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OCR PDF — Extract Text from Scanned PDFs Free

Extract text from scanned PDFs using optical character recognition. Instantly. No sign-up required.

Drop your scanned PDF here

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Accepted formats: PDF

Max file size: 100 MB (single file)

Your files never leave your device

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How to ocr pdf

  1. 1.Upload your scanned PDF using the drop zone above
  2. 2.Select the language of the text in your document
  3. 3.Click "Extract Text" to run OCR on every page
  4. 4.Copy the extracted text or download it as a TXT file

About This Tool

Our free OCR PDF tool uses optical character recognition to extract text from scanned PDF documents. Whether you have a scanned contract, a photographed receipt, or a PDF created from paper documents, this tool converts the images back into editable, searchable text.

The entire OCR PDF process runs locally in your browser using Tesseract.js, a powerful open-source OCR engine. Your files are never uploaded to any server, so sensitive documents like contracts, medical records, or financial statements remain completely private. There is nothing to install and no account to create.

For best results, use high-resolution scans and select the correct document language before extracting. The tool supports eight major languages and handles multi-page documents with ease. Once extraction is complete, copy the text to your clipboard with one click or download it as a plain text file for further editing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Accuracy depends on the quality of the scan. Clean, high-resolution scans with standard fonts typically produce excellent results. Handwritten text, low-resolution scans, or unusual fonts may reduce accuracy. Selecting the correct language improves recognition significantly.

The tool supports English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese (Simplified), and Japanese. Select the language that matches your document before running the extraction for the best results.

A digital (or native) PDF contains actual text data that can be selected and copied directly. A scanned PDF is essentially an image of a printed page — the text is embedded as pixels, not characters. OCR is needed to convert those pixel-based images back into selectable, searchable text.

Yes. All processing happens entirely in your browser using Tesseract.js. Your PDF is never uploaded to any server, which means your documents stay completely private on your device. Nothing is stored or transmitted.

There is no hard limit, but very large PDFs (over 50 pages or 100 MB) may take longer since OCR runs locally in your browser. For best performance, split very large documents using our Split PDF tool first.

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