About TextMuncher
TextMuncher is a browser extension and web app that extracts text from the ebooks you're reading in your browser. It's built and run by Mike, a software developer, as an independent one-person product — no venture funding, no growth team, just a tool that solves a real problem and a subscription that keeps it running.
Why it exists
The problem is simple: cloud ebook readers like Kindle block copy-paste. Mike hit that wall while doing AI research — he wanted to feed chapters from books he'd bought into ChatGPT and Claude, and Kindle's copy limit made that impossible. The official answer was to screenshot every page by hand and run each one through an OCR tool, one at a time. For a 300-page book, that's an afternoon gone.
So he built the tool he wanted: a browser extension that turns the pages and captures the screenshots hands-free, feeding a web app that runs OCR on the whole batch at once. TextMuncher started as that personal tool and grew from there. Today it's used by students turning course readings into study guides, researchers pulling quotes for papers, and readers who simply want their own highlights in plain text.
How it works
The extension automates page-turning and screenshot capture in Kindle Cloud Reader. The web app converts the captured pages to text with an OCR engine that runs in your browser by default — high accuracy on clean book fonts. Optional Pro Quality mode sends hard-to-read pages for a cloud second pass. EPUB files you own are read directly, no OCR involved. The first 30 pages are free; Pro is $9.99/month for unlimited automated capture.
What it deliberately doesn't do
TextMuncher doesn't remove DRM, decrypt files, or download books. It reads what's already rendered on your screen — the same thing you could do manually with a screenshot key, automated. Extracted text is for personal use: research, study, notes, accessibility. TextMuncher is an independent tool, not affiliated with or endorsed by Amazon or any ebook platform.
Privacy, by architecture
Speed mode processes screenshots, OCR, and extracted text locally in your browser. Optional Pro Quality mode sends hard-to-read page images and their draft transcriptions to Google Cloud for a second pass. Account and billing information is handled by Firebase and Stripe.
Get in touch
Questions, bug reports, feature requests: email hello@textmuncher.com — support replies come from the person who wrote the code. You can also find TextMuncher on the Chrome Web Store and Firefox Add-ons.