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Solve this · Documents

Turn a scan or photo into editable text (OCR)

Recognise text in scans, photos and image-only PDFs.

Can AI help? Yes

OCR is machine learning; modern AI assistants also read handwriting and layouts, with occasional mistakes.

Fastest
Google Lens

Point the camera or upload a photo and copy the text

FreeNo account
No account
PDF24 Tools

Makes scanned PDFs searchable

FreeNo account
Open source
Stirling PDF

OCR on your own machine

Free + paidOpen source
AI
ChatGPTAI

Reads photos of documents and handwriting

Free tier + paid

Labels describe the kind of option (fastest, free, AI, …), not a ranking. Access facts come from each provider's own site; blank means not verified.

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