How to Extract Text From an Image (Free OCR)
Updated June 2026 · 4 min read
You have a screenshot, a photo of a document, or a scanned page, and you need the text out of it - to edit, quote, or paste somewhere. Retyping it is slow. OCR (optical character recognition) reads the letters for you and hands back real, editable text. Most OCR sites upload your image first; here is how to extract text from an image for free, in your browser, with nothing uploaded.
What OCR is, in one line
OCR looks at the shapes in an image and recognises them as characters, turning a picture of words into actual selectable text. It is what lets you copy a phone number out of a screenshot, pull a paragraph from a photographed page, or digitize a printed note. Thanks to WebAssembly, a capable OCR engine now runs entirely in the browser.
🔒 Open the image to text tool
On-device OCR in 19 languages. Your image never leaves your browser.
Step by step
- Open the image to text tool.
- Drop in a JPG, PNG, or WebP image. It stays on your device.
- Choose the language of the text for the best accuracy (19 languages are supported).
- Let it run, then copy the editable text or download it as a .txt file.
How to get the most accurate result
- Use a sharp, straight image. Good lighting and a flat, in-focus photo give the engine clean shapes to read.
- Match the language. Picking the right language helps the engine resolve accents and similar-looking characters.
- Crop out clutter. If only part of the image has text, crop to it first so the engine focuses on what matters.
Image text vs scanned PDFs
This tool is for single images and screenshots. If what you have is a multi-page scanned PDF, you want OCR that rebuilds a document, not just a block of text - see how to convert a scanned PDF to editable Word with OCR. For a quick copy of the words from one picture, image to text is the faster choice.
Limitations to know
OCR is very good but not flawless. Handwriting, stylized fonts, low resolution, heavy noise, and skewed angles all reduce accuracy, so always proofread the output. Columns and complex layouts may come out in an unexpected order. For clean printed or typed text, expect to do little more than a quick check.
FAQ
How do I extract text from an image?
- Use OpenConvert's image to text tool. Drop in a photo or screenshot, and OCR recognises the words and gives you editable text you can copy or download, free and with no upload.
What is OCR?
- OCR stands for optical character recognition. It is the technology that reads the letters in an image and turns them into real, editable text rather than just pixels.
Is my image uploaded for OCR?
- No. The OCR runs in your browser, so the image stays on your device. Only the language model is downloaded once and cached; the picture itself is never sent anywhere.
Which languages are supported?
- The tool supports 19 languages, including English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Romanian, Russian, and several others. Pick the language of the text for the best accuracy.