OCR PDF Online Make Scans Searchable
Turn scanned PDFs and photos into searchable PDFs, Word documents or plain text. 90+ languages, two at once, and it all happens in your browser.
Drop scanned PDFs or images here
PDF, JPG, PNG or WebP, from your computer or phone
Free plan: files up to 50 MB and 200 pages. Runs in your browser, nothing is uploaded.
- No upload
- 90+ languages
- No sign-up
- Works on phones
How it works
How to OCR a PDF in 3 steps
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1
Choose your scans
Drop scanned PDFs or photos on the box above, or tap Select files. Several at once is fine.
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2
Pick output and language
Choose Searchable PDF, Word or Plain text, and the language of the document.
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3
Recognize and download
Click Recognize text. Pages are read on your device, then you download the result.
Three kinds of result
Get your text back the way you need it
Other OCR tools upload your scans and give you one kind of file. Raha reads them on your device and lets you choose.
Searchable PDF
The pages look exactly the same, with an invisible text layer so you can search, select and copy.
RecommendedWord document
Editable paragraphs in a DOCX file, ready to update, translate or reuse.
DOCXPlain text
Just the words, shown on screen with a Copy button and as a .txt file.
Copy & paste90+ languages
Latin, Arabic, Urdu, Hindi, Bengali, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Cyrillic and more, two at once.
Language optionsPhotos and screenshots
Read text from JPG, PNG and WebP images as well as PDFs.
Images tooPrivate by design
Recognition runs in your browser with WebAssembly. Your scans never reach a server.
No uploadStep-by-step guides
Guides for OCR
How to make a scanned PDF searchable
- Select your scanned PDF in the OCR tool and leave Searchable PDF selected.
- Choose the document's language. The first run downloads the language data, which takes a few seconds.
- Click Recognize text. Raha adds an invisible text layer over each page. The pages themselves are not re-compressed, so quality stays the same.
- Open the result and press Ctrl+F (or Cmd+F) to search, or select text to copy it.
How to turn a scan into an editable Word document
- Choose Word document as the output.
- Pick the language and click Recognize text.
- Each page becomes a page in Word, with paragraphs and larger headings kept. Check names and numbers before you rely on them.
How to copy text from a scanned PDF or image
- Choose Plain text.
- After recognition, the text appears on screen. Click Copy text, or download the .txt file.
- For multi-page PDFs, each page is marked with a ----- Page N ----- line.
How to OCR documents in other languages
- Pick the main language under Document language.
- If the document mixes two, such as English and Arabic, or English and Hindi, pick the second one too.
- Right-to-left languages such as Arabic, Urdu, Persian and Hebrew are written right to left in the Word output.
How to get text from a photo or screenshot
- Select a JPG, PNG or WebP image. A sharp, straight, well-lit photo gives the best results.
- Choose Searchable PDF to turn the photo into a PDF with selectable text, or Plain text to just copy the words.
- Click Recognize text.
Why your scans stay private
- The OCR engine (Tesseract, compiled to WebAssembly) downloads into your browser and runs there.
- Your PDF or image is read from your device and the result is created on your device. It is never uploaded to Raha Tools or anyone else.
- That makes it safe for ID cards, contracts, medical letters and bank documents.
How Raha compares
OCR without uploading your scans
Scanned documents are often the most sensitive ones: IDs, contracts, medical letters. Popular OCR tools upload them first. Raha doesn't.
| Feature | Raha Tools | iLovePDF | Sejda |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where your file is processed | Your device | Their servers | Their servers |
| Searchable PDF output | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Word output | Yes | — | — |
| Plain text output | Yes | — | Yes |
| Images (JPG, PNG) | Yes | — | — |
| Pages per file on the free plan | Up to 200 | — | 10 per task |
Based on each tool's public OCR page, checked October 2026. "—" means we couldn't find the option there. Features change, so check their sites for the latest.
Use cases
What people use OCR for
Scanned contracts and letters
Make old paperwork searchable so you can find a clause or a name in seconds.
Receipts and invoices
Copy totals and invoice numbers from photographed receipts into your accounts.
ID and personal documents
Read passports, ID cards and certificates without uploading them anywhere.
Books and study notes
Turn scanned chapters and handouts into text you can search, quote and summarize.
Documents in other languages
Extract text for translation from Arabic, Urdu, Hindi, Chinese and 90+ other languages.
Screenshots
Grab the text out of a screenshot or a photo of a whiteboard or slide.
FAQ
OCR questions, answered
How do I make a scanned PDF searchable for free?
Select the PDF, keep Searchable PDF selected, choose the language and click Recognize text. You get the same PDF with an invisible text layer you can search and copy from.
Are my files uploaded?
No. OCR runs entirely in your browser using WebAssembly. Your PDFs and images are read and processed on your device and never sent to Raha Tools or anyone else.
Which languages are supported?
More than 90, including English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Arabic, Urdu, Persian, Hindi, Bengali, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Russian. You can choose two at once for mixed documents.
Can I OCR images as well as PDFs?
Yes. JPG, PNG, WebP, BMP and GIF images work. You can turn an image into a searchable PDF, a Word document or plain text.
Will the searchable PDF look different?
No. The original pages are kept as they are, and the recognized text is added as an invisible layer on top, so the file looks the same and stays about the same size.
How accurate is the OCR?
Very accurate on clean, straight scans at normal resolution. Blurry photos, handwriting and very small print are harder, so check important names and numbers.
Can I OCR only some pages?
Yes. Type the pages in Pages to read, for example 1-5. Leave it empty to read every page.
Is OCR free?
Yes. The free plan needs no account and adds no watermark. It includes 3 tasks per hour, with files up to 50 MB and 200 pages. The Pro plan removes the limits.
Why does the first run take longer?
The first time you use a language, your browser downloads its data (a few megabytes). After that it's cached, so later runs start straight away.
Ready to make your scans searchable?
Pick a scanned PDF or photo. Text is recognized on your device in seconds.
Start OCR