Free OCR in the browser
Read text from scanned PDFs and images for free, right here — nothing is uploaded. Basic quality (Tesseract engine), ideal for simple, well-scanned documents.
Drag a PDF or image here
or click to choose — PDF, PNG or JPG
Basic and slower tool. Complex documents (tables, stamps, low quality) are better with professional OCR.
0 bytes sent — this file never leaves your computer
In doubt? Open DevTools (F12) → Network tab: no upload occurs.
How it works
1
Upload the file
PDF or image, one at a time.
2
We read it
OCR directly in the browser.
3
Copy or download
Text in .txt.
Related tools
Frequently asked questions
How to OCR a PDF for free?
Upload the PDF or scanned image and the text is recognized directly in the browser for you to copy. The free OCR works without registration and without sending your files to a server.
Does the free OCR work well with scanned documents?
It handles simple, legible texts well, but may fail with skewed scans, handwriting, or multiple languages. For maximum accuracy on difficult documents, the professional OCR from OCR Nerd delivers far superior results.
Is online OCR safe?
With free OCR it is safe: the image is processed in the browser itself and nothing is sent over the internet. You can recognize text from confidential documents for free and without registration.