OCR Online: Extract Text from Images & Scanned PDFs

Turn a photo, scan, or PDF into searchable, editable text. Scanquil reads text two ways: a free on-device engine for everyday scans, and an optional AI-powered pass for the harder cases -- skewed photos, dense tables, faint receipts, and handwriting -- the free engine struggles with.

Free, on-device OCR

The default engine reads text directly in your browser -- nothing is uploaded, and it keeps working offline once the page has loaded. It's accurate on clean, well-lit scans and typed documents, and it's what every tool below uses unless you specifically pick an "AI" variant.

• Image to Text
• PDF to Text
• Image to Word
• PDF to Word

AI OCR for harder scans

When a photo is skewed, low-contrast, mostly handwriting, or the page is dense with small print, the free engine's accuracy drops. These send just that one image to a cloud OCR provider for a meaningfully better read, for a small pay-per-use fee shown on the button before you tap it -- no subscription, no stored balance.

• Image to Text (AI)
• PDF to Word (AI)
• PDF to Excel (AI)
• Extract Tables (AI)

After OCR: search, edit, and ask

Every scan is saved into a group, where its text is searchable and editable, and it's exactly what Ask AI answers questions from -- with clickable citations back to the page an answer came from. Export any group as a single backup .zip at any time.

• How Scanquil Works

Need structured data, not just text?

For pulling tables, form fields, and invoice line items out as structured data instead of plain text, see Document AI.

• Document AI: Extraction, Summarization & Ask AI

Privacy

Free OCR never leaves your device. AI OCR sends only the one image or page you choose to process -- see exactly what each tool sends, tool by tool, on the privacy page.

• Privacy Policy

Frequently asked questions

Is OCR really free?

Yes -- the on-device engine behind Image to Text, PDF to Text, Image to Word, and PDF to Word has no cost, no account, and no upload, ever. Only the AI-powered variants for harder scans are pay-per-use.

Does OCR work offline?

The free on-device tools do, once the page itself has loaded -- no file leaves your device. The AI-powered tools need a connection, since they send one image to a cloud provider for that single request.

Can OCR read handwriting?

The free engine is built for printed text and struggles with handwriting. The AI-powered tools, like Image to Text (AI), read handwriting meaningfully better, though accuracy still depends on legibility.

What file types can I run OCR on?

Photos (JPG, PNG, WebP) and PDFs, including multi-page and scanned PDFs -- pick whichever tool above matches your input and the output format you want.