The best OCR software in 2026, by what you need back

The seven OCR tools at a glance

Searchable PDF

Adobe Acrobat, online or Pro

Large desktop OCR jobs in many languages

ABBYY FineReader PDF

Free text from a scan, in the browser

Google Drive

Text from a picture inside your notes

Microsoft OneNote

Copying a line of text on a Mac

Apple Preview with Live Text

Developers and batch scripts

Tesseract

A scan translated into an editable Word file

LoreAI

Every fact about another tool on this page comes from that vendor's own page, checked on November 5, 2026. LoreAI is our product, so read its entry with that in mind.

OCR software side by side

1. Adobe Acrobat

Acrobat's free online tool recognizes the text in a scanned PDF and gives you a searchable copy after you sign in[1]. Acrobat Pro goes further. You open the scan, select Edit, and Acrobat runs OCR and makes an editable PDF copy whose new text matches the original font[8]. Pick it when the file has to stay a PDF. Our Adobe Acrobat OCR guide has the steps.

2. ABBYY FineReader PDF

FineReader PDF is installed software for Windows and Mac. ABBYY lists 198 recognition languages, 53 with dictionary support, and old European fonts[6]. It converts scans into editable Word or Excel files, and the Corporate edition adds document comparison and Hot Folder for automatic batch conversion[2]. Pick it for large OCR jobs in many scripts. See the FineReader comparison.

3. Google Drive

Right-click a PDF or photo in Drive and choose Open with Google Docs, and Drive turns it into a Google Doc with the text[3]. Google advises files of 2 MB or smaller and text at least 10 pixels high. Bold, italics and line breaks are likely kept, but tables, columns and footnotes are not likely detected[3]. Pick it for free plain text from a clean scan.

4. Microsoft OneNote

OneNote copies text from an inserted picture or file printout. Right-click the picture and choose Copy Text from Picture, then paste the text into your notes, Word or Outlook[4]. Microsoft notes that for some pictures the text can take up to 24 to 48 hours to become available[4]. Pick it when the picture already lives in your notebook.

5. Apple Preview with Live Text

On a Mac, Preview lets you select the text in a photo with Live Text. You can copy it, look it up or translate the selection into another language[9]. It works line by line rather than as a document converter. Pick it to grab a phone number, an address or a paragraph from an image.

6. Tesseract

Tesseract is an open source OCR engine under the Apache 2.0 license, with a command line program and a C++ API. It recognizes more than 100 languages out of the box and writes plain text, hOCR, PDF, TSV, ALTO and PAGE output[5]. Pick it if you write code and want to run OCR on thousands of files on your own machine.

7. LoreAI

LoreAI is built for documents that need to change language. You upload a scanned PDF or a phone photo, and it reads the page with OCR, detects the source language and translates into any of 105 languages. You download an editable Word file with headings, lists and tables in the original order. Names, dates and numbers stay as written, stamps, seals and handwriting are read with the printed text, and names in non-Latin scripts are romanized.

Your first document is free, up to 3 pages. Basic costs $12.99 a month for 200 pages, and Pro costs $39.99 a month for 1,000 pages. LoreAI is not a certified translation service.

How to choose OCR software

1. Decide what you need back. A searchable PDF, plain text, a Word file and a translated Word file each point to a different tool.
2. Look at your pages. Tables, forms and stamps need a tool that keeps layout, and Google's own help page says Drive is not likely to keep tables[3].
3. Count the volume. A few pages a month suit a browser tool, and thousands of pages suit FineReader's Hot Folder or Tesseract scripts.
4. Check where it runs. Desktop software needs a supported Windows or Mac, and browser tools work on any computer or phone.
5. Try before you pay. Acrobat Pro and FineReader offer seven-day trials, and LoreAI's first document is free.

Questions people ask