Works locally — files never leave your browser

OCR a PDF

Turn a scanned PDF into a searchable document without sending it anywhere. Recognition runs inside your browser in English, Ukrainian or Russian.

Drop your PDF here — it opens instantly or click to choose a file · free to edit · $1 only when you download
Free to edit
No sign-up
No upload

You can OCR a PDF free in your browser with DollarFix PDF: it recognizes scanned pages in English, Ukrainian or Russian, straightens tilted scans, and embeds an invisible searchable text layer — the file is never uploaded. Download the result for a one-time $1.

Last updated: August 2026

A scanned PDF is really a stack of photographs. The words are visible to your eyes, but to the computer each page is just pixels — you cannot search it, copy a sentence from it, or click into a line to fix it. OCR (optical character recognition) reads those pixels and reconstructs the actual text. DollarFix PDF runs the whole recognition step inside your browser: the OCR engine is downloaded to your machine on demand, and your document never leaves it.

The result is an invisible text layer placed underneath the scanned image. Visually the page does not change at all — same stamps, same signatures, same slightly grey paper — but Ctrl+F suddenly finds things, text can be selected and copied, and the document becomes readable to indexing and accessibility tools. Before recognition starts, tilted pages are automatically straightened, which makes a real difference on scans taken with a phone camera.

Recognition here goes one step further than making the scan searchable: the recognized lines become clickable. Click one and you can retype it — under the hood the editor whites out the printed line and places your new text over it, matching the position of the original. It is a practical way to correct a date, a name or an amount on a scanned contract without rescanning anything.

OCR currently supports English, Ukrainian and Russian, and you can run it on as many pages and documents as you like. Recognition, searching and editing are all free; the only charge is a one-time $1 when you download the finished searchable PDF. There is no account to create, no subscription, and no daily quota — a 300-page scan is treated the same as a single receipt.

How to OCR a PDF

1
Open the scanned PDF
Drop the scan into the editor — it renders in your browser, and nothing is sent anywhere.
2
Run OCR and pick the language
Choose English, Ukrainian or Russian and start recognition. The engine downloads on demand; tilted pages are straightened automatically before reading.
3
Search, copy or fix the text
An invisible text layer makes the scan searchable and selectable. Click any recognized line to retype it directly on the page.
4
Download the searchable PDF
Pay $1 once and save the result. The page looks exactly as before — it just behaves like real text now.
Open the editor now
No subscription
Others lock downloads behind $10–30/month plans. Here you pay $1 once, only when you export — nothing else.
Private by design
Your PDF is opened and edited inside your browser. It is never uploaded to a server — your file stays on your device.
Edits the real content
Change actual text, move and resize images, redact, sign and fill — not just sticky annotations on top. Full Unicode & Cyrillic.

Frequently asked questions

Is OCR free?
Recognition, searching and any retyping you do afterwards are free, with no account. The one-time $1 applies only when you download the finished searchable PDF.
Is my scanned document uploaded for recognition?
No — the opposite happens: the OCR engine is downloaded to your browser, and your document is processed on your own machine. The pages never leave your device.
Which languages does it recognize?
English, Ukrainian and Russian. Pick the language of the document before starting recognition.
Will OCR change how my pages look?
No. The recognized text is embedded as an invisible layer beneath the scanned image, so the page looks pixel-for-pixel the same — it just becomes searchable and selectable.
My scan is crooked — will that break recognition?
Tilted pages are automatically straightened before recognition runs, which noticeably improves accuracy on phone-camera scans and slightly skewed office scans.
Can I edit the recognized text?
Yes. Recognized lines are clickable: pick one and retype it. The editor covers the printed line with whiteout and places your text over it, so corrections sit exactly where the original words were.
Are there page or size limits?
No. There is no daily quota and no cap on pages or file size — long scanned books simply take longer to recognize, since the work happens on your own hardware.

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