Question 1

Is OCR with PDFPilot really free?

Accepted Answer

Yes. OCR PDF is completely free to use, with no sign-up or account required.

Question 2

Are my files uploaded to a server?

Accepted Answer

No. Every page is rendered and recognized entirely in your browser using a WebAssembly OCR engine. Your file is never uploaded to PDFPilot's servers.

Question 3

How accurate is the text it extracts?

Accepted Answer

It depends heavily on the scan quality. A clean, high-resolution scan of printed English text typically recognizes well; handwriting, low-resolution scans, or unusual fonts are recognized less reliably.

Question 4

Is this fast for large PDFs?

Accepted Answer

OCR runs page by page in your browser, so it's noticeably slower than PDFPilot's other tools — expect it to take several seconds per page, longer for large or high-resolution pages. This is an honest tradeoff of doing OCR entirely client-side rather than on a server.

Question 5

What does this tool actually output?

Accepted Answer

It outputs a new PDF with the original page image plus a searchable OCR text layer, so PDF readers can search and select recognized text.