Which languages can it read?

English on the English site; German plus English on the German site, because German documents often contain English words. Other languages are not supported yet.

Can I use photos instead of a PDF?

Yes: PNG, JPEG, WebP, GIF or BMP, up to 30 images, each becoming one page. If you drop a PDF together with photos, only the PDF is read.

Does the searchable PDF look exactly like the scan?

Each page keeps the scanned image, saved as a JPEG, with invisible text laid over the words so search and copy work.

Tools ›

OCR a scanned PDF: make it searchable

Recognise the text in scans and photos and get back a searchable PDF plus the plain text, in English or German, without uploading the document.

Open OCR: make it searchable →Free · no sign-up · your file never leaves your browser

When you'd use it

Searching an old scanned contract for one clause instead of reading every page.
Copying text out of a phone photo of a letter from your tax office.
Making scanned receipts readable for the invoice-data or PDF-to-text tools.

Just say what you need

There are no menus to learn. Drop your file on pdfagents.ai and type it the way you would say it:

“make this scan searchable”
“ocr it”
“read the text in this photo”

How it works

Drop the scanned PDF or the photos.
The text is recognised in the site's language; the engine loads once (about 8 MB).
Download the searchable PDF and the text.

Runs on your device, so allow a few seconds per page. Up to 30 pages per run.

Questions

Which languages can it read?: English on the English site; German plus English on the German site, because German documents often contain English words. Other languages are not supported yet.
Can I use photos instead of a PDF?: Yes: PNG, JPEG, WebP, GIF or BMP, up to 30 images, each becoming one page. If you drop a PDF together with photos, only the PDF is read.
Does the searchable PDF look exactly like the scan?: Each page keeps the scanned image, saved as a JPEG, with invisible text laid over the words so search and copy work.

Guides

Make a PDF searchable (OCR): scan with your phone, no upload

Private, and it keeps going

Your document is opened and saved on your own device, never uploaded. When the result is ready, type the next request (rotate, compress, add a password) and it applies to the result.

OCR: make it searchable, right now

A searchable PDF and the recognised text from a scan or photo.

Open OCR: make it searchable →

Doing this often? The free Mac app runs this agent on whole folders, offline, with no page limit. See the Mac app →