How do I OCR a PDF for free?

Last reviewed: September 24, 2026 · Markdown version

Yes, OCR can be free — but each free route gives you back something different, and only one of them hands you the recognised text as a new document. Before picking one, decide what you want at the end: editable text you can copy, or a way to find the PDF later by a word inside it. Those are different jobs, and the free tools split along exactly that line.

Route 1: Google Drive, if you want the text out

Drive will read a scanned PDF and turn it into a Google Doc. We cover the clicks on our Google Drive OCR page, so here are only the limits, from Google's help page: "The file should be 2 MB or smaller", "Text should be at least 10 pixels high", and "Documents must be right-side up" (Convert PDF and photo files to text, read 24 September 2026). Google is also candid about layout: "Lists, tables, columns, footnotes, and endnotes are not likely to be detected."

Two things to weigh. The 2 MB ceiling can rule out a long scan before you start. And this route means uploading the document to Google Drive, which for a bank letter or a medical form may be a step you would rather not take. Google's page does not mention a price for the feature.

Route 2: iPhone Live Text, for a few lines at a time

Live Text works through the camera: Apple's guide says you can "copy, share, look up, and translate text that appears within the camera frame", and "Select All: Select all the text within the frame" (Use Live Text with your iPhone camera, read 24 September 2026). It is genuinely useful for a reference number on a letter. But the page describes text in the camera frame, not a PDF file — it does not say Live Text changes a PDF or produces a searchable one. Apple also notes that "Live Text isn’t available in all regions or languages."

Route 3: Files by Google, if you only want to find the file again

On Android, Files by Google's search can use what is inside a file. Google lists "Text from images and .pdf" among the things Smart Search looks at, and says "Scanning happens on your device so your information doesn’t leave your device" (Search for a file, read 24 September 2026). It does not produce a new document; it helps you locate the one you have. Google adds a caveat worth reading twice: if you still "can’t find files based on their content, Smart Search isn't available for your device yet." The page does not say whether a scan with no text layer counts as "text from .pdf".

Which one to use

Our rule of thumb: one short scan whose words you need to reuse, try Drive. A single line off a paper, use the camera. A phone full of PDFs you keep failing to find, the question is search, not conversion — and free OCR tools mostly answer the conversion question. Check whether the PDF needs OCR at all first; if it already has one, there is nothing to convert.

Where DocFind fits

DocFind is for that last case. It reads scanned PDFs on your phone and then lets you search them alongside everything else: "Search scanned PDFs too — DocFind reads them on your device, then searches them like any other document." Its free tier covers "one library of up to 25 documents, 10 scanned pages and 10 exports every month, unlimited keywords and unlimited results", and matches that came from OCR are labelled as such. The limits are real: it works on PDFs only, it matches the words you type exactly, it reads printed text rather than handwriting, and nothing is stored in a cloud. On Android its OCR reads Latin-script print only, and scanned Hindi or other Devanagari pages are not read on either platform.