OCR software reads the text inside a scan, photo, PDF or screenshot and turns it into words you can search, copy and edit. Some tools are desktop apps for office paperwork, some are phone and Mac scanners, and some are APIs that developers build into their own products. Ten options follow in no particular order.
A scanned contract looks like text, but to your computer it's a picture. You can't search it, copy a clause out of it or let a screen reader read it aloud until something has recognised the letters.
That something is OCR. The ten tools below are listed alphabetically and in no particular order, and every description comes from the vendor's own website, read this week. If you're still weighing up whether scanning is worth it, my piece on the benefits of OCR document scanning for business sets out the case.
OCR software at a glance
I checked the free plan column on each tool's own website, as of Oct 2026. Yes means the site names a free plan, a free version, a free account, a free edition or an open source release. Trial only means a time-limited trial. Not stated means the pages I read named neither, even where there's a button inviting you to try it, so check the vendor's page before you sign up.
| Tool | Type | Good for | Free plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| ABBYY FineReader PDF | Desktop PDF and OCR editor | Editing and converting scanned PDFs | Not stated |
| Amazon Textract | Cloud OCR service | Developers extracting text and data at scale | Yes |
| Klippa | Document processing platform | OCR inside a wider document workflow | Not stated |
| Mindee | Document processing API | Adding OCR to your own app | Trial only |
| OmniPage | Desktop and server OCR | Long-running desktop OCR for offices | Trial only |
| Prizmo | Scanner app for Apple devices | Scanning and OCR on iPhone and Mac | Not stated |
| Readiris | Desktop OCR and PDF manager | A one-off licence instead of a subscription | Trial only |
| Tesseract | Open source OCR engine | Developers who want a free engine | Yes |
| TextSniper | Mac screen text capture | Grabbing text from anything on screen | Not stated |
| Veryfi | OCR API for financial documents | Receipts, invoices and cheques | Trial only |
Ten OCR tools to look at
ABBYY FineReader PDF
Best for: Office teams who want to open, edit, convert and compare PDFs and scans on Windows or Mac, with OCR built into the editor.
Amazon Textract
Best for: Developers already building on AWS who want a cloud service that pulls text and data from documents, with an AWS Free Tier to start.
Klippa
Best for: Companies that want OCR as one module of a document platform that also classifies, converts and anonymises files.
Mindee
Best for: Product teams who want to build document reading into their own software through an API, starting with a 14-day free trial.
OmniPage
Best for: Small and mid-sized offices who want a long-established desktop OCR product, with server and developer editions also on offer.
Prizmo
Best for: Apple users who want one scanner app across iPhone, iPad and Mac that also reads business cards.
Readiris
Best for: Home and small offices who want OCR plus PDF editing, compressing and signing without an ongoing subscription.
Tesseract
Best for: Developers comfortable on the command line who want the open source OCR engine that many other tools are built on.
TextSniper
Best for: Mac users who often need text from a screenshot, video frame or locked PDF and want it captured in seconds.
Veryfi
Best for: Finance and expense apps that need OCR tuned for receipts, invoices, cheques and bank statements, with a 14-day free trial.
Matching an OCR tool to the job
- Editing scanned PDFs at a desk: ABBYY FineReader PDF or OmniPage.
- A one-off licence, no subscription: Readiris.
- Scanning on iPhone, iPad and Mac: Prizmo.
- Grabbing text off the screen: TextSniper.
- Receipts, invoices and cheques: Veryfi.
- Building OCR into your own product: Amazon Textract, Mindee or Klippa.
- A free engine you run yourself: Tesseract.
Why a scanned page fails an accessibility check
The W3C Web Accessibility Initiative's guidance on WCAG success criterion 1.4.5 says that where the technology allows it, text should be used to convey information rather than images of text, with exceptions only for text that's customisable or where a particular look is essential, such as a logo.
A scanned page is one big image of text. Until OCR has run, a screen reader sees nothing and a search box finds nothing. If you publish PDFs, put them on an intranet or send them to customers, recognising the text first is the step that makes them usable for everyone.
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Desktop app, phone scanner or API?
A desktop app is the right shape when one person or one office handles a steady pile of scans and needs to edit the result as a document.
A phone or Mac scanner fits people who capture paper on the move, such as receipts, whiteboards and business cards, and want the text on the device straight away.
An API is for when OCR has to happen inside another system, at volume, with nobody clicking a button. That's where receipts, invoices and ID documents usually end up.
Questions to ask before you pick OCR
- Which languages and alphabets does it read?
- How does it cope with handwriting, stamps and poor scans?
- Can it keep tables and columns in the right place?
- Does the output stay searchable inside the original PDF?
- Where are your files processed and stored?
- Can it run in batches, or only one page at a time?
Text in images isn't the only gap, and this guide to alt text generators compares free tools that describe pictures for screen readers.
Signs your paperwork needs OCR
- You can't search old contracts. Recognise the text once.
- Staff retype numbers from scans. Let software read them.
- Screen reader users get blank pages. Add a text layer.
- Receipts pile up in a drawer. Scan and read them on arrival.
Do you make OCR software? Tool makers can ask to be considered for a featured place on this list.
My plain advice on OCR software
Take the ten worst documents you have, the faint fax, the crooked phone photo, the two-column report, and run them through two or three tools before you commit. Accuracy on clean pages is easy. It's the messy ones that tell you which tool will save you time.
Once the text is recognised, you'll usually want to tidy the file itself. My round-up of the best PDF editors covers that next step.
Frequently asked questions
What is OCR software?
It's software that recognises the letters inside an image, scan or PDF and turns them into real text you can search, copy, edit and read aloud with a screen reader.
Is there free OCR software?
Yes. Open source engines are free to use, and some cloud services include a free tier. Check the free plan column above and confirm on each vendor's site.
Can OCR read handwriting?
Some tools handle neat handwriting far better than others. Test with your own samples, because results vary a lot by tool and by writer.
Is OCR the same as intelligent document processing?
Not quite. OCR turns images into text. Intelligent document processing goes further and pulls out named fields, such as an invoice total or a due date, and passes them to other systems.
Does OCR make a PDF accessible?
It's the first step. Recognised text lets screen readers and search work, though a fully accessible PDF also needs headings, reading order and alt text.
Can I use OCR on my phone?
Yes. Several scanner apps run OCR on the phone itself, so you can scan a page and copy the text out in seconds.
