Upload any scanned PDF and extract all text instantly. Supports 10+ languages including Bengali, Hindi and Arabic. Download as plain text or searchable PDF.
Upload your scanned PDF and extract all text in seconds. No account needed, no watermarks, no limits on pages.
Extract Text Now →Free · No signup · Files deleted after 2 hours
Select the language of your document for highest OCR accuracy.
Bengali, Hindi, Arabic, English and 7 more languages. Select your document's language for maximum OCR accuracy. Essential for non-Latin scripts.
Download as plain TXT for easy editing, or get a searchable PDF that keeps your original document layout with a hidden text layer for searching and copying.
No signup, no watermark, no credit card. Free OCR for PDFs up to 10MB. Files are automatically deleted after 2 hours to protect your privacy.
OCR stands for Optical Character Recognition. It is a technology that converts scanned images of text into real, selectable, machine-readable text. When you scan a document, your scanner captures a photograph of the page — the text looks right but cannot be copied or searched. OCR reads that photograph and identifies every character, converting the image into a real text layer. Scanned PDFs are just images of pages — OCR makes the text copyable, searchable, and translatable.
Yes. PDFTash OCR is completely free for PDFs up to 10MB with no signup required. You can upload your file, extract the text, and download the result — no account, no credit card, no trial. Pro users at $2/month can OCR larger files up to 200MB and get priority processing.
PDFTash OCR currently supports 11 languages: English, Bengali (বাংলা), Hindi (हिन्दी), Arabic (العربية), French, German, Spanish, Chinese (Simplified), Japanese, Urdu (اردو), and Portuguese. Always select the correct language for your document — especially for non-Latin scripts like Bengali, Hindi, or Arabic — as the wrong language selection significantly reduces accuracy.
TXT gives you the raw extracted text as a plain text file (.txt). This is ideal if you want to copy, edit, or translate the text. Searchable PDF keeps your original document appearance exactly as scanned, but adds an invisible text layer underneath — so you can use Ctrl+F to search, and click to highlight and copy text in any PDF reader like Adobe, Chrome, or Preview. The searchable PDF is ideal when you need to archive the original document while also making it searchable.
PDFTash achieves 95%+ accuracy for clear 300 DPI scans with black text on a white background. Accuracy drops for blurry, low-resolution (under 150 DPI), or skewed scans. Color backgrounds, watermarks, and handwriting also reduce accuracy. For best results: scan at 300 DPI, use black ink on white paper, keep pages straight, and always select the correct language for your document.