Best Free OCR for Scanned PDFs (2026) — Tested on Arabic, Hindi & English

A scanned PDF is just a collection of images — the text isn't selectable, searchable, or editable. OCR (Optical Character Recognition) solves this by adding a text layer. But not all free tools do it well, especially for Arabic, Hindi, or Urdu PDFs. We compare 7 popular options.

What We Tested

We used one public-domain scanned book page per script (Arabic, Hindi and English) and scored each tool's text against the Wikisource transcription of that page. The score is the character error rate (CER): the share of characters that are wrong. Lower is better. Spaces, punctuation and Arabic diacritics were ignored. The reference text itself has 1-6% noise, so small gaps mean little.

• FastOCR: output from 25 October 2026 (Arabic and English scans at 500 px).
• Other tools: run on 31 October 2026 with the scans at 1,280 px, using free tiers and default settings.
• The scans went in as images. PDF24 took the scans as JPG and returned a searchable PDF; Smallpdf got the Arabic scan wrapped in a one-page PDF.
• One page per script is a small test. Check your own documents. Method and all results: OCR accuracy comparison.

OCR.space Engine 3 did best on our Hindi page (2.7 against FastOCR's 13.2). On Arabic, FastOCR, Engine 3 and imagetotext.info were close. OCR.space used a public demo key, so its empty English result may be rate limiting. Smallpdf stopped after one download ("out of free downloads"), so only its Arabic page was scored.

Quick Comparison

1. FastOCR — Best for Multilingual Scanned PDFs

FastOCR is a good choice for non-English scanned PDFs. It makes a searchable PDF with the text layer in the right direction for Arabic and Urdu. It also reads Hindi (Devanagari), but OCR.space Engine 3 scored better on our Hindi test page.

FastOCR scored 2.6% CER on Arabic, 13.2% on Hindi and 3.3% on English in our test. OCR.space Engine 3 was best on Hindi (2.7%). Accuracy depends on scan quality and script, so check the result.

Try 3 images a day without an account. Sign in for unlimited free image OCR. PDF processing requires a free account — see our pricing page for current plans.

FastOCR also has AI Polish and translation, but they work on finished single images only, not on PDFs.

Best for: Arabic, Hindi, Urdu, Farsi, Chinese PDFs, or any multilingual document. Anyone who needs proper searchable PDF output, not just text extraction.

Limitations: PDF processing requires a free account.

2. PDF24 — Free, No Signup, Weaker on Arabic and Hindi

PDF24 is a free option for English-only workflows. Its page says it is free, has no limits and needs no registration (PDF24 OCR). It makes a searchable PDF.

The caveat is non-English support. In our test PDF24 scored 35.5% CER on Arabic and 17.2% on Hindi (lower is better), against 2.6% and 13.2% for FastOCR. On English it scored 10.1%, against 3.3% for FastOCR.

Best for: English-only PDFs when you want no account.

Limitations: Weaker on Arabic and Hindi in our test.

3. Google Drive OCR — Surprisingly Capable

The Google Drive trick: upload your scanned PDF to Drive, right-click → Open with Google Docs. Google extracts the text and places it above the scanned images. We did not measure Google Drive OCR (Google Drive Help; files must be 2 MB or smaller).

The critical limitation: Google Drive OCR does not produce a searchable PDF. You get the extracted text in a Google Doc, but you do not get the original PDF back with a text layer. This makes it a poor fit for archiving or filing workflows where you need the original file.

Best for: Quick multilingual text extraction where you don't need the original PDF back.

Limitations: Requires a Google account. No searchable PDF output. Text appears separately from the original document.

4. iLovePDF — Searchable PDF Output

iLovePDF has a clean interface. Its page says it turns non-selectable PDFs into selectable, searchable PDFs (iLovePDF OCR). Its pricing page lists OCR PDF on the free plan with a 15 MB file limit (iLovePDF pricing).

We did not test iLovePDF on Arabic or Hindi, so check its language list before you rely on it.

Best for: PDFs where you want a clean UI and searchable PDF output.

Limitations: 15 MB file limit on the free plan. Non-Latin scripts not tested.

5. Adobe Acrobat Online — Not Tested, Tight Limits

Adobe's online OCR makes searchable PDFs that keep the original page. Its page names English, German, Spanish, French and Portuguese and links a longer language list, so check it for your script. We did not measure it.

The free online tool takes PDFs only, and you sign in to download the result (Adobe OCR). The paid Acrobat subscription is $19.99/month on the annual plan billed monthly (Adobe pricing).

Best for: Occasional OCR if you already have an Adobe account. We did not measure its accuracy.

Limitations: PDFs only on the free tool, and you sign in to download.

6. OCR.space — Free API, Inconsistent Quality

OCR.space offers a free web upload (up to 5 MB per document, OCR.space) and a free API plan (25,000 requests a month, 1 MB files, 3 PDF pages per document, API docs). It runs more than one OCR engine, and its page says Engine 3 supports Arabic and Hebrew.

On the free API plan, searchable PDF output carries a watermark. For developers wanting a quick API for English documents, it's a reasonable free option.

Best for: Developers wanting a free OCR API. Light English document processing.

Limitations: 5 MB web upload limit, 1 MB and 3 PDF pages on the free API plan, watermark on free PDF output.

7. Smallpdf — Clean Interface, Gated Free Tier

Smallpdf has a clean interface. Its free tier is limited. In our test it stopped after one download ("out of free downloads"), and the one Arabic page it returned scored 99.1% CER (Latin-letter garbage). We could not score English or Hindi.

Best for: People who already use Smallpdf.

Limitations: Limited free downloads. Arabic failed in our one run.

Tips for Better Scanned PDF OCR Accuracy

1. Scan at 300 DPI or higher. This is the single biggest factor in OCR accuracy. 150 DPI scans can reduce accuracy a lot. If you're photographing with a phone, ensure good lighting and hold the camera steady.
2. Straighten skewed pages. Pages scanned at an angle cause line detection errors. Most scanners and phone apps have auto-deskew — enable it.
3. Use high contrast. Dark text on white paper gives the best results. Avoid scanning through colored or transparent covers.
4. Remove noise. Scanner dust, coffee stains, and handwriting margins all reduce accuracy. Crop to the text area when possible.
5. For Arabic, Urdu, Farsi: FastOCR scored 2.6% CER on our Arabic page; PDF24 scored 35.5% and Smallpdf 99.1%. Try the Arabic OCR tool.
6. For Hindi and Devanagari: FastOCR reads Devanagari. Check conjunct consonants and matras in the output. Try the Hindi OCR tool.

Frequently Asked Questions