OCR PDF Online Free (Optical Character Recognition)

Turn scanned documents and photos into searchable, copyable PDF text with high-accuracy OCR.

Format conversion:SCANNED PDFSEARCHABLE OCR PDF
100% Local · Files never leave your device
IN: SCANNED PDFOUT: PDF · SEARCHABLE OCR
100% LOCAL

How it works step by step

  1. 01Upload your scanned PDF or photo document.
  2. 02Our optical OCR engine recognizes letters, words, and sentences across languages.
  3. 03Download your searchable PDF with selectable text layers.

Technical specs & privacy

Multilingual Optical Character Recognition

Pre-trained with deep language models for English, Portuguese, and Spanish.

Instant Search with Ctrl+F

Search for keywords, numbers, and names inside previously non-searchable scanned documents.

Invisible Text Layer Preservation

Keeps the original scan appearance 100% untouched while baking selectable text behind it.

Supported input formatsSCANNED PDF
Output target formatSEARCHABLE OCR PDF
Conversion engine123FileTools Isolated Sandbox (High Fidelity, 30-min auto-purge)
Storage & Privacy100% Local · Files never leave your device

Frequently asked questions

What does OCR PDF do?

OCR inspects image-based PDFs, detects text characters, and turns them into searchable and selectable digital text.

Does OCR change the appearance of my PDF?

No. It embeds a transparent text layer over the scanned image, keeping the visual quality identical.

Can I copy and paste text from the output PDF?

Yes! You can highlight, copy, paste, and search all words in any standard PDF reader.

How are my files kept safe?

All conversions happen in an isolated container and all files are destroyed after 30 minutes.