PDF tools / OCR PDF12 tools
Best tools to OCR a PDF
Make scanned PDFs searchable and selectable. Facts come from each tool's own pages, and every score says where it comes from. How we rank
- Tools
- 12
- Researched
- 11
- Free option
- 8
- Only listed
- 1
Disclosure: agathox makes some of the tools listed here. They are labelled and scored by the same method as every other tool.
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We build this tool, so it is labelled. It is scored with the same tests as the rest, and this box never changes the ranking below.
Ranked by signals we can measure or quote: website health, the facts each tool's own pages state, and community discussion. Nothing here has been hands-on tested yet, so this is not a quality test. How the signals rank works
Quick answer
- No signup needed: PDF24 Tools, Sejda PDF, agathox PDF tools
- Files stay on your device: Stirling PDF, agathox PDF tools
Based on what each tool's own pages say. A tool is left out when its pages say it varies or do not say. Details are listed under each tool.
Want two of these head to head? Compare tools side by side.
Details and sources
- Free tier
- Limited access to basic features of 21 tools, with up to 2 conversions a day. The same limit applies with or without a free account. File-size and page limits are not stated.
- Paid plan
- Pro adds unlimited use of all tools, OCR, batch conversion, no ads and the desktop and mobile apps. The price is not shown on the official pages we could read.
- Signup
- Not required for most tools. Sign needs a free account.
- Watermark
- Says it adds no watermark, even on the free plan.
- Where files go
- Cloud-based: files are uploaded and deleted automatically after one hour for most tools. Its servers are in Ireland.
From the tool's own pages, checked 2026-10-31. Sources: Support, Pricing, Merge PDF. Prices and limits change; check the tool before you rely on them.
Details and sources
- Free tier
- No free tier listed. A 7-day free trial with no payment required is offered.
- Paid plan
- In USD for one standalone license: Standard (Windows) $99/year, $267/3 years or $16/month; Corporate (Windows) $165/year, $446/3 years or $24/month; Mac $69/year or $186/3 years (no monthly option). The page does not say whether prices vary by country.
- Signup
- Product registration is required. Website purchases are managed through an ABBYY Checkout account tied to the purchase email.
- Watermark
- Not stated.
- Where files go
- The privacy policy says ABBYY processes data uploaded to its cloud products, with no storage location named. Document contents of on-premise products stay with the customer. The FineReader PDF Mobile app processes on the device by default. No retention period for uploaded documents is given. The desktop FineReader PDF product is not specifically described.
From the tool's own pages, checked 2026-11-01. Sources: Pricing, Privacy. Prices and limits change; check the tool before you rely on them.
Details and sources
- Free tier
- Says all tools are free without restrictions and that there are no artificial limits. File-size limits are not stated.
- Paid plan
- No paid plan found. It says the service is funded by advertising.
- Signup
- No registration required.
- Watermark
- Not stated.
- Where files go
- Files are uploaded to PDF24's servers in EU data centres and usually deleted within one hour. The free PDF24 Creator desktop app works offline.
From the tool's own pages, checked 2026-10-31. Sources: Home, FAQ, Privacy policy. Prices and limits change; check the tool before you rely on them.
Details and sources
Sign in to download the result; editing the recognised text needs a paid plan.
- Free tier
- Free tools with limits per tool, for example merge up to 100 files and 1,500 pages, split up to 1 GB and 1,500 pages, Word to PDF up to 100 MB, compress up to 2 GB with limited use. PDF to Word has a daily limit whose number is not stated.
- Paid plan
- Acrobat Standard from US$14.99 a month on an annual plan billed monthly, US$179.88 a year prepaid, or US$24.99 month to month.
- Signup
- Depends on the tool. Merge and compress say no signup; split, OCR and edit ask you to sign in to download; Fill & Sign requires it.
- Watermark
- Merge and PDF to JPG say no watermark. Not stated for the other tools.
- Where files go
- Files are uploaded to Adobe's cloud servers and deleted unless you sign in and save them. No retention time is stated.
From the tool's own pages, checked 2026-10-31. Sources: Online tools, Merge PDF, Pricing, PDF to Word. Prices and limits change; check the tool before you rely on them.
Details and sources
- Free tier
- The pricing page recommends testing the free version before buying, but does not list its features or limits.
- Paid plan
- Perpetual licences in USD. Single user: Editor $62, Editor Plus $79, Printer Standard $58, PDF-Tools $89, PDF-XChange PRO $131. 3-user pack: Editor $168, Editor Plus $214. Maintenance is optional. Larger packs exist.
- Signup
- Not stated.
- Watermark
- Not stated.
- Where files go
- Not stated. The privacy policy does not say whether documents are uploaded or processed locally, or how long files are kept. It says AI features send data to a designated AI model.
From the tool's own pages, checked 2026-11-01. Sources: Pricing, Privacy policy. Prices and limits change; check the tool before you rely on them.
Details and sources
- Free tier
- Free version adds a trial watermark when saving. Free limits listed: 1 GB cloud storage with 10 MB per file, 2 file conversions per day, 5 OCR uses, batch processing of 2 files, AI assistant with 5 PDFs and 100 questions. The page contradicts itself on some limits.
- Paid plan
- UPDF Pro is a yearly auto-renewing plan or a one-time lifetime purchase, covering 4 devices. AI Assistant is yearly, quarterly or monthly. 30-day money-back guarantee. Prices for these plans are Not stated in the page text I could read.
- Signup
- Not stated. A pop-up says to sign in to get free access to some features, but it is unclear whether an account is needed for every use.
- Watermark
- Yes. The free version adds a trial watermark when saving edited, annotated, protected or organized documents.
- Where files go
- UPDF Cloud and AI features upload documents to UPDF Cloud, stored in data centers in the user's region. AI-processed content is said not to be used to train general-purpose AI models. Personal data is kept while the account is active. No retention period is given for uploaded documents. The policy does not say whether desktop editing is local only.
From the tool's own pages, checked 2026-11-01. Sources: Pricing, Privacy policy. Prices and limits change; check the tool before you rely on them.
Details and sources
- Free tier
- Free for documents up to 50 pages or 50 MB, and 3 tasks an hour. Some tools are tighter: one file per task, 20 pages per conversion, 10 pages per OCR task.
- Paid plan
- A 7-day pass for $5 (one-time) and a yearly plan for $63 that includes Sejda Desktop. Paid removes the page and hourly limits and allows files up to 500 MB. We could not verify the monthly price.
- Signup
- No signup required.
- Watermark
- Not stated.
- Where files go
- Web tools upload files to Sejda's servers and delete them automatically after 2 hours, with encryption in transit and at rest. Sejda Desktop processes files on your computer.
From the tool's own pages, checked 2026-10-31. Sources: Merge PDF, Pricing, Privacy, Security. Prices and limits change; check the tool before you rely on them.
Details and sources
- Free tier
- Stirling PDF is free for individual use. The page says: “30M+ downloads, free for individual use.”
- Paid plan
- Not stated.
- Signup
- Not stated.
- Watermark
- Not stated.
- Where files go
- Stirling PDF runs on the user's own machine or servers. The page says: “Your PDFs. Your servers.. . Stirling is a private PDF editor that runs anywhere and automates everything.”
From the tool's own pages, checked 2026-11-04. Sources: Home. Prices and limits change; check the tool before you rely on them.
Read automatically by a program, not by a person. Each fact quotes the sentence it came from, and a fact is shown only if that sentence is on the page. Where a page did not say, it reads “Not stated.”
Details and sources
- Free tier
- A free plan with limited document processing. The exact free limits are not stated on the pricing page; the terms say it may apply reasonable technical limits on file size and processing.
- Paid plan
- Premium: unlimited document processing, no ads, priority support. Prices vary by country; the page we read showed 242 INR a month billed yearly or 500 INR billed monthly. Check the current price where you live.
- Signup
- Not stated.
- Watermark
- Not stated.
- Where files go
- Files are uploaded to iLovePDF's servers and deleted automatically within 2 hours of processing.
From the tool's own pages, checked 2026-10-31. Sources: Pricing, FAQ, Terms. Prices and limits change; check the tool before you rely on them.
- 10UnclearSignup unclearFile handling unclearHealth 3.8
Details and sources
- Free tier
- Not stated.
- Paid plan
- Not stated.
- Signup
- The interface includes a Sign In and Account Center option. The page says: “Sign In Account Center Sign out.”
- Watermark
- PDFelement allows users to add personalized watermarks to their documents. The page says: “PDFelement empowers you to directly edit text within PDFs, offers support for adding images, links, and personalized watermarks, enables seamless PDF merging, and provide additional functionalities for enhanced document control.”
- Where files go
- Not stated.
From the tool's own pages, checked 2026-11-04. Sources: Home. Prices and limits change; check the tool before you rely on them.
Read automatically by a program, not by a person. Each fact quotes the sentence it came from, and a fact is shown only if that sentence is on the page. Where a page did not say, it reads “Not stated.”
Details and sources
No facts have been read from this tool's pages yet.
Answers come from each tool's own pages (“Unclear” means they do not say). Tick “Compare” on two to four tools to read them side by side.
Also listed (1, not yet tested)
Each of these answered when we visited its site. We have not tested them or recorded facts, so they are in alphabetical order, not ranked.
Other PDF tools rankings
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