Best Free Image to Text Converter (2026)

The best free image to text converter depends on the script. For Arabic and Urdu, FastOCR and imagetotext.info came out level in our test. For Hindi, OCR.space Engine 3 was better. For a clean English photo, most tools work. The tables below compare the free online tools on limits, output and measured accuracy.

Disclosure: FastOCR publishes this page and is one of the tools. We say where others did better. This page is about images. For PDFs and desktop software, see Best Free OCR Tools.

Quick picks

The free tools, measured

We ran one scanned page per script through each tool. The score is the character error rate (CER): the share of characters the tool got wrong, so lower is better. Limits and outputs come from each tool's own page, read on 1 November 2026. PDF24 and Smallpdf are PDF tools; we gave them the scans as images (PDF24) and as a one-page PDF (Smallpdf).

* OCR.space returned empty English results for Engine 3, probably from demo-key rate limits, so we do not count that as a failure. Differences under about 3 points are within the noise of the reference text. Not run: Google Lens, Google Drive, Adobe, OneNote and i2OCR (see below).

The scan: a page of the Urdu book Tota Kahani (written 1801)

First body line, as printed (Wikisource transcription)

احسان اُس خدا کا کہ جس نے دریائے سخن کو اپنے ابر کرم سے گو ہرِ معنی بخشا اور زبان کو واسطے اپنی

• FastOCR

  published by us

  9.1% of characters wrong

  احسان اُس خدا کا کہ جس نے دریائے سخن کو اپنے ابر کرم سے گو ہر معنی بخشا اور زبان کو واسطے اپنی

• imagetotext.info

  free web tool

  9.2% of characters wrong

  احسان اُس خدا کا کہ جس نے دریائے سخن کو اپنے ابر کرم سے گو ہر معنی بخشا اور زبان کو واسطے اپنی

• OCR.space

  default Engine 2

  30.4% of characters wrong

  احسان أس مداكاكيج سنءريات سخن كواب ابركرم ← كوبر معى تختا اورزيان كوداسطيى

• Tesseract 5.5.4

  the engine NewOCR says it uses

  55.3% of characters wrong

  ا احمان اس دا اجس ےه در را سخ نکو ان ارک سےکوس ین یناد زا نک ری

• OnlineOCR.net

  no Urdu option

  99.6% of characters wrong

  tA)K11 tAirk.,....11.30,t4 ikitt r CIO 4 %;114iiii

Fair notes: imagetotext.info matched FastOCR on Arabic and Urdu, and OCR.space Engine 3 beat FastOCR on the Hindi page (2.7% of characters wrong against 13.2%). OnlineOCR.net has no Urdu or Arabic option, so its Urdu result is Latin letters. Tesseract, the open-source engine, got 55.3% wrong on Urdu with the right language pack. See the full 8-tool, 8-script table.

How an online image text extractor works

1. You upload the image. It goes to the tool's server over the internet.
2. The engine finds the lines of text and works out which letters they are, using the script and language.
3. You get plain text back, and sometimes a file such as Word or a searchable PDF.

Step 2 is where tools differ. A tool that does not know your script cannot read it, whatever the image quality. Pick the right language if the tool asks. FastOCR reads 100+ languages; try it on Image to Text.

FastOCR

Free for images in the browser. Try 3 images a day without an account. Sign in for unlimited free image OCR. Results download as plain text, Word or Markdown. A searchable PDF is for PDF uploads, not photos. Best for Arabic and Urdu, and for people who want Word or Markdown out. Weaker than OCR.space Engine 3 on our Hindi page.

The other tools

• imagetotext.info. Our closest match on Arabic and Urdu. No sign-up, 23 languages listed, up to 5 images per free submission, copy or download as TXT or DOCX. Its page says no data is transmitted or stored; we did not check that.
• OCR.space. Free, no sign-up, 5 MB per document. Engine 3 was the best on Hindi but got 19.6% of Urdu characters wrong. The default Engine 2 rejected Arabic, Hindi and Persian. Choose the engine yourself.
• OnlineOCR.net. Guests get 5 files an hour; it lists 46 languages, but none of Arabic, Urdu, Hindi, Bengali, Persian or Tamil. Fine for English; outputs include Word and Excel.
• PDF24. Free, no sign-up, and its page says files are deleted from its server after one hour. It gives a searchable PDF, not plain text, and scored behind the leaders on every script we tried.
• Smallpdf. Accepts JPG and PNG and gives a searchable PDF. It has no language menu. Its one Arabic result was Latin letters, then it said we were out of free downloads, so we scored one page only.
• Google Lens. Google says it copies text through your camera and translates in over 100 languages, on Android, iOS and desktop Chrome. Not tested by us, so no accuracy number.
• Google Drive and Docs. Open a JPEG, PNG or GIF of 2 MB or less with Google Docs and the text is placed in a document. Google says lists, tables and columns often do not carry over. Needs a Google account; not tested.

Not tested: Adobe, OneNote and i2OCR. i2OCR sits behind a CAPTCHA, which we do not solve, so we cannot say how it scores.

For business: many images, API and privacy

• Many files. On the website, images go one at a time. Paid plans batch up to 25 PDFs. For many images, use the API below.
• API. The FastOCR API includes 20 free pages a month. OCR.space says to use its API, not its web page, for automated work.
• Privacy. Every online tool receives your image. FastOCR deletes uploaded files 30 days after upload; see the privacy policy. We make no compliance claims.

Tips for better results

• Keep the page flat and straight, with even light and dark text on a light background.
• Crop to the text. Shadows and table edges add errors.
• Use PNG for screenshots; JPEG blur around letters can hurt.
• If the tool asks for a language, pick the real one.
• Read the result once against the image before you rely on it.

Our verdict

For Latin text, try any free tool and keep the one whose limits suit you. For Arabic, Urdu and other scripts, check the script in the table first: FastOCR and imagetotext.info tied on Arabic and Urdu, and OCR.space Engine 3 led on Hindi. We tested one page per script, so test your own image before you commit.

How we tested

• Dates: the other tools ran on 31 October 2026; FastOCR's output is from its production API on 25 October 2026.
• Pages: eight public-domain scanned book pages from Wikimedia Commons, one each in Arabic, Urdu, Persian, Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Chinese and English. The reference is the Wikisource transcription.
• Score: character error rate after removing spaces, punctuation and Arabic diacritics. Gaps under about 3 points are noise.
• FastOCR got a 500-pixel image for Arabic, Urdu and English; the other tools got 1,280 pixels.
• OCR.space ran on its public demo key. Tesseract 5.5.4 ran locally with the right language pack.
• No handwriting, speed or phone-camera test was run. Free limits come from each tool's page and may change.

Frequently asked questions