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OnlineOCR.net free OCR: what you get, and a free alternative

Short answer

OnlineOCR.net is a free web OCR. Guests convert 5 files an hour, up to 15 MB each, with no sign-up, and get text, Word or Excel back. Its menu lists 46 languages, none of them Arabic, Urdu, Persian, Hindi or Bengali. FastOCR (we make it) is a free alternative that detects the language itself and adds a searchable PDF.

By the FastOCR team · Updated 4 November 2026 · Accuracy test run 31 October 2026

We make FastOCR. Accuracy figures come from our own test of each tool we scored, ours included, on the same scans; other facts link to each tool's own pages. How we tested

Try it here

Drop your file here

PDF, PNG, JPG, WebP, BMP, HEIC

PDF up to 1 GB · images up to 20 MB

Tips for a clear photo
  • Lay the page flat.
  • Use even light, with no shadows.
  • Turn off the flash to avoid glare.
  • Fill the frame with the page.

Verdict

Pick FastOCR if

  • Your page is Arabic, Urdu, Persian, Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Thai or Hebrew. OnlineOCR.net does not list any of them; FastOCR detects them, mixed pages included.
  • You want a searchable PDF next to the text. Every FastOCR image upload returns one, plus Word and Markdown.
  • You would rather not pick a language at all, or you are not sure which one the page is in.
  • You want to tidy the text with AI Polish, translate it, or hand it to an AI agent through an MCP server.

Pick OnlineOCR.net if

  • Your pages are in a language it lists, such as French, Russian or Japanese, and you want an Excel (.xlsx) file back.
  • Your files are big: signed-in users can upload up to 200 MB, and sign-up adds 50 free pages.
  • You only need some pages of a long PDF; registered users can set a page range.

FastOCR and OnlineOCR.net side by side

Account to startFastOCRNone for images. A free account for PDFs.OnlineOCR.netNone: "no signup required"Source
Free limit, as advertisedFastOCRImages: a small daily cap for visitors, lifted by a free account. PDFs: a free monthly page allowance. See pricing.OnlineOCR.netGuests: 5 files an hour, 15 MB each. Sign-up adds 50 free pages and 200 MB files.Source
What you get backFastOCRText on screen, a searchable PDF, Word (.docx) and MarkdownOnlineOCR.netOutput menu: text, Word (.docx) and Excel (.xlsx); its feature list also names PDF and RTFSource
Choosing the languageFastOCRDetected automatically, including pages that mix scriptsOnlineOCR.netPicked from a menu that starts on English; the page does not mention detectionSource
Languages listedFastOCR100+ languagesOnlineOCR.net46, including Chinese, Japanese and Korean; no Arabic, Urdu, Persian, Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Thai or HebrewSource
Several files at onceFastOCRBatch upload for PDFs on paid plansOnlineOCR.netA ZIP archive of files, for registered users onlySource
Watermark on free outputFastOCRNone on text, Word, Markdown or the searchable PDFOnlineOCR.netNot statedSource
AdsFastOCRNoneOnlineOCR.netAd blocks on the free page; the paid plans list "No Ads"Source
Your filesFastOCRProcessed on our servers; retention is in the privacy policy.OnlineOCR.netGuest uploads deleted after conversion; registered users’ output kept one monthSource
Paid plansFastOCRMonthly plans or one-time page packsOnlineOCR.netWeekly, monthly and lifetime page plansSource
Our scanned pages (share of characters wrong, lower is better)FastOCR1.0% (Chinese) to 9.1% (Urdu) of characters wrong (lower is better)OnlineOCR.netOnly our Urdu page was run, with its default English setting because Urdu is not offered: 99.6% wrong. Its 46 listed languages were not tested.Our test

Why FastOCR

  • Languages

    100+ languages, detected automatically, including mixed pages.

    Share of characters wrong on our evidence scans (lower is better): Arabic 2.6%, Urdu 9.1%, Bengali 7.4%, Tamil 2.2%, Chinese 1.0%.

    See Languages

  • Photos and screenshots

    Every image upload gets raw text and a single-page searchable PDF, plus Word and Markdown.

    See Photos and screenshots

  • Scanned PDFs

    Scanned PDF in, searchable PDF out; text copies in the right order, including right-to-left.

    See Scanned PDFs

  • Free use

    Images: free, no sign-up, no watermark. PDFs: free account.

    See Free use

Proof

OnlineOCR.net offers no Urdu, so we ran our Urdu page with its default English setting: it came back as Latin letters, 99.6% of characters wrong, against 9.1% for FastOCR (lower is better). That is one page in an unlisted language, not a score for the languages it lists. Of the six scripts shown (Arabic, Urdu, Bengali, Tamil, Chinese and English), FastOCR had the lowest or tied-lowest error rate on 6 (gaps under 3 points count as ties).

Three lines of a printed page of the Urdu book Tota Kahani (written 1801) in Nastaliq script, on stained paper.(opens full size)

FastOCR

9.1% of characters wrong
احسان اُس خدا کا کہ جس نے دریائے سخن کو اپنے ابر کرم سے گو ہر معنی بخشا اور زبان
کو واسطے اپنی
حمد کے گویا کیا اور پیغمبر آخرالزمان کو ہم گنہگاروں کی شفاعت کی اسے رحمتہ اللعالمین پیدا کیا کہ

OCR.space Engine 3

19.6% of characters wrong
احسان اُس خدا کا کہ جس نے دریا سے سُخن کو اپنے ابر کرم سے گوسر معنی بخشا اور زبان کو واسطہ بھیجنے کو گویا کیا اور پھر آخر مان کو ہم گنگاوں کی شفاعت کیواسطے رحمتہ اللعالمین پیدا کیا کہ

OCR.space Engine 2 (default)

30.4% of characters wrong
احسان أس مداكاكيج سنءريات سخن كواب ابركرم ← كوبر معى تختا اورزيان كوداسطيى
حدث كوياكيا اور خير آخر الزيان كويم كنبكارول كى شفاعت كيوا سطى رحمة اللعالمين بيد كياكه
The opening lines of an Urdu page (Tota Kahani, written 1801) and the first lines each engine returned for them, unedited. Each percentage is the share of characters that engine got wrong on the whole page, so lower is better. FastOCR output is from 25 October 2026; OCR.space ran on 31 October 2026 through its public demo key. Scan: Wikimedia Commons (public domain). Text: Wikisource.

% of characters wrong by script, lower is better

  • FastOCR
  • OCR.space Engine 3
  • OCR.space default Engine 2
  • imagetotext.info
Character error rate by script, lower is better
ScriptCharacter error rate by tool
Chinese
FastOCR 1.0%
OCR.space E3 no score
OCR.space E2 3.0%
Tamil
FastOCR 2.2%
OCR.space E3 no score
OCR.space E2 99.8%
Arabic
FastOCR 2.6%
OCR.space E3 2.9%
OCR.space E2 not supported
imagetotext.info 2.9%
English
FastOCR 3.3%
OCR.space E3 no score
OCR.space E2 4.5%
Bengali
FastOCR 7.4%
OCR.space E3 11.2%
OCR.space E2 100.0%
imagetotext.info 7.9%
Urdu
FastOCR 9.1%
OCR.space E3 19.6%
OCR.space E2 30.4%
imagetotext.info 9.2%
Character error rate on one public-domain book page per script. Lower is better. Gaps under about 3 points are within the noise of the reference text. "Not supported" means the tool refused the language; "no score" means it returned nothing, which says nothing about accuracy. Engine 3 returned nothing on three pages, probably because the demo key was rate limited. How we tested.

Try it on your own page

OnlineOCR.net free: what a guest gets

A guest on OnlineOCR.net gets 5 conversions an hour, files up to 15 MB, and no sign-up. The site, which calls itself Online OCR, takes PDF (multi-page too), TIFF, JPG, PNG, BMP, GIF and PCX. You set a recognition language and an output format, then download the file or copy the text to your clipboard. The output menu offers plain text, Word (.docx) and Excel (.xlsx); the feature list on the same page also mentions PDF and RTF.

Signing up adds 50 free pages, raises the file limit to 200 MB, and unlocks a page range for long PDFs and ZIP uploads of several files. Guest uploads are deleted after conversion, and output files for registered users are kept for one month. The free page shows ads; the weekly, monthly and lifetime plans on its pricing page each list "No Ads". It also offers an OCR API for developers (SOAP and REST).

Urdu, Arabic and Hindi: not on its list, and what our Urdu page returned

OnlineOCR.net does not list Arabic, Urdu, Persian, Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Thai or Hebrew among its 46 recognition languages. Its menu covers European languages written in Latin, Cyrillic and Greek letters, plus Chinese (simplified and traditional), Japanese and Korean. Hindi does show up on the site, but only as a language for its own interface, not in the OCR menu. The menu starts on English, so check it before each upload.

We ran our Urdu page through OnlineOCR.net once, with the default English setting because the menu has no Urdu. It returned Latin letters, 99.6% of characters wrong (lower is better). That reflects the missing language, not its accuracy on the languages it lists; those and our other scans, Arabic included, were not run on it. For those scripts FastOCR needs no setting: it detects the language, and it read our printed Urdu page with 9.1% of characters wrong, and Arabic with 2.6% (lower is better).

A free OnlineOCR.net alternative: what FastOCR adds

FastOCR is a free OnlineOCR.net alternative that shows the recognized text beside your page before you download anything. One image comes back as raw text, a single-page searchable PDF, Word (.docx) and Markdown, with no sign-up and no watermark. Upload a scanned PDF with a free account and it returns searchable, its text copying in reading order, right-to-left Arabic and Urdu included. FastOCR covers 100+ languages and works out which one you uploaded, so there is no menu to set. To start, use the free OCR online uploader or image to text.

Around the OCR itself, FastOCR also has:

Photo of a page

Photo of an old printed English book page, slightly grey and uneven, starting with the words 'ing, and Haggart gained an opportunity'.(opens full size)

Text FastOCR returned

3.3% of characters wrong
ing, and Haggart gained an opportunity
to escape; he left Perth for Glasgow, and
made up his mind to go to Ireland, and
started in the Steam Boat; here he wa
recognised by the Provost of Kircaldy
who went ashore at Lamlash; Haggar
The first lines of a page FastOCR read on 25 October 2026, shown as it returned them; words cut at the page edge stay cut. The percentage is the character error rate: the share of characters wrong, missing or extra, so lower is better. Scan: Wikimedia Commons (public domain). Text: Wikisource.

Accuracy: what we measured, and what we did not

OnlineOCR.net has no overall accuracy score on this page: we ran it on one of our six test scans (Urdu, English setting) and not on the others. FastOCR has: on one printed page per script it got 1.0% (Chinese) to 9.1% (Urdu) of characters wrong. That figure is the character error rate, the share of characters wrong, missing or extra, so lower is better.

The closest rival we measured was OCR.space Engine 3. It was within the 3-point noise of FastOCR on Arabic, and FastOCR was clearly lower on Urdu and Bengali. Lower is better in every case. See FastOCR vs OCR.space and the full benchmark.

How we tested

Scans: public-domain book pages from Wikimedia Commons, one per script (Arabic, Urdu, Bengali, Tamil, Chinese, English). Reference: the Wikisource transcription of each page. Before scoring we removed spaces, punctuation and Arabic diacritics. The Wikisource text is itself 1% to 6% off a hand-proofread key, which is why gaps under about 3 points count as ties.

FastOCR output came from the live API on 25 October 2026; the Arabic, Urdu and English pages were read from 500-pixel copies, smaller than the 1,280 pixels other tools got. OCR.space ran on 31 October 2026 with its public demo key; Engine 3 returned nothing for Tamil, Chinese and English, possibly because of rate limiting, so those pages have no score. OnlineOCR.net ran on 31 October 2026 on the Urdu page only, with its default English setting (it lists no Urdu). Its limits, outputs, languages and plans come from its home and pricing pages, checked on 4 November 2026.

Choose OnlineOCR.net if

  • Your pages are in one of its 46 languages and you want an Excel file; FastOCR makes Excel only from bank statements.
  • Your files are larger than 15 MB; a free OnlineOCR.net account accepts up to 200 MB.
  • You need a page range out of a long PDF, or a ZIP of files converted together.
  • You already call its OCR API from your own software.

FAQ

Is OnlineOCR.net free?

Yes, for guests. Its home page says no signup is required and allows 5 files an hour, up to 15 MB each. A free account adds 50 pages and 200 MB files. Weekly, monthly and lifetime plans remove the ads.

How many files can I convert on OnlineOCR.net without an account?

Five an hour, each up to 15 MB, according to its home page. Several files at once means a ZIP archive, and that is for registered users only. FastOCR reads images with no account; visitors have a small daily cap that a free account lifts.

Does OnlineOCR.net read Urdu, Arabic or Hindi?

Its menu of 46 recognition languages does not list Urdu, Arabic, Hindi, Persian, Bengali, Tamil, Thai or Hebrew. It does list Chinese, Japanese and Korean. FastOCR detects all of these scripts on its own, with no language to choose. We ran only our Urdu page on OnlineOCR.net, with English selected, and 99.6% of its characters were wrong (lower is better).

Can OnlineOCR.net make a searchable PDF?

Its feature list names PDF as an output, but the output menu we saw offers text, Word and Excel only. Try a small file first if you need a searchable PDF. FastOCR returns one for every image and every scanned PDF.

How accurate is OnlineOCR.net?

We tested one page: our Urdu page with English selected, since Urdu is not offered, came back 99.6% wrong (lower is better). That reflects a missing language, not its accuracy on languages it lists, which we did not test. Run one page of your own through both before a long job.

Does FastOCR show ads?

No. FastOCR pages carry no ads, free or paid. OnlineOCR.net shows ads on its free page, and its pricing page lists "No Ads" as a feature of each paid plan.

What is a free alternative to OnlineOCR.net?

FastOCR. Images need no sign-up and get no watermark, and each comes back as text, a searchable PDF, Word and Markdown. It detects 100+ languages by itself, including the Arabic-script and Indian scripts OnlineOCR.net does not list.

Method

OnlineOCR.net facts come from its home and pricing pages, checked on 4 November 2026; anything those pages do not state is shown as Not stated, never as No. OnlineOCR.net was run on our Urdu page only, with its default English setting. FastOCR and OCR.space were scored on six public-domain scans, one per script, as the share of characters wrong against the Wikisource text, lower is better. Details are in how we tested.

Change log

  • 12 July 2026: First published.
  • 1 November 2026: Added the language-list check against Arabic, Urdu and Hindi, and the Urdu page run on its English setting.
  • 4 November 2026: Moved to the comparison template; re-checked OnlineOCR.net's home and pricing pages and added what FastOCR offers beyond OCR.