file size limit for MSG to TXT?
The only limit is your device's memory, since nothing is uploaded. Files up to a few hundred megabytes work fine on a modern desktop browser; very large files simply take a little longer.
Will the layout of my MSG file be preserved exactly?
This converter renders your MSG content into TXT with pages, proportions and images kept as close to the original as the target format allows. Use the preview before downloading to confirm it looks the way you expect.
Does the conversion work offline?
Yes. Once the page has loaded, the conversion itself runs entirely inside your browser — you can even disconnect and keep converting. No file ever touches a server.