OCR PDF — Free, Private, No Limits
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No file size limit · Processed privately
OCR PDF runs Optical Character Recognition over a scanned document and produces a new PDF where the text is selectable, searchable, and copyable — while the page still looks exactly like the original scan. This is the essential first step before converting a scanned PDF to Word or Excel, and it's also useful on its own for making old scanned archives searchable with Ctrl+F. The recognition engine (Tesseract.js) runs entirely in your browser using WebAssembly, so scanned contracts, IDs, or personal records are never uploaded anywhere. Processing a multi-page scan can take anywhere from a few seconds to a couple of minutes depending on page count and your device's speed, since OCR is computationally heavier than our other tools.
How to use OCR PDF
- 1
Upload the scanned PDF you want to make searchable.
- 2
Choose the document's primary language for best recognition accuracy.
- 3
Click "Run OCR" and let it process locally in your browser.
- 4
Download your new, searchable PDF — it looks identical but the text can now be selected and searched.
Frequently asked questions
No, the original page images are preserved exactly; an invisible layer of recognized text is added underneath so the page becomes searchable without changing its appearance.