How to Extract Text from Images for Free (OCR Online)
You have a screenshot with text you need to copy. Or a photo of a document. Or a whiteboard from a meeting. You can't select the text because it's trapped in an image. Here's how to get it out.
What Is OCR?
OCR stands for Optical Character Recognition. It's technology that reads text from images — the same way your eyes read words on a page, but done by software. It works on screenshots, photos of printed documents, receipts, signs, business cards, and even some handwriting.
The Problem with Most OCR Tools
Most free OCR tools online require you to upload your image to their servers. That means your private documents, screenshots of conversations, or photos of sensitive paperwork are sitting on someone else's computer. Some tools also limit the number of scans per day or watermark the output.
How to Extract Text Without Uploading
Our Image to Text tool at buncha.tools/tools/ocr uses Tesseract.js, a powerful OCR engine that runs entirely in your browser. Your images are never uploaded anywhere. Here's how to use it:
Go to buncha.tools/tools/ocr and drop your image or click to browse. Click Extract Text and wait a few seconds while the OCR engine processes. The first time may take a moment to load the language model. Copy the extracted text or download it as a .txt file.
The tool also shows a confidence score so you know how accurate the extraction is. Higher confidence means cleaner, more reliable text.
Tips for Better Results
Use high-resolution images when possible. Make sure the text is not rotated or skewed. Good contrast between text and background helps significantly. Printed text works