How to use this tool
- Drop in a photo, screenshot, or scan, or click to browse for one.
- Click "Extract Text" — the OCR engine loads (first time only) and then recognizes the text.
- Copy the result or download it as a .txt file.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Blurry, low-resolution, or heavily angled photos recognize poorly — a straight-on, well-lit shot works best.
- Very small or stylized fonts are less reliable than standard printed text.
Why run OCR in the browser?
This uses Tesseract, an open-source OCR engine compiled to WebAssembly, so recognition happens entirely on your device's own CPU. Nothing about the image — which might be a scanned ID, a receipt, or a private document — is ever transmitted anywhere.
Frequently asked questions
- Is my image uploaded anywhere?
- No — the OCR engine (Tesseract, compiled to WebAssembly) runs entirely in your browser. The image and the recognized text never leave your device.
- Why does the first run take longer?
- The OCR engine and its English language data (a few megabytes) download and get cached in your browser the first time you use it. Subsequent runs on the same device are faster since the cached files are reused.
- Does it work on handwriting?
- It can, but reliability is much lower than for printed or typed text — OCR engines are trained primarily on typeface fonts, and handwriting varies too much to recognize consistently.
- Can I extract text from a scanned PDF page?
- Convert the PDF page to an image first (see PDF to Images), then run that image through this tool.
How GetByteRush compares
Most free tools for this online work the same way: you upload your file to their server, wait, then download the result — which means your file (and often your email, for a "free" account) sits on someone else's infrastructure. Here's the actual difference:
| Feature | GetByteRush | Typical online OCR sites |
|---|---|---|
| Image ever leaves your device | No — 100% client-side | Yes — uploaded to a server to process |
| Daily usage limits | None | Common on free tiers |
| Account required | Never | Often, past a certain usage level |
("Typical online tools" reflects publicly documented behavior of common free file-processing sites as of 2026 — always check a specific competitor's own privacy policy and pricing page, since these details change.)