PDF OCR: Extract Text from Scanned & Native PDFs
PDF to text conversion pulls the words out of a PDF file. FastOCR handles digital PDFs and scanned ones, using OCR to read page images, and returns plain text, a Word file or a searchable PDF. Files up to 1GB work with a free account, and results are deleted automatically after 30 days.
Upload a scanned or native PDF and get editable text back as plain text, a Word file, or a searchable PDF. Works with multi-page documents up to 1GB, in any of 100+ languages.
Drop your file here
PDF, PNG, JPG, WebP, BMP, HEIC
PDF up to 1 GB · images up to 20 MB
Tips for a clear photo
- Lay the page flat.
- Use even light, with no shadows.
- Turn off the flash to avoid glare.
- Fill the frame with the page.
What is PDF OCR and How Does it Work?
PDF OCR (Optical Character Recognition) is an automated machine vision process that converts scanned paper documents, smartphone photos, and non-selectable PDF pages into editable, machine-searchable text. While native digital PDFs store text as accessible character codes, scanned PDFs contain only static raster images. FastOCR reads text with AI-powered OCR across 100+ languages—including complex cursive scripts like Arabic, Urdu Nastaliq, and Devanagari. When processing multi-page scanned PDFs up to 1GB, the system extracts the text and embeds an invisible, searchable text layer directly behind the original page images. This produces a searchable PDF that keeps the original page images, fonts, tables, and signatures as scanned while enabling full-text keyword search, clipboard copying, and vector embeddings for AI/RAG context pipelines.
How it works
Upload your PDF
Drop any PDF — scanned documents, native files, or mixed. Up to 1GB.
AI processes each page
Pages are processed in parallel. Large PDFs are chunked for speed.
Get your text
Download a searchable PDF, plain text, or a Word (.docx) file.
Searchable PDF output
Adds an invisible text layer to your scanned PDF. Search, select, and copy text without changing the original appearance.
Multi-page & batch
Process documents with hundreds of pages. Upload several PDFs at once.
100+ languages
Arabic, Urdu, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, and all European languages. RTL text direction is preserved.
Parallel processing
Large PDFs are split into chunks and processed concurrently for faster results.
Auto-deleted in 30 days
Uploaded files and results are encrypted at rest and permanently deleted after 30 days.
Text, Word or PDF
Download plain text (.txt), a Word (.docx) file, or the searchable PDF.
How Dual-Layer Searchable PDFs Work
FastOCR keeps the original high-resolution scan intact while overlaying an invisible, selectable text layer behind it.
Original Scanned Raster
Preserves paper texture, stamps, historical fonts, signatures, and photographic fidelity.
OCR Text Overlay
Exact bounding-box coordinates for each word, enabling Ctrl+F find, selection, and copy.
Searchable PDF
Full-text search, indexing, and copy-paste, with the page looking exactly as scanned.
PDF processing
Image OCR is free: try it without an account, and sign in for unlimited free image OCR. PDF processing requires a free account. Paid plans offer expanded PDF limits, batch upload, and priority support.
View current plans and pricing →Prefer to keep files on your computer? Get the free offline app for Mac or Windows.
PDF OCR for ChatGPT, Claude, and RAG Pipelines
Clean text extraction structured for LLM context windows and vector databases
Modern generative AI models and RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) systems require clean, uncorrupted text to prevent hallucinated embeddings. When you feed raw scanned PDFs to language models, uncorrected OCR artifacts degrade retrieval accuracy. FastOCR extracts clean raw text, or a Markdown file of paragraphs, from complex multi-column layouts, financial tables, and non-Latin scripts.
Prompt-Ready LLM Context
Extract high-fidelity text ready to paste directly into ChatGPT, Claude, or DeepSeek without manual layout cleanup.
Vector Database Chunking
Preserve reading order across headers, footers, and sidebars for seamless LangChain or LlamaIndex semantic chunking.
Frequently asked questions
What types of PDFs can FastOCR process?
Both scanned PDFs (images of documents) and native PDFs (digitally created). For scanned PDFs, AI-powered OCR extracts text from the page images. For native PDFs, text is extracted directly from the document structure.
What is the maximum PDF file size?
FastOCR supports PDF files up to 1GB and up to 10,000 pages. Multi-page documents are processed in parallel — large PDFs are split into chunks and processed concurrently for faster results.
Does it work with non-English documents?
Yes. 100+ languages are supported including Arabic, Urdu, Farsi, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, and all European languages. Right-to-left text direction is preserved in the output.
What is a searchable PDF?
A searchable PDF keeps the original scanned image intact but adds an invisible text layer on top. This lets you press Ctrl+F to find words, select and copy text, and index the document — without changing how it looks.
Can I get the text as a Word file?
Yes. After a PDF finishes, download the text as plain text (.txt) or as a Word (.docx) file, or download the searchable PDF. The Word file holds the recognized text, one paragraph per line, without rebuilt columns or tables.
Want a Word file? See PDF to Word. Working from a photo instead? Use Image to Text.
No registration required for images. Free account for PDFs.