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OCR PDF
OCR PDF reads your document page by page. Pages that carry a digital text layer are extracted instantly and locally; pages that are pure image scans are transcribed with optical character recognition through the AI model you connect with your own key. It tells you which pages needed recognition instead of pretending everything was read.
How to use OCR PDF
- Upload the PDF you want to read.
- Run the tool: digital pages are extracted locally, and scan pages are flagged.
- If scan pages appear, connect your own AI key in the panel above and run again to transcribe them with OCR.
Where OCR PDF is useful
- Getting text out of a mixed document where some pages are scans.
- Reading a photographed contract that has no text layer at all.
- Preparing a scanned report for search or further editing.
Formats, algorithms and limits
Text layers are read with PDF.js on your device. Image-only pages are rendered to a picture and sent to the vision model you connected for transcription, using your own API key — the file itself is never uploaded anywhere. Page markers in the output tell you which method produced each page's text.
Troubleshooting and honest limits
- Run first without a key: the report tells you exactly which pages are scans, so you only pay for the recognition you actually need.
- Handwriting and very low-resolution photos are transcribed less accurately than printed text.
- If you need zero third-party involvement, extract the digital text layers only and handle scans with your own desktop OCR.
Frequently asked questions
Does this tool work without an API key?
Partly. Digital PDFs are read in full because the text layer is extracted locally. Image-only scans need an AI key, because recognising text in a picture requires a model.
Is my document uploaded when OCR runs?
The PDF stays in your browser. Only the rendered page image of a scan page is sent to the AI model you connected, with your own key, and nothing is stored by this site.
Why does a page come back empty?
It is an image with no text layer and no key was configured, or the model could not read the handwriting or photo quality on that page.
Is the recognised text searchable in the PDF afterwards?
The transcription appears in the output panel for you to copy. This tool extracts text rather than writing an invisible text layer back onto the pages.
Related tools
Page written and reviewed by the FreeConvertio engineering team on 2026-10-14. OCR PDF runs entirely in your browser — no uploads, no account and no daily limits.