# Best Arabic OCR Tools in 2026: 11 Arabic OCR Solutions Compared (أفضل أدوات OCR العربي)

## Short answer
The best OCR for Arabic gets few letters wrong and pastes right to left. On our printed Arabic page, FastOCR (we make it) got 2.6% of characters wrong, imagetotext.info and OCR.space Engine 3 2.9% each, Tesseract 20.4%; lower is better. On Urdu, FastOCR got 9.1% to Engine 3's 19.6%. i2OCR Arabic is untested: it asks for a CAPTCHA. FastOCR also returns a searchable PDF, Word and Markdown.

By the FastOCR team · Updated 4 November 2026 · Accuracy test run 31 October 2026 · We make FastOCR. Accuracy figures come from our own test of each tool we scored, ours included, on the same scans; other facts link to each tool's own pages. [How we tested](https://fastocr.org/blog/best-arabic-ocr-tools#method)

Try it here: upload an image or scanned page at https://fastocr.org/image-to-text

## Verdict
**Pick FastOCR if:**
- Your Arabic, Urdu or Persian scan must come back as a searchable PDF whose text pastes and searches right to left.
- You need a searchable PDF back: of the three tools level on Arabic, imagetotext.info lists no searchable PDF and OCR.space watermarks the ones its free API makes.
- You need a ruled Arabic table as a real Word table, one value per cell.
- You also want to translate the Arabic, or send pages from code through an API, Python SDK or MCP server.

**Pick another tool if:**
- You only need one Arabic image as text or Markdown: imagetotext.info read our Arabic page almost as well, with no account.
- You buy desktop software for many languages at once: ABBYY FineReader PDF lists 198, with a 7-day trial.
- You want an engine that runs offline in your own code: Tesseract, once you have checked it on your pages.

## Best for
- **Arabic, Urdu or Persian scans you will search and copy from:** [FastOCR (our tool)](https://fastocr.org/blog/best-arabic-ocr-tools#fastocr). Every image gets text and a searchable PDF whose Arabic pastes in reading order, plus Word and Markdown, with no sign-up. It got 2.6% of our Arabic page wrong and 9.1% of the Urdu page (lower is better).
- **One Arabic image to text or Markdown, no account:** [imagetotext.info](https://fastocr.org/blog/best-arabic-ocr-tools#imagetotext-info). No registration, with text, Word, HTML and Markdown exports. It got 2.9% of our Arabic page wrong, a near-tie with FastOCR (lower is better). (our test)
- **A free OCR API to prototype Arabic with:** [OCR.space](https://fastocr.org/blog/best-arabic-ocr-tools#ocr-space). Engine 3 got 2.9% of our Arabic page wrong to FastOCR's 2.6%, a tie inside the noise (lower is better). Choose Engine 3 by hand: the default engine rejected Arabic. (our test)
- **One Arabic, Urdu or Persian page at a time, deleted fast:** [i2OCR](https://fastocr.org/blog/best-arabic-ocr-tools#i2ocr). Its menu lists all three scripts, it returns a searchable PDF among other formats, and its FAQ says files go within 30 minutes. ([source](https://www.i2ocr.com/))
- **Arabic text from a small, simple file you will edit in Google Docs:** [Google Drive](https://fastocr.org/blog/best-arabic-ocr-tools#google-drive). Its help page lists Arabic (Modern Standard), Urdu and Persian and asks for files of 2 MB or smaller. ([source](https://support.google.com/drive/answer/176692))
- **A scanned PDF that is mostly not right-to-left, with no account:** [PDF24](https://fastocr.org/blog/best-arabic-ocr-tools#pdf24). No registration, and files are deleted after an hour. Proofread the Arabic: it got 35.5% of our Arabic page wrong (lower is better). (our test)
- **Arabic PDFs inside a PDF toolkit you already use:** [iLovePDF](https://fastocr.org/blog/best-arabic-ocr-tools#ilovepdf). OCR PDF sits beside merge and compress, and its language list includes Arabic, Urdu and Persian. ([source](https://www.ilovepdf.com/ocr-pdf))
- **Many Arabic images with no account:** [NewOCR](https://fastocr.org/blog/best-arabic-ocr-tools#newocr). Its page says no registration is needed and there is no limit on the number of files. ([source](https://www.newocr.com/))
- **An offline engine you script yourself:** [Tesseract](https://fastocr.org/blog/best-arabic-ocr-tools#tesseract). Free under the Apache License, with Arabic, Urdu and Persian data files. You run it from the command line or from code. ([source](https://tesseract-ocr.github.io/tessdoc/Data-Files-in-different-versions.html))
- **Paid desktop OCR for Arabic, Hebrew and Latin-script work:** [ABBYY FineReader](https://fastocr.org/blog/best-arabic-ocr-tools#abbyy). Its specifications list Arabic (Saudi Arabia) and Hebrew among 198 languages, but not Urdu or Persian. ([source](https://pdf.abbyy.com/specifications/))
- **You already work in Acrobat:** [Adobe Acrobat online](https://fastocr.org/blog/best-arabic-ocr-tools#adobe). Free to run online, with a sign-in to download. The pages we checked do not state Arabic, so check your OCR language list first. ([source](https://www.adobe.com/acrobat/online/ocr-pdf.html))

## Comparison table
| Tool | Arabic page, % of characters wrong (lower is better) | Urdu | Free without sign-up | Outputs |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| FastOCR (our tool) | 2.6% | Detected automatically | Images: yes. PDFs: free account. | Text, searchable PDF, Word, Markdown |
| imagetotext.info | 2.9% (our test) | Lists neither ([source](https://www.imagetotext.info/)) | Yes, no registration ([source](https://www.imagetotext.info/)) | Text, Word, HTML, Markdown ([source](https://www.imagetotext.info/)) |
| OCR.space | Engine 3: 2.9%. Default Engine 2 rejected Arabic. (our test) | Lists Persian; Urdu not named, but Engine 3 ran on our Urdu page ([source](https://ocr.space/)) | Yes, no registration ([source](https://ocr.space/)) | Text, JSON, searchable PDF (watermarked on the free API) ([source](https://ocr.space/ocrapi)) |
| i2OCR | Not tested | Lists both ([source](https://www.i2ocr.com/)) | Not stated ([source](https://www.i2ocr.com/)) | Text, Word, HTML, searchable PDF ([source](https://www.i2ocr.com/)) |
| Google Drive | Not tested | Lists both ([source](https://support.google.com/drive/answer/176692)) | Works inside your Google Drive ([source](https://support.google.com/drive/answer/176692)) | A Google Doc ([source](https://support.google.com/drive/answer/176692)) |
| PDF24 | 35.5% (our test) | Lists both ([source](https://tools.pdf24.org/en/ocr-pdf)) | Yes, no registration ([source](https://tools.pdf24.org/en/ocr-pdf)) | Searchable PDF or PDF/A ([source](https://tools.pdf24.org/en/ocr-pdf)) |
| iLovePDF | Not tested | Lists both ([source](https://www.ilovepdf.com/ocr-pdf)) | Not stated ([source](https://www.ilovepdf.com/ocr-pdf)) | Searchable PDF ([source](https://www.ilovepdf.com/ocr-pdf)) |
| NewOCR | Not tested | Lists both ([source](https://www.newocr.com/)) | Yes, no registration ([source](https://www.newocr.com/)) | TXT, DOC, PDF ([source](https://www.newocr.com/)) |
| Tesseract | 20.4% (our test) | Data files for both ([source](https://tesseract-ocr.github.io/tessdoc/Data-Files-in-different-versions.html)) | Open source; you install it ([source](https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/tesseract)) | Text, hOCR, PDF, TSV, ALTO ([source](https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/tesseract)) |
| ABBYY FineReader | Not tested | Lists Arabic, not Urdu or Persian ([source](https://pdf.abbyy.com/specifications/)) | Paid; 7-day trial ([source](https://pdf.abbyy.com/pricing/)) | Searchable PDF; its format list names DOCX, XLSX, TXT ([source](https://pdf.abbyy.com/media/3denzynd/brochure-finereaderpdf-full-feature-list-en.pdf)) |
| Adobe Acrobat online | Not tested | Not stated ([source](https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/web/share-review-and-export/export-and-print/ocr-supported-languages.html)) | Sign-in needed to download ([source](https://www.adobe.com/acrobat/online/ocr-pdf.html)) | Searchable PDF ([source](https://www.adobe.com/acrobat/online/ocr-pdf.html)) |

## Why FastOCR
- **Scanned PDFs.** Scanned PDF in, searchable PDF out; text copies in the right order, including right-to-left.
- **Photos and screenshots.** Every image upload gets raw text and a single-page searchable PDF, plus Word and Markdown.
- **Languages.** 100+ languages, detected automatically, including mixed pages. Share of characters wrong on our evidence scans (lower is better): Arabic 2.6%, Urdu 9.1%, Bengali 7.4%, Tamil 2.2%, Chinese 1.0%.
- **Free use.** Images: free, no sign-up, no watermark. PDFs: free account.
- **Translation and AI Polish.** Translate or clean up the text of a finished image.

## Proof
On our Arabic page FastOCR (2.6% of characters wrong) was level with imagetotext.info and OCR.space Engine 3 (2.9% each) and far ahead of Tesseract and PDF24. On Urdu it beat Engine 3 (9.1% to 19.6%). Lower is better.

Figure: the opening lines of a printed Arabic page (a 1951 book) and of the opening lines of an Urdu page (Tota Kahani, written 1801), each with the lines FastOCR, Tesseract and OCR.space's default engine returned, unedited, misread words marked. Each percentage is the share of characters wrong on the whole page, so lower is better.
Chart: character error rate on Arabic and Urdu scans, the share of characters wrong, lower is better.
- Arabic: FastOCR 2.6%, imagetotext.info 2.9%, OCR.space Engine 3 2.9%, OCR.space default Engine 2 rejected the language, Tesseract 5.5.4 20.4%, PDF24 35.5%
- Urdu: FastOCR 9.1%, imagetotext.info 9.2%, OCR.space Engine 3 19.6%, OCR.space default Engine 2 30.4%, Tesseract 5.5.4 55.3%, PDF24 69.0%

## Accuracy test: Arabic and Urdu scans
On printed Arabic, three tools finished within half a point of each other. FastOCR got 2.6% of the characters on our Arabic book page wrong, and imagetotext.info and OCR.space Engine 3 both got 2.9%. Lower is better, and a 0.3-point gap is inside the noise of this test, so call Arabic a near-tie. The gap to the rest is large: Tesseract got 20.4% wrong even with its Arabic pack.

The other Arabic and Urdu scores, all as the share of characters wrong, lower is better:
- Urdu: FastOCR 9.1%, imagetotext.info 9.2%, OCR.space Engine 3 19.6%, its default Engine 2 30.4%, Tesseract 55.3%, PDF24 69.0%.
- PDF24, with Arabic picked by hand, got 35.5% of the Arabic page wrong.
- Smallpdf has no language menu. Its searchable PDF of the Arabic page held Latin letters, 99.1% wrong.
- OnlineOCR.net does not list Arabic or Urdu. Our Urdu page came back as Latin letters, 99.6% wrong.
- OCR.space's default Engine 2 rejected the Arabic page outright.

**Where results were close:** on Arabic, Engine 3 got 2.9% wrong and FastOCR 2.6%, a gap inside the noise, so call it a tie (lower is better). On Urdu, imagetotext.info was level with FastOCR, and Engine 3 was behind at 19.6%.

**If you searched for i2OCR Arabic:** i2OCR lists Arabic, Urdu and Persian, but the site asks for a CAPTCHA, so it is not in this test, and it does not say which OCR engine it runs. NewOCR is in the same position. We scored [Tesseract](https://fastocr.org/blog/best-arabic-ocr-tools#tesseract), the engine NewOCR's page names, in its place.

## Why Arabic is hard for OCR
Arabic is hard for OCR because its letters join and change shape. Most letters have up to four forms, depending on whether they start, sit inside or end a word, or stand alone. Several letters share one body and differ only by dots, so ب, ت and ث are told apart by one, two or three small marks; a speck of dust or a faded dot changes the word. Short vowels (tashkeel) are optional and tiny. Lines run right to left, while numbers and English words inside them run left to right. Urdu adds Nastaliq, where each word slants down toward the baseline and letters stack. An engine that handles all of this can still fail at the last step, the text layer of a searchable PDF, if it stores the characters in the order they appear on screen instead of the order you read them. That is why the tests below check both the text and the copy order.

## Arabic table extraction: tables to Word
FastOCR rebuilds ruled Arabic tables, the kind with a line around every cell, as real tables in its Word (.docx) download: one value per cell, in the page's rows and columns, with Arabic text right to left. Most free tools give a table back as loose lines of text, so the item, quantity and price of one row drift apart. Google Drive's help page says tables are not likely to be detected.

**Works today:**
- Ruled tables in photos and scanned PDFs: invoices, price lists, forms and ledgers with full grid lines.
- Arabic-script text inside cells, with Arabic-Indic or Western digits, and merged cells that span columns.
- The same table in the Markdown download.

**Not yet:**
- Tables with no lines, or lines only between rows, come out as text lines in reading order.
- Header rows are not marked as headers, and text you edit, polish or translate is exported without tables.

Try it on [Image to Word](https://fastocr.org/image-to-word) or [PDF to Word](https://fastocr.org/pdf-to-word). Bank statements are a separate product: [bank statements to Excel, CSV and QuickBooks](https://fastocr.org/bank-statement).

Figure: a ruled Arabic invoice table with four columns and five line items, beside the same table as FastOCR's Word file holds it, one value per cell, right to left. The invoice is synthetic.

## 1. FastOCR (our tool)
**Best for:** Arabic, Urdu and Persian images and scanned PDFs whose text must copy and search right to left afterwards.

**Watch out for:** Guests get a small daily image cap and PDFs need a free account. Proofread tashkeel and handwriting, as with any OCR.

FastOCR reads Arabic photos, screenshots and scans and detects the language itself, so Arabic, Urdu and Persian pages share one upload box with no menu to set. Images need no account and get no watermark. You get raw text and a one-page searchable PDF for every image, with [Word](https://fastocr.org/image-to-word) and Markdown downloads. Start on the [Arabic OCR](https://fastocr.org/arabic-ocr) page.

Scanned PDFs come back as [searchable PDFs](https://fastocr.org/make-pdf-searchable) with the text layer in reading order, so a pasted Arabic line starts with its first word and Ctrl+F finds what you see. PDFs need a free account. A finished Arabic image can be [translated](https://fastocr.org/translate) or cleaned up with [AI Polish](https://fastocr.org/ai-polish); neither works on PDFs.

Also from FastOCR:
- A [REST API, Python SDK and MCP server](https://fastocr.org/ocr-api) for AI agents, plus LangChain and LlamaIndex loaders, returning text or a searchable PDF.
- Free offline [Mac](https://fastocr.org/mac) and [Windows](https://fastocr.org/windows) apps in public beta. They use the recognition built into each system, not the website's engine, so the scores here do not apply to them.
- A [Chrome extension](https://fastocr.org/chrome-extension) that copies text from anything on screen.
- [Free PDF tools](https://fastocr.org/tools) in your browser: merge, compress, split, sign and more.
- [Bank statements to Excel, CSV and QuickBooks](https://fastocr.org/bank-statement).

**In our test:** 2.6% of the Arabic page's characters wrong and 9.1% of the Urdu page, lower is better. Arabic was a near-tie with imagetotext.info and OCR.space Engine 3 at 2.9%, a tie inside the noise.

## 2. imagetotext.info
**Best for:** One Arabic image to text, Word or Markdown with no account.

**Watch out for:** No searchable PDF output is listed, and uploading several files at once needs an upgrade.

imagetotext.info turns an image into text with no registration and exports text, Word, HTML and Markdown. Its Premium plan is sold as 'no ads and captcha'. The language sentence on its home page names Arabic, but not Urdu or Persian.

**In our test:** 2.9% of the Arabic page's characters wrong and 9.2% of the Urdu page, against FastOCR's 2.6% and 9.1%. Lower is better, and both gaps are inside the noise. It was not run on Persian.

Source: [imagetotext.info](https://www.imagetotext.info/), checked 4 November 2026. Compare: [FastOCR vs imagetotext.info](https://fastocr.org/vs/imagetotext-info).

## 3. OCR.space
**Best for:** Developers who want a free API to prototype Arabic OCR, on Engine 3.

**Watch out for:** Choose Engine 3 by hand, because the default rejected Arabic. The free API watermarks searchable PDFs.

OCR.space has a free web tool with no registration and a 5 MB limit per document. Its free API allows 1 MB files, 3 PDF pages and 500 requests a day per IP address, and searchable PDFs on that plan carry a watermark. The language table lists Arabic and Persian and does not name Urdu, though Engine 3 still read our Urdu page; Engine 3 adds more than 200 languages and auto-detection.

**In our test:** the default Engine 2 rejected the Arabic page and got 30.4% of the Urdu page wrong. Engine 3 got 2.9% on Arabic (a tie with FastOCR's 2.6%, inside the noise) and 19.6% on Urdu. Lower is better.

Source: [OCR.space API](https://ocr.space/ocrapi), checked 4 November 2026. Compare: [FastOCR vs OCR.space](https://fastocr.org/vs/ocr-space).

## 4. i2OCR
**Best for:** One Arabic, Urdu or Persian page at a time that you want deleted within 30 minutes.

**Watch out for:** One page per run, so a 40-page PDF takes 40 runs, and there is no measured score for it here.

i2OCR reads one image or one PDF page per run for free, and bulk OCR is a premium feature. It claims 128 languages, and its menu includes Arabic, Urdu and Persian. Results download as text, Word, HTML or a searchable PDF. Its FAQ allows images up to 20 MB and PDFs up to 200 MB, and says files are deleted within 30 minutes.

It offers two engines it calls classic and future and does not say what OCR engine is behind them.

**In our test:** not run, because the site asks for a CAPTCHA. If you came here for i2OCR Arabic, run the [three-minute test](https://fastocr.org/blog/best-arabic-ocr-tools#three-minute-test) on one of your pages there and on FastOCR, then compare the pasted lines.

Source: [i2OCR FAQ](https://www.i2ocr.com/faq), checked 4 November 2026.

## 5. Google Drive (Google Docs)
**Best for:** Arabic text from a small, simple file you will edit in Google Docs.

**Watch out for:** You get a Google Doc, not a searchable PDF, and tables and columns are not likely to survive.

Open an image or PDF with Google Docs and Drive converts it to text. Its help page lists Arabic (Modern Standard), Urdu and Persian, says Drive detects the language, and asks for files of 2 MB or smaller, right side up. It also says lists, tables, columns and footnotes are not likely to be detected, which matters for Arabic invoices and forms.

Source: [Google Drive Help](https://support.google.com/drive/answer/176692), checked 4 November 2026. Compare: [FastOCR vs Google Drive OCR](https://fastocr.org/vs/google-drive-ocr).

## 6. PDF24 OCR
**Best for:** A scanned PDF that is mostly not right-to-left, made searchable with no account.

**Watch out for:** It scored poorly on all three right-to-left pages in our test, so paste a line before you trust it.

PDF24 makes scanned PDFs searchable for free with no registration. It is paid for by ads and deletes files after one hour. You choose the OCR language by hand, and Arabic, Urdu and Persian are on its list. You get a searchable PDF or PDF/A back.

**In our test:** with the language set by hand, PDF24 got 35.5% of the Arabic page's characters wrong, 69.0% of the Urdu page. Lower is better.

Source: [PDF24 OCR](https://tools.pdf24.org/en/ocr-pdf), checked 4 November 2026. Compare: [FastOCR vs PDF24](https://fastocr.org/vs/pdf24).

## 7. iLovePDF OCR PDF
**Best for:** Arabic PDFs when you already merge and compress files in iLovePDF.

**Watch out for:** Free limits are not given as numbers, and it was not in our accuracy test.

iLovePDF's OCR PDF tool returns a selectable, searchable PDF and lists Arabic, Urdu and Persian; its page says results improve when you pick the document's languages. The pricing page calls the free plan limited document processing and sells an ad-free experience with Premium. Its FAQ says files are kept for at most 2 hours.

Source: [iLovePDF OCR PDF](https://www.ilovepdf.com/ocr-pdf), checked 4 November 2026. Compare: [FastOCR vs iLovePDF](https://fastocr.org/vs/ilovepdf).

## 8. NewOCR
**Best for:** Many Arabic images with no account and no stated file count limit.

**Watch out for:** No file size or page limit is published, and Tesseract, the engine it names, did poorly on our Arabic page.

NewOCR asks for no registration and says there is no limit on the number of files. It claims 122 recognition languages and fonts, including Arabic, Urdu and Persian, reads images, PDF, TIFF and DjVu, and returns TXT, DOC or PDF. Its page says the service is based on the Tesseract OCR engine.

**In our test:** the site sits behind a CAPTCHA, so we scored [Tesseract](https://fastocr.org/blog/best-arabic-ocr-tools#tesseract) in its place. NewOCR's own settings may differ.

Source: [NewOCR](https://www.newocr.com/), checked 4 November 2026.

## 9. Tesseract (open source)
**Best for:** Developers who need an offline engine to script, after testing it on their own Arabic pages.

**Watch out for:** High error rates on all three of our right-to-left pages, and no window to click.

Tesseract is free, open-source OCR under the Apache License. It reads more than 100 languages, with data files for Arabic, Urdu and Persian, and writes text, hOCR, PDF, TSV and ALTO. It has no built-in window, so you run it from the command line or call it from code.

**In our test:** Tesseract 5.5.4 with the matching language pack got 20.4% of the Arabic page's characters wrong, 55.3% of the Urdu page. Lower is better.

Source: [Tesseract data files](https://tesseract-ocr.github.io/tessdoc/Data-Files-in-different-versions.html), checked 4 November 2026. Compare: [FastOCR vs Tesseract](https://fastocr.org/vs/tesseract).

## 10. ABBYY FineReader PDF
**Best for:** Paid desktop work across Arabic, Hebrew and many Latin-script languages, with batch conversion.

**Watch out for:** Paid software with no free tier, and its specifications do not list Urdu or Persian.

ABBYY FineReader PDF is desktop OCR software. Its specifications claim 198 recognition languages and list Arabic (Saudi Arabia) and Hebrew, but not Urdu or Persian. It makes searchable PDFs, and its format list names DOCX, XLSX and TXT. It can batch many documents with the same settings. The pricing page lists yearly plans for Windows and Mac and a 7-day trial.

Source: [ABBYY specifications](https://pdf.abbyy.com/specifications/), checked 4 November 2026. Compare: [FastOCR vs ABBYY FineReader](https://fastocr.org/vs/abbyy-finereader).

## 11. Adobe Acrobat online OCR
**Best for:** People already in Acrobat who first confirm Arabic is in their OCR language list.

**Watch out for:** Arabic is not stated on the pages we checked, and the download needs a sign-in.

Adobe's free online tool makes a PDF searchable; you can upload without an account but sign in to download. The tool page names English, German, Spanish, French and Portuguese, and Adobe's OCR language list adds Chinese and Japanese. Neither page states Arabic, Urdu or Persian. Text recognition on image files is described under the Acrobat Pro trial.

Source: [Adobe online OCR](https://www.adobe.com/acrobat/online/ocr-pdf.html), checked 4 November 2026. Compare: [FastOCR vs Adobe Acrobat](https://fastocr.org/vs/adobe-acrobat).

## What to check before you pick a tool
Check four things on a page of your own before you commit to any Arabic OCR tool: the copy order of its searchable PDF, how it treats tashkeel, whether it lists Urdu and Persian if you need them, and what happens to numbers and English words inside an Arabic line. Each check is below, and the [three-minute test](https://fastocr.org/blog/best-arabic-ocr-tools#three-minute-test) runs all of them at once.

## Right-to-left copy order in searchable PDFs
A searchable PDF is a picture of the page with invisible text on top. If that text stores Arabic in visual order instead of reading order, the page looks fine, but Ctrl+F misses words and a pasted line comes out reversed.

To check it, open the output in the viewer you really use, select one line and paste it into a plain text editor. The first word of the line should sit at the right edge. FastOCR writes its text layer in reading order for Arabic, Urdu and Hebrew. Viewers differ: Chrome's built-in PDF viewer can scramble English words inside a right-to-left line even when the file is right.

Figure: one Arabic line pasted from a searchable PDF two ways. In reading order, as FastOCR writes its text layer, the first word sits at the right; stored in visual order, every word comes back reversed. The second is an illustration, not a named tool.

## Diacritics and tashkeel
Tashkeel, the short-vowel marks (fatha, kasra, damma, shadda, sukun), is missing from most modern print but common in the Quran, hadith, poetry and children's books. The marks are a few pixels tall, so scan at 300 DPI or more and proofread them against the source with any tool. Some PDF viewers match search terms character for character, so a search for an unmarked word can skip its marked form.

## Urdu and Persian: Nastaliq is not Naskh
Arabic is usually printed in Naskh, on a flat baseline. Urdu is usually printed in Nastaliq, so a tool that reads Arabic well can still struggle on Urdu. Check the language list for Urdu and Persian, not only Arabic.

Google Drive, PDF24, iLovePDF, i2OCR, NewOCR and Tesseract list both. OCR.space lists Persian and does not name Urdu. Engine 3 still read our Urdu page (19.6% wrong). imagetotext.info names Arabic but neither of the others. ABBYY FineReader PDF lists Arabic but not Urdu or Persian. FastOCR detects all three without a menu. More on the [Urdu OCR](https://fastocr.org/urdu-ocr) and [Farsi OCR](https://fastocr.org/farsi-ocr) pages and in the [best Urdu OCR tools](https://fastocr.org/blog/best-urdu-ocr-tools) guide.

## Mixed Arabic and English pages
Invoices, contracts and textbooks mix Arabic with English words, dates, phone numbers and prices. Those run left to right inside a right-to-left line, and that is where order most often breaks. Test on a page with all three, paste a line, and check that the number is intact and the English word is not reversed.

## A three-minute test for any Arabic OCR tool
- Pick one page with Arabic, an English word, a number and, if you can, some tashkeel.
- Run it through the tool at 300 DPI or better.
- Open the result in your viewer, copy one line and paste it into a plain text editor. The first word should be at the right and the number intact.
- Press Ctrl+F for a word you can see on the page. It should highlight.
- Compare the tashkeel against the source.

## How we tested
- Dates: the other tools ran on 31 October 2026; FastOCR's output came from its production API on 25 October 2026. Advertised facts were checked on 4 November 2026.
- Pages: one printed page each in Arabic (a 1951 history book) and Urdu (Tota Kahani), from public-domain scans on Wikimedia Commons, scored against each page's Wikisource transcription.
- Score: spaces, punctuation and Arabic diacritics are stripped, then we count the share of characters wrong, so lower is better. Wikisource and our own proofread key disagree by 1% to 6%, which makes any gap under about 3 points noise.
- FastOCR got a smaller 500-pixel-wide copy of the Arabic and Urdu pages; the other tools got 1,280 pixels.
- OCR.space ran on its public demo key, Engine 2 (the default) and Engine 3. PDF24 ran with the language set by hand, and its text was read from the downloaded PDF.
- NewOCR and i2OCR sit behind a CAPTCHA and were not run. Tesseract 5.5.4 ran locally with the ara and urd packs.
- Google Drive, iLovePDF, ABBYY and Adobe were not run; their entries use their own published facts.
- The table figure replays FastOCR's table detector and Word writer on the image shown.
- One page per script is a spot check, not a benchmark. Scans: Wikimedia Commons. Text: Wikisource.

## When another tool is the better choice
- You want a free API to prototype Arabic OCR: OCR.space Engine 3 got 2.9% of our Arabic page wrong, FastOCR 2.6%, a tie inside the 3-point noise (lower is better).
- You need more recognition languages than FastOCR offers: ABBYY FineReader PDF lists 198, i2OCR 128 and NewOCR 122.
- You only need plain text from one Arabic image and never a PDF: imagetotext.info was level with FastOCR on Arabic and Urdu.
- You already do everything in Google Docs and your files are small and simple: Google Drive lists Arabic, Urdu and Persian.
- You want an engine to build on offline in your own code: Tesseract is free and open source.

## FAQ
### What is the best Arabic OCR?

It depends on what you need back. On our printed Arabic page FastOCR (our tool) got 2.6% of characters wrong and imagetotext.info and OCR.space Engine 3 got 2.9%, a near-tie; lower is better. FastOCR also gives a searchable PDF that pastes right to left, plus Word and Markdown.

### Is i2OCR good for Arabic?

We could not score it, because the site asks for a CAPTCHA. Its menu lists Arabic, Urdu and Persian among 128 languages, and it returns text, Word, HTML or a searchable PDF, one image or PDF page per run. It does not name its OCR engine, so test one page of your own.

### Which Arabic OCR tools also read Urdu and Persian?

FastOCR detects both automatically. Google Drive, PDF24, iLovePDF, i2OCR, NewOCR and Tesseract list both. OCR.space lists Persian and not Urdu. Engine 3 still read our Urdu page (19.6% wrong). imagetotext.info names neither, and ABBYY FineReader PDF lists Arabic but not Urdu or Persian. A listed language is not a good result, so test a page.

### Why does Arabic paste backwards from a searchable PDF?

The PDF's invisible text layer stores the characters in visual order instead of reading order, or your viewer reorders them. Select one line, paste it into a plain text editor and check that the first word sits at the right. Try a second viewer before blaming the file.

### Can OCR extract tables from Arabic documents?

FastOCR can when the table is ruled, with a line around every cell: its Word download holds a real table, one value per cell, right to left. Tables without lines come out as text lines in reading order. Google Drive's help page says tables are not likely to be detected.

### Is there a free Arabic OCR with no sign-up?

Yes. FastOCR reads Arabic images with no account and no watermark; PDFs need a free account. PDF24, NewOCR, imagetotext.info and OCR.space's web tool also say no registration is needed. OCR.space watermarks searchable PDFs made on its free API, so open one output first.

### Is there an Arabic OCR API?

FastOCR has a REST API, a Python SDK and an MCP server for AI agents, which return text or a searchable PDF for Arabic pages with no language setting. OCR.space has a free API with 1 MB files and 3 PDF pages; its default engine rejected our Arabic page, so pick Engine 3.

### What is the best Arabic OCR model?

We tested OCR services and one open-source engine, not standalone AI models. Tesseract 5.5.4 with its Arabic pack got 20.4% of our Arabic page wrong, against FastOCR's 2.6%; lower is better. FastOCR is a hosted service with a REST API and Python SDK, not a model you download.

## Method
Every competitor fact links to that tool's own pages, checked on 4 November 2026; where a page is silent we write Not stated, never No. Accuracy is the share of characters wrong against the Wikisource text, lower is better, on one public-domain scanned page each in Arabic and Urdu, run on 31 October 2026. Five of the eleven tools were run; details are in [how we tested](https://fastocr.org/blog/best-arabic-ocr-tools#how-we-tested).

## Change log
- 1 March 2026: First published.
- 1 November 2026: Added the Arabic, Urdu and Persian accuracy test and Arabic table extraction.
- 4 November 2026: Competitor facts re-checked on their own pages. Added PDF24's Arabic, Urdu and Persian scores. Removed a forum quote about Adobe that its own pages do not back.

## Related comparisons
- [Best Free OCR Software and Tools in 2026: 12 Compared, Tested on 6 Scripts](https://fastocr.org/blog/best-free-ocr-tools)
- [Best Urdu OCR tools](https://fastocr.org/blog/best-urdu-ocr-tools)
- [Farsi OCR guide](https://fastocr.org/blog/farsi-ocr-guide)
- [Hebrew OCR guide](https://fastocr.org/blog/hebrew-ocr-guide)
- [FastOCR vs Tesseract](https://fastocr.org/vs/tesseract)
- [FastOCR vs OCR.space](https://fastocr.org/vs/ocr-space)