PDF OCR Online - Searchable PDF, Word or Text
Free PDF OCR that runs in your browser: turn scanned PDFs and document photos into searchable PDF, Word or text in 55+ languages. No upload, no watermark.
- Free, no sign-up
- Files stay on your device
- No watermark
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How to OCR a PDF
Upload one or more scanned PDFs, or photos of document pages.
Pick the languages in the document and the output: searchable PDF, Word or plain text.
Click Start OCR and download the result. Your files never leave your device.
OCR that keeps your PDF looking exactly the same
A real searchable PDF
The original pages are kept untouched, with their images, sharp vector text, links and bookmarks. An invisible text layer is placed exactly over each recognised word, so you can search, select and copy text in any PDF viewer.
55+ languages, mixed in one file
Choose up to four languages at once, for example Romanian and English. European languages, Cyrillic and Greek work for every output; Arabic, Hebrew, Hindi, Thai, Chinese, Japanese and Korean can be exported to Word or text.
Only the pages you need
On a single PDF, enter a page range such as 1-3, 8 and skip pages that already contain digital text, so mixed documents stay sharp and long files finish sooner. Sideways and upside-down scans are detected and read in the right orientation.
Private and free
Recognition runs in your browser with the open-source Tesseract engine. Files are never uploaded, there is no account, no watermark and no page limit, and you see live progress with a time estimate.
PDF OCR in your browser: how it works
Scanners, copiers and phone scanning apps usually save each page as an image. The document looks fine, but you cannot search it, copy a paragraph or let your computer index it. Optical character recognition reads the letters in those images and turns them back into text. BestConverter runs PDF OCR locally with the Tesseract engine, so confidential contracts, invoices and records never have to be uploaded anywhere. You can also drop in JPG, PNG or WEBP photos of pages: they are joined, in the order you picked them, into one searchable document.
Choose the right output
- Searchable PDF: the best choice for archiving and sharing. Every page looks exactly like the original, and the recognised text sits invisibly under it, word by word.
- Word (DOCX): when you need to edit or reuse the content. Paragraphs are rebuilt, hyphenated line breaks are joined and large lines become headings.
- Plain text (TXT): for copying into other apps, search indexes or translation tools.
After the job finishes you can open a preview of the recognised text and copy all of it with one click.
Tips for better results
- Select every language that appears in the document. Mixing Romanian and English, for example, helps with diacritics such as ă, ș and ț.
- Use High accuracy (300 dpi) for small print, footnotes or low-resolution scans; Fast (150 dpi) is enough for large, clean type.
- Photograph pages flat, in good light and without shadows.
- Keep "Skip pages that already have text" on for documents that mix digital pages and scans.
- If your device runs out of memory on a very long file, process fewer pages at once with the Pages field.
Limits
Password-protected PDFs need to be unlocked first with the Unlock PDF tool. Handwriting is not recognised reliably, and complex tables come out as plain paragraphs in Word and text output. The first run needs an internet connection to fetch the language data.
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Frequently asked questions
What does PDF OCR do?
A scanned PDF is just a picture of text, so you cannot search it or copy from it. PDF OCR (optical character recognition) reads the letters in those pictures and adds them as an invisible text layer. The pages look identical, but Ctrl+F, text selection, copy and paste and document indexing now work.
Is it safe to OCR confidential PDFs online?
Yes. The pages are rendered and recognised on your own device, not on a server. The only download is the language data for the languages you pick (a few megabytes each, once, then cached by your browser). Your document itself never leaves your computer or phone.
How accurate is PDF OCR?
Clean scans at 200 to 300 dpi usually come out almost perfect. Accuracy drops with blurry photos, very small print, handwriting or unusual fonts. Select every language used in the document, and use High accuracy in Recognition settings for small print. The result shows the average confidence so you know what to expect.
Can I OCR only some pages of a PDF?
Yes. When you upload a single PDF, type the pages you need, such as 2-5, 9, in the Pages field. The other pages are kept as they are in the searchable PDF. Pages that already have digital text can be skipped automatically, which is faster and keeps their original text.
Can I convert a scanned PDF to Word with OCR?
Yes. Choose Word (DOCX) as the output, or All three to get a searchable PDF, a Word file and a TXT file together. Paragraphs are rebuilt and larger lines become headings, so the text is ready to edit.
Why does OCR take longer than other PDF tools?
Reading text from images is heavy work and it happens on your device instead of a server. A typical page takes a few seconds on a computer and longer on a phone. Progress and a time estimate are shown, and you can cancel at any moment.