Make a scanned PDF editable and searchable with OCR
Open the OCR PDF tool, upload the scan, pick the Languages and pages and click Recognize text. The result looks identical but has a searchable text layer; click Open in the editor to change its text. OCR is counted per page recognized.
Updated 2 min read Counts toward ocr pages
A scan is a picture of a page, so the editor can't select or change its words. If you click a scan in Edit PDF, the editor says there's no editable text and offers OCR PDF. Search says the same when a document has no text layer. OCR isn't a button inside the editor; it's a separate tool that hands its result back to the editor.
Step 1: Open OCR PDF
Go to OCR PDF, or Edit a scanned PDF if you mainly want to change the text afterwards. Upload the scan.
Step 2: Choose the engine
Keep Searchable PDF (standard OCR). It adds an invisible text layer and leaves the page images exactly as they are.
Step 3: Pick languages and pages
Select every language that appears on the page. Limit Pages if you only need some. Leave Also re-recognize pages that already have text off unless the existing text is garbled.
Step 4: Recognize and open
Click Recognize text. When it's done, download the searchable PDF or click Open in the editor to edit the text with Edit PDF.
What it costs
OCR runs on our servers and counts one OCR page for every page actually recognized. Pages that already have real text are skipped and not counted.
| Feature | No account | Free | Pro | Business |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OCR pages | 5 | 20 | 1,000 | 5,000 |
Handwriting, tables and faded print
Standard OCR struggles with handwriting and poor scans. The AI transcription engine in the same tool runs standard OCR first and sends only the pages it reads poorly to a vision model, at 2 AI credits per such page. You get the text as a new editable document. Check names and numbers against the scan.
Will OCR change how my scan looks?
No. Standard OCR adds an invisible text layer behind the image; the page looks the same.
I only need to fill in a scanned form. Do I need OCR?
No. Use the Text tool to type anywhere on the scan. OCR is for searching, copying or changing the printed words.
Can I OCR while converting to Word?
Yes. PDF to Word has its own Recognize text in scans (OCR) option, counted the same way.
Tools in this article
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