OCR PDF
Recognise the text in scanned PDFs — Arabic, English and 12 more languages — and get a searchable PDF plus editable text, right in your browser.
How to use — OCR PDF
- 1
Drop the scanned PDF you want to convert.
- 2
Choose the languages in the document and, if you like, the pages to read.
- 3
Click “OCR” and let your browser recognise each page.
- 4
Download the searchable PDF and copy or save the text.
Frequently asked questions
Is my PDF uploaded anywhere?
No. Pages are rendered and recognised inside your browser, so the document never leaves your device. Only the language model (about 0.4–3 MB per language) is downloaded once and cached.
What is a searchable PDF?
It looks exactly like your scan, but an invisible text layer is added on top of each page, so you can search with Ctrl+F, select and copy text. The original images are kept untouched, so the file size barely changes.
How long does OCR take?
Usually 2–6 seconds per page on a modern computer, a little longer on phones. The first run also downloads the language model. You can OCR only the pages you need to save time.
How can I get the best accuracy?
Use clear scans of at least 200–300 dpi, select only the languages that appear in the document, and keep pages straight. Handwriting and very low-quality scans are recognised less reliably.
Can I OCR a password-protected PDF?
Remove the password first with the Unlock PDF tool, then run OCR on the unlocked file.