Free OCR online
The free OCR that gets the words out of your scan.
Drop in a scanned PDF or a photo of a page. About two seconds later the words are yours: to paste, to edit, or to search inside the original. No sign-up. No watermark. Nothing kept.
- Free, 20 a day
- Files up to 100 MB
- Read in memory, then forgotten
What do you want back?
Why this one
Everything a scan
should have come with
Three ways out
Plain text you can paste, an editable Word .docx, or the original PDF made searchable so Ctrl-F works. Free, no watermark, no sign-up on any of the three.
Generous where others gate
Most free tools stop at a handful of pages or 15 MB, then ask you to sign in. This one takes files up to 100 MB and 50 pages, twenty times a day, no account.
Fast, then forgotten
A modern neural engine reads a page in under two seconds at 98 to 99 percent accuracy, holds it in memory just long enough to answer, and forgets it. Nothing hits a disk.
The honest comparison
Better than the tool
you were about to use
| Feature | FormsPal OCR | Most free OCR tools |
|---|---|---|
| Sign in to download | Never | Often required |
| Free file size | Up to 100 MB | Often 5 to 15 MB |
| Free conversions | 20 a day | Two or three, or paid |
| Watermark on your file | None, ever | Common on Word and PDF |
| Your document afterward | Read in memory, then gone | Uploaded and kept |
| Text, Word, and searchable PDF | All free | Often behind a paywall |
Compared against the free tiers of the widely used online OCR tools, mid 2026. Their limits change; ours are on this page.
In short, processed and forgotten.
- Your file is processed in memory and immediately discarded
- Nothing is written to disk, ever
- No cookies, no trackers, no account
- Logs carry timings and byte counts, never content or filenames
How we handle documents across FormsPal: the Trust Center.
The short version
What is OCR?
OCR stands for optical character recognition: software that looks at the pixels of a scanned page or photo, finds the letters, and turns them into real text your computer can edit and search. A scan without OCR is just a picture. After OCR it behaves like a document.
This free OCR online tool runs a modern neural engine, the same one behind the FormsPal document apps. It reads a typical page in about two seconds at 98 to 99 percent character accuracy, and it straightens a page you photographed at an angle before it reads, so a quick phone snap works about as well as a flatbed scan. It reads English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, and Portuguese, with more on the way.
Fair questions
Questions people ask
Is this OCR tool really free?
Yes. 20 conversions a day, up to 100 MB and 50 pages per file, no sign-up and no watermark. FormsPal makes document software, and this free tool is how we introduce ourselves.
Are my documents stored anywhere?
No. Your file is processed in memory and immediately forgotten. Nothing is written to disk, no cookies are set, and our logs contain timings and byte counts, never content or filenames.
Can I OCR a photo taken with my phone?
Yes, JPG and PNG photos work well. For a full scanning workflow on your phone, with batch capture and quality checks, the FormsPal scanner app does this natively.
Which languages are supported?
The free web tool reads English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, and Portuguese. More languages are on the way.
What happens after 20 conversions?
The counter resets at midnight UTC. If you regularly need more, tell us at support@formspal.com. Heavier tiers exist in the FormsPal apps.
The words are in there. Go get them.
Try FormsPal OCR, freeNo sign-up. No watermark. 20 a day on the house.